Everyone knows The Smurfs. Whether you grew up watching the animated series on TV in the ’80s or you’ve only just experienced them in the recent movies, chances are you’re familiar with those cute little blue guys and gals. If you’re a fan, you may be interested in knowing that you can head to a real-life Smurfs village in Juzcar, near Malaga in Spain.
- Juzcar was originally a stunt for the Smurfs movie. The town was decorated specifically for the movie back in 2011. There are a ton of Smurf statues around the town and all the buildings were painted that familiar bright Smurf blue in a deal with Sony España to celebrate the movie’s release. It’s unclear why Juzcar was chosen, but there you have it!
- The village residents loved it enough to keep it. While you would have thought that village residents would have been keen to get things back to normal, especially since Juzcar was traditionally one of the White Villages of Andalusia previous to the whole Smurfs thing. However, even though the original contract with Sony included plans to repaint, the residents held a referendum in which a vote was held and they decided to keep it.
- Juzcar has way more Smurfs fans visiting than it does residents. Funny enough, only 20 people live in Juzcar. However, the village sees a whopping 80,000 tourists visiting it every single year. That’s insane!
- There’s plenty to see there if you do want to visit. If you think you’d like to head to Juzcar yourself, there are plenty of Smurf figurines around the village including Papa Smurf, Mama Smurf, and Baby Smurf, which would be perfect for Instagram pictures. Plus, there are the Smurf-blue buildings and little mushroom houses as well just like in the classic cartoon. In other words, it would be well worth a trip.
