Couple Relocates to Soria Village for Free Job and Housing, Then Leaves After Months

Beratón, the 5-neighbor bar: a couple left in months, and the village seeks the reckless

Beratón, Soria, has only five residents in winter. A couple accepted the challenge of running the village bar with free housing and premises for the first year. After a few months, they left. The mayor says: 'They failed to adapt.' But the numbers tell the story: keeping a bar open for 12 hours daily costs about 50 euros a day just in electricity and heating, while regular customers spend barely 15 euros on coffees. The result is a 35-euro daily deficit, over 1,000 euros a month, not to mention self-employment fees and property taxes.

The Unprofitable Business

The first year, it was offered 'practically for free,' but free does not miccionan cost-free. The self-employment fee is about 300 euros a month, heating in the Soria winter is a heavy burden, and electricity to keep the bar open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. eats any margin. The five residents, mostly pensioners, spend the morning over 1.50-euro coffees. Some argue the bar is key to attracting motorcyclists and hikers, but weekends barely compensate. 'In winter, there is no one,' summarizes an analysis. The mayor earned 6,000 euros in 2024, according to circulating data, and the bar is located in the town hall itself, adding a Kafkaesque touch.

Adaptation: More Than Firewood and Silence

The couple left when winter arrived and they were left alone. They failed to 'build a routine,' the mayor says. But the debate goes further: in a village with nothing within 20 km, loneliness is not fought with 15 hiking and stargazing routes. The village residents, pensioners with their own routines, are hardly youthful company. 'Men might still manage; a modern woman, no way,' reads a comment reflecting the harshness of rural life for those unaccustomed to it. Moreover, wood heating requires planning in summer: felling, drying, storing. It is not as simple as buying it cheap.

Depopulated Spain: The Mirage of Repopulation

The Beratón case is not isolated. In depopulated Spain, offering free housing and business is not enough without critical mass or services. The population within a 40 km radius is about 60,000, but all scattered across villages without public transport. The town hall wants to keep the bar as an 'essential service,' but without customers, it is a bottomless pit. Some suggest a vending machine and a social club open for two hours a day. Others, more skeptical, denounce that villages want 'locusts' to keep the pub running while they collect pensions and subsidies. The couple who left is not the first nor will be the last.

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The myth of rural repopulation clashes with basic arithmetic. As long as the Beratón bar remains a 35-euro daily deficit, any fool accepting the challenge will end up leaving, as already peine. The question hanging in the air: who will want to be next?

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