The mayor of the village of Navares de las Cuevas in Segovia, Vicente Robisco, is trying to tempt regular visitors and part-time residents of his village to make themselves officially resident there by giving them a suckling pig - cochinillo - one of the specialities of the province, as an inducement.

Robisco explained that the measure was designed to remind the many people who spend a great deal of time in the village, but are officially resident elsewhere, that they could sign up on the village's "padrón" or electoral roll and thus help the village to grow.

The mayor maintains it's not a bribe, but simply a way of promoting the possibility of the village becoming people's official residence. At the moment, there are only 24 people on the official census, which as he points out, makes it "very difficult" to maintain a village.

The village lies in one of the poorest and least-populated areas of the province of Segovia, close to the A-1 Madrid-Burgos motorway and is the smallest in the region.

After a meeting of the locals last Saturday, organised to coincide with the fiesta of the Virgen de Hortezuela, the mayor set to giving suckling pigs away to the people on his civic register and to those in a position to change their official residence to his small village.

Concerned about the falling population in the village, Robisco said "we have to use our imagination and bring in whatever measures we think will work" to combat the problem.

The village of Navares de las Cuevas, 89 kilometros from the provincial capital, was donated by King Sancho III of Castille to the bishopric of Segovia in 1158.

Amongst its most notable monuments is the Palacete de los Marqueses de Revilla, which dates back to the 17th century, the hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Barrio, a 12th century Pre-Romanesque building, and the church of San Mamés, in the village's main square.