The Spanish village where no one is younger than 65

The village is auctioning off its abandoned plots for only €2,000 euros (£1,700) in a desperate attempt to attract young blood and revive a community that is in danger of dying out within a decade.

With only 15 permanent residents, the youngest of whom is 65 years old, Olmeda de la Cuesta, 100 miles east of Madrid in the arid plains of Castilla-La Mancha, has earned the sobriquet of Spain's "most aged village".

"It's a very different place to that of my youth," explained 82-year-old Arturo Regacho Mateo, surveying the abandoned children's playground in front of the village's 16th century church. "In 1940 there were 500 people living here but over the years they left to find work and didn't come back, now only the old are left."

The school closed in 1973 effectively sealing the fate of the village, whose population has declined drastically over the last four decades, leaving dozens of empty homes dangerously crumbling to the ground.

"People used to work the fields but that way of life ceased to exist and there was nothing to keep families here," he said.

The village made headlines earlier this month when the office of national statistics revealed its population had the oldest average age in all of Spain – 82 per cent of the 35 people on the electoral roll are over 65 years of age yet the majority only visit at weekends and in the summer months.

The mayor hopes that will all change with an offer by the council to clear disused plots within the village and auction them off for a starting price of just 2,000 euros.

"We're hoping to attract young people with families – the sort of people with their own businesses who can work from home, like web designers, artists or writers," said Jose Luis Regacho, 43, the socialist mayor who was born in the village but now lives in the regional capital of Cuenca, 32 miles away.

"If we get four children, we can open the school again and breathe life into the village. If not the community may cease to exist within ten years or so."

He also hopes that the place will prove a draw to those looking for a weekend or holiday bolt hole. "It's a real retreat, great for nature lovers and for those who like hunting, and less than two hours drive from Madrid."

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