"Barcelona".
Related Topics:Barcelona – Greek: (Ptolemy, ii. 6. § 8); Latin: Barcino, Barcelo (Avienus Or. Mar.), and Barceno (Itin. Ant.) – is the second largest city in Spain, capital city of Catalonia and the province with the same name. It is located in the comarca of Barcelonès, along the Mediterranean coast () between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs. It is 160 km (100 mi) south of the Pyrenees mountain range. The population of the city proper is 1,593,075 (est. 2005), while the population of the metropolitan area is 4,686,701 (est. 2005). Population of the province of Barcelona is 5,226,354 (est. 2005), although this only covers 7,733 km² (3,000 mi²) around the city. The mayor of Barcelona is Joan Clos.
The foundation of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to Hercules 400 years before the building of Rome, and that it was rebuilt by the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BCE. The second legend attributes the foundation directly to Hamilcar Barca. (Oros. vii. 143; Miñano, Diccion. vol. i. p. 391; Auson. Epist. xxiv. 68, 69, Punica Barcino.) About 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum (a Roman military camp) centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill nearby the contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Under the Romans it was a colony, with the surname of Faventia (Plin. iii. 3. s. 4), or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino (Inscr. ap. Gruter, p. 426, nos. 5, 6.) or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. Mela (ii. 6) mentions it among the small towns of the district, probably as it was eclipsed by its neighbor Tarraco (modern Tarragona); but it may be gathered from later writers that it gradually grew in wealth and consequence, favoured as it was with a beautiful situation and an excellent harbour. (Avien. Or. Mar. 520: "Et Barcilonum amoena sedes ditium.") It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens. (Paul. Dig. 1. tit. 15, de Cens.) The city minted its own coins; some from the era of Galba survive. Some important Roman remains are exposed under the Plaça del Rei, entrance by the city museum, Museu d'Història de la Ciutat and the typically Roman grid-planning is still visible today on the map of the historical centre, the Barri Gòtic ("Gothic Quarter"). Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated in the cathedral butted up against them *; the basilica La Seu is credited to have been founded in 343. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early 5th century, by the Moors in the early 8th century, reconquered from the emir in 801 by Charlemagne's son Louis who made Barcelona the seat of Carolingian "Spanish Marches" (Marca Hispanica), a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona. Barcelona was still a Christian frontier territory when it was sacked by Al-Mansur in 985.
The counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include all of Catalonia, later formed the Crown of Aragon who conquered many overseas possessions, ruling the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories as far as Athens in the 13th century. The forging of a dynastic link between the Crown of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline.
The city is home to the University of Barcelona, founded in 1450.
The city was devastated after the Catalonian Republic of 1640 - 1652, and again during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. King Philip V of Spain demolished half of the merchants' quarter (La Ribera) to build a military citadel, as a way of both punishing and controlling the rebel city. Official use of Catalan language was forbidden, and the University withdrew.
Barcelona and the province of Catalonia were annexed by the French Empire of Napoleon after he invaded Spain and put his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. It was returned to Spain after Napoleon's downfall.
During the 19th century, Barcelona grew with the industrial revolution and the introduction of many new industries. During a period of weaker control by the Madrid authorities, the medieval walls were torn down and the citadel of La Ribera was converted into an urban park: the modern Parc de la Ciutadella, site of the 1888 "Universal Exposition" (World's Fair). The exposition also left behind the Arc de Triomf and the Museu de Zoologia (a building originally used during the fair as a cafe-restaurant). The fields that had surrounded the artificially constricted city became the Eixample ("extension"), a bustling modern city surrounding the old.
The beginning of the 20th century marked Barcelona's resurgence, while Catalan nationalists clamoured for political autonomy and greater freedom of cultural expression.
Barcelona was a stronghold for the anarchist cause -anarchist opposition to the call-up of reservists led to the city's Tragic Week in 1909- siding with the Republic's democratically elected government during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). It was overrun by Francisco Franco's forces in 1939, which ushered in a reign of cultural and political repression that lasted decades.
