A converted cowshed and olive oil: This village in Spain revived its community using digital nomads

As I arrive in Oliete, men are wielding hand-held machines to shake the olive trees that deliver the precious fruit. It is harvest time.

Teams of five men work all day in the rugged terrain to wrestle olives from 1,500 trees so they can be made into golden liquid.

Olive oil is an unlikely way to save a dying village.

But the residents of Oliete in the remote Teruel region of eastern Spain, about a three-hour drive from Barcelona, hit upon the idea of using the village’s ‘liquid gold’ to save the small community from disappearing forever.

In a restaurant in the village, I hear the unusual sound of English being spoken.

“Property and the cost of living is very reasonable here. We come here most of the year and go to Ireland in the summer,” says Mark Rawdon, an Irish ship captain who lives in Oliete for four weeks at a time and then works for a month at sea. His girlfriend Carolina Sema, who is from Venezuela, also found a job in Oliete.

Faced with an ageing population and the prospect of the local school closing, the village started ApadrinaUnOliva.org – or ‘adopt an olive tree’ in Spanish. Its aim was to encourage people from across the world to sponsor one of the olive trees for only €60 per year - or less if you live in Spain due to NGO tax deductions.

The NGO then used €71,000 raised from these sponsors to convert a cow shed into a smart co-working space in the village to attract digital nomads, supported by €75,000 from national and regional governments and business groups. In the process, 43 new jobs were created.

The new arrivals in the village come from across Spain and far afield. Some come for a few weeks, while others stay for good.

This is farming country, where people live off the land and raise sheep and pigs.

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