Barcelona

Barcelona is one of the world’s leading tourist, economic, trade fair, and cultural center and its influence in commerce, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world’s major global cities.

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AND HERE WE’LL TELL YOU WHY WE FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS CITY

Barcelona is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain and Spain’s second most populated city, with a population of 1.6 million within its administrative limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the seventh-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area, Berlin, and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres (1,680 ft) high.

Founded as a Roman city in the Middle Ages, Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, it continued to be an important city in the Crown of Aragon as an economical and administrative centre of this Crown and the capital of the Principality of Catalonia. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona has a rich cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination.

Particularly renowned areas of interest are the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech I Montaner, which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is also located here. The city is also famous for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences, expositions, and many international sport tournaments.

It is one of the world’s leading tourist, economic, trade fair, and cultural centres and its influence in commerce, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world’s major global cities. It is a major cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world (before Zürich, after Frankfurt), and a significant financial centre.

Main Sites

The Barri Gòtic (Catalan for “Gothic Quarter”) is the centre of the old city. Many of the buildings date from medieval times, some from as far back as the Roman settlement. Catalan modernista architecture (related to the movement known as Art Nouveau in the rest of Europe), developed between 1885 and 1950 and left an important legacy. Several of these buildings are World Heritage Sites.

Especially remarkable is the work of architect Antoni Gaudí, which can be seen throughout the city. His best-known work is the immense but still unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882 and is still financed by private donations. As of 2007, completion is planned for 2026.

The city was also home to Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. Designed in 1929 for the International Exposition for Germany, it is an iconic building that came to symbolize modern architecture as the embodiment of van der Rohe’s aphorisms “less is more” and “God is in the details.” The pavilion was intended as a temporary structure and was torn down in 1930 less than a year after it was constructed. A modern re-creation by Spanish architects now stands here, however, constructed in 1986.

Fact: Barcelona won the 1999 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for its architecture, the first (and as of 2015, only) time that the winner has been a city, and not an individual architect.

Barcelona Museums

Barcelona has a great number of museums, which cover different areas and eras. The National Museum of Art of Catalonia possesses a well-known collection of Romanesque art while the Museum of Contemporary Art focuses on post-1945 Catalan and Spanish art.
The Fundació Joan Miró, Picasso Museum, and Fundació Antoni Tàpies hold important collections of these world-renowned artists, as well as Can Framis Museum, which focused on post-1960 Catalan Art owned by Fundació Vila Casas.

Several museums cover the fields of history and archaeology, like the History Museum (MUHBA), the Museum of the History of Catalonia, the Archeology Museum of Catalonia, the Barcelona Maritime Museum, and the private-owned Egyptian Museum.

The Erotic Museum is among the most peculiar ones, while Cosmocaixa is a science museum that received the European Museum of the Year Award in 2006.

The FC Barcelona Museum has been the most visited museum in the city of Barcelona with 1506022 visitors in 2013.

Parks

Barcelona contains sixty-eight municipal parks, twelve of which are historic parks, five are thematic (botanical) parks, forty-five are urban parks, and six are forest parks. They range from vest-pocket parks to large recreation areas. The urban parks alone cover 10% of the city.

Of Barcelona’s parks, Montjuïc is the largest, covering 203 metres and located on the mountain of the same name. It is followed by Parc de la Ciutadella, the Guinardó Park, Park Güell (designed by Antoni Gaudí), Oreneta Castle Park, Diagonal Mar Park, Nou Barris Central Park, Can Dragó Sports Park, Poblenou Park, and the Labyrinth Park, named after the garden maze it contains.

Port Aventura, one of the largest amusement parks in Europe with 3 million visitors per year, is located one hour’s drive from Barcelona. Also, within the city lies Tibidabo Amusement Park, a smaller amusement park in Plaza del Tibidabo, with the Muntanya Russa amusement ride.

Beaches

Barcelona beach was listed as number one in a list of the top ten city beaches in the world according to National Geographic and Discovery Channel. Barcelona contains seven beaches, totalling 4.5 kilometres of coastline. Sant Sebastià, Barceloneta, and Somorrostro beaches are the largest, oldest and the most-frequented beaches there.

The Olímpic Harbour separates them from the other city beaches: Nova Icària, Bogatell, Mar Bella, Nova Mar Bella, and Llevant. These beaches were opened as a result of the city restructuring to host the 1992 Summer Olympics when a great number of industrial buildings were demolished. At present, the beach sand is artificially replenished given that storms regularly remove large quantities of material. The 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures left the city a large concrete bathing zone on the east most part of the city’s coastline.

Culture

Catalonia is Spain’s second-largest municipality, with Barcelona its capital, and has 3 official languages: Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. It also has its own flag (pictured on the left) and the region is renowned for its beautiful Mediterranean coastline, Romanesque art, medieval mountain monasteries, Roman ruins, and world-famous art masterpieces.

Barcelona’s cultural roots go back 2000 years. Since the arrival of democracy, the Catalan language (very much repressed during the dictatorship of Franco) has been promoted, both by recovering works from the past and by stimulating the creation of new works. It is designated as a world-class city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network.

Credit: Barcelona – Wikipedia