The protest movement of the 1970s and the demise of the dictatorship turned Barcelona into a centre of cultural vitality, enabling it to become the thriving city it is today. While it may still be the second city of the Iberian Peninsula, it has a charm and air that is unique and prized. A decline in the inner city population and displacement towards the outskirts and beyond raises the threat of urban sprawl.
The city has been the focus of the revival of the Catalan language. Despite massive immigration of Castilian speakers from the rest of Spain in the second half of the 20th century, there has been notable success in the increased use of Catalan in everyday life.
Barcelona was the site of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The largest event held in the city since the '92 Summer Olympics was the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures that was held between May and September, lasting a marathon 141 days.
Famous people who have lived and worked in Barcelona include: Master Painters Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Antoni Tàpies, Enrique Tábara, Eugenio Granell, Antonio Saura, Juan Villafuerte; Architect Antoni Gaudí.
See also: List of Counts of Barcelona
Barcelona numbers around 230,942 immigrants, many of them from Spain's former possessions in Latin America, particularly Ecuador, Argentina, and Colombia. There are large numbers of Moroccan, Pakistani, and Eastern European immigrants, especially from Romania and Ukraine.
Recent monthly protests by African, Indian, Latin American, Pakistani, and other immigrants demanding Spanish citizenship have sparked outcries for immigration reform. Various Catalan anarchist organizations like the CGT have helped organize the demonstrations or protests that might lead from Plaça Universitat through Plaça de Catalunya on through La Rambla. Common chants have been "Fora la Llei d'Estrangeria" meaning in Catalan that the Alien is outside the law, or "Papers Per A Tothom" which means papers for all. This is to raise awareness of the thousands of Moroccans, Pakistanis, and Nigerians working and living in a shadow economy of crowded flats in immigrant neighborhoods, a sometimes accepting, sometimes hateful society divided on the controversial topic of immigration because of crime and unemployment, and constant fear of being deported back to a repressive home country. Many of the immigrants are a visible presence to the Barcelona tourist, who will see them selling beer, hash, or even sex late at night around la Rambla and the surrounding neighborhoods like El Raval and Barri Gòtic. While catalan participation at protests for granting amnesty to immigrants is low, the Muslim association of catalonia received a roar of applause for their participation in the protest against the Iraq war a year after the invasion.
Tibidabo, a prominent peak to the northwest, is visible from much of the city.
Barcelona is divided into several districts. The following list favours Catalan-language names over Spanish-language names; as of 2004, they are the most commonly used and the only official ones:
Barcelona offers an opportunity for the tourist on foot to walk from Roman remains to the medieval city and then to the modern city with its open thoroughfares and grid-iron street pattern. The historic city center is fairly flat, while the modern city fans out towards the surrounding hills, bordered by steep streets.
A notable feature is La Rambla, a boulevard that runs from the city centre to the waterfront, thronged with crowds until late at night and lined by florists, bird sellers in the higher part, craft sellers in the lowest, street entertainers, cafeterias and restaurants. Walking along La Rambla one can see the world-famous opera house El Liceu, the food market of La Boqueria and the Plaça Reial (literally Royal Square), with its arches and palm trees, amongst other interesting buildings. There is also a Wax Museum near the end. It is also worth keeping an eye out for pickpockets, for whom the boulevard is a favourite haunt.
La Rambla ends at the old harbour, where a statue of Christopher Columbus points eastwards across the Mediterranean Sea toward his hometown of Genoa.
Next to it is the Museu Marítim (naval museum), which chronicles the history of life on the Mediterranean, including a full-scale model of a galley. The museum is housed in the medieval Drassanes (shipyards), where the ships that made Catalonia a great sea power in the Mediterranean were built.
The old harbour offers all kinds of other amenities, including the second largest aquarium in the Mediterranean area and an IMAX cinema.
To the north of the Gothic Quarter lie the Jardins de Fonseré i Mestre which contain modernist buildings housing zoological and geological collections. The adjacent Parc de la Ciutadella includes both the Parlament de Catalunya (Catalan Parliament) and the Parc Zoològic de Barcelona (zoo) whose most famous resident was an albino gorilla - Floquet de Neu ("Snowflake") - who died in 2003 of skin cancer.
