The España-class ships were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of ; their freeboard was amidships, much lower than was normal for battleships of the period. They displaced as designed and up to at combat load. The vessels had two tripod masts and a small superstructure. They were equipped with six searchlights. The ships were reasonably stable compared to foreign designs but they had a low metacentric height of at full loading that caused them to have poor stability when damaged. Steering was controlled with a single semi-balanced rudder. At full speed, the ships could make a 180 degree turn in the space of .
