Spain is at risk of a 'demographic time bomb,' and there's already a nearly-abandoned area twice the size of Belgium

La Estrella is located in Spain's eastern highlands.

Nearly all of the homes in the village are abandoned, and "For Sale" signs still hang on some of them.

Residents began abandoning La Estrella and other rural towns in 1939, at the end of Spain's civil war. Here, offerings are placed behind the altar at the village sanctuary.

Juan Martin Colomer, 84, and Sinforosa Sancho, 85, live with more than 20 cats, which often gather in the village square.

The couple has never had a telephone line, and the only mobile signal in La Estrella can be found in an overgrown cemetery.

Juan Martin and Sinforosa keep rabbits for meat and hens for eggs. They drive to a nearby town for other food.

Together, the couple receives a monthly pension of about 1,200 euros ($1,400).

Juan Martin and Sinforosa once relied on oil lamps for artificial light, but they have gotten electricity from solar panels for the past 10 years.

Although they own a house in nearby Villafranca, they only leave La Estrella to visit Vicente, their son. Vicente was the last child to live in La Estrella.

“We have grown up in solitude and we like it,” Juan Martin told Reuters. “La Estrella will die out with us.”