Outstanding is the legacy of architect Antoni Gaudí, who lived and worked in Barcelona and Madrid, and who left several famous works like the Palau Güell in the city's old center, the Park Güell at the northern tip of Gràcia, and the immense but still unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882, financed by popular donations like the cathedrals in the Middle Ages (However, it is not a cathedral: the cathedral of Barcelona is the Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia, a Gothic building of the late Middle Ages). The Sagrada Família is billed for completion in 2026.
Another very notable modernist building in the older part of the city is the Palau de la Música Catalana, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built in 1908.
In the modern districts of the city are several avenues on which most of the international merchants offering clothing, jewelry, leather goods and other items have their stores. The most elegant avenue is the Passeig de Gràcia, where two Gaudí buildings are situated, the Casa Milà (La Pedrera) and the Casa Batlló, along with buildings by other famous modernista architects: Casa Ametller by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Casa Lleó Morera by Domènech i Montaner. Several of these buildings and indeed the Sagrada Familia church itself are threatened by Mayor Clos' plans to build a large railway tunnel for high-speed trains under the city's shaky 19th century foundations. In recent years, office developments along Passeig de Gràcia have been allowed to break up the architectural unity of the 19th and early 20th century buildings lining the avenue - a process which shows no signs of slackening. Property speculation is also blighting other areas of the city, including the 19th century Poble Nou district with its many interesting buildings dating from Catalonia's Industrial Revolution. Many of these have now been levelled to make room for the city's ill-starred "22@" project to build an area for ICT-based firms.
Uptown is the hill of the Tibidabo, 512 meters high, with an amusement park (which, after a long economic struggle, now belongs to the city council) and a monumental church on its summit. The church mosaics provide a curious example of the religious art style much in vogue during the dictatorship. There's also the Torre de Collserola, a telecommunications tower designed by Norman Foster which also has a windowed balcony with a great view over the city.
Barcelona is a major hub for RENFE, the Spanish state railway network, and its main suburban train station is Sants Estació (which is under renovation and enlargement at present in order to prepare for the arrival of the AVE system). The AVE high-speed rail system was recently extended from Madrid to Lleida in western Catalonia, and is expected to reach Barcelona by 2007. Renfe and the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) run Barcelona's widespread commuter train service. Barcelona's transit company, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), runs the Barcelona Metro system and city bus. See List of Barcelona metro stations. Barcelona has recently adopted another transport option with two new tram lines known as Trambaix and Trambesòs.
The site of the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929 and 1930, the Parc de Montjuïc was laid out by engineer Jean C. N. Forestier and architect Nicolas M. Rubio Tuduri. It is chiefly notable now for the cultural institutions that use the former palaces and exposition buildings. The German Pavilion, a landmark of modern architecture designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 Exhibition, was reconstructed on its original site in 1986. Montjuïc Stadium was renovated and enlarged by Vittorio Gregotti for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.
In 1983 the Plaça dels Països Catalans in front of the Sants railway station was redesigned by Helio Piñon Pallares and Albert Vaiplana Vea in pink granite paving with an undulating metal pergola and various hard furnishings that have become popular with skateboarders. At the same time, the neighboring Vapor Nou factory, was converted into the Parc de la Espanya Industrial for public recreation. This park, designed by Luis Peña Ganchegui and Francesc Rius Camps and completed in 1985 integrated the industrial shapes of the site with a dominant water feature and displays of sculpture.
Since 1983 a formal program of park creation has been carried out by the Mancomunitat de Municipis de l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. The purpose of this program has been to reclaim space for the public which is threatened either by neglect or overdevelopment. Typically these new parks are carefully designed by architects, planners and landscape architects concerned not just with functional elements, but also with the unique characteristics of the site and its position in a layered understanding of the city. Though the budgets may be small, the level of ingenuity and care in design and implementation is often very high. Some examples (note that many are in the metropolitan area, not in Barcelona itself):
Ancient mints | Barcelona | Coastal cities | Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games | Capitals in Europe | Municipalities in Barcelona | Phoenician colonies | Roman sites in Spain | Port cities
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