Barcelona ( Catalan Barcelona in and Castilian) is a commune of Catalogne - Spain, located in the Province of Barcelona. It is the Capitale historical, administrative and economic of the Catalogne. It is also capital homonymous province and comarque of El Barcelonès.

History of Barcelona

The legend allots the foundation of Barcino to Hamilcar Barca of Carthage, father of Hannibal. Later, the Romain S transform the city into military camp ( castrum meaning bases of before guard): Roman planning had rather elected the city close to Tarragone to manage the province ibère. This camp is centered on Mons Taber, a small hill close to the place where are the Palau of Generalitat and the self government of Catalonia (Placed of Sant Jaume). The layout of the streets and the remainders of the ramparts surrounding the city are still visible nowadays. Excavations updated part of the Roman city which is exposed to the Museum of History of the City.

At the 5th century, Barcelona is occupied by the Visigoth S coming from the center of the Europe. The Musulman S take the city at the 8th century and name there the governor Sulayman Ben Yaqzan ibn Al-Arabi, but in 801, the Carolingien S conquer it with the favor of an internal dissension of Al-Andalus; they transform it into capital of the county of Barcelona, before incorporating it in the Spanish Marche ( Marca Hispánica , more precisely to translate by Hispanic Marche). In 859, Barcelona is plundered by the Viking S of the chief Hasting, which come from Nantes and had wintered in the Camargue. With time, the county acquired a certain independence with respect to the Carolingian dynasty whose reign finishes officially at the 10th century.

In 985, Al-Mansur, the caliph of Cordoue, located at the south of Spain, attacks and plunders Barcelona, to transport with him of many Esclave S. the count Borell II request of the assistance to its suzerain Hugues Capet. This last not condescending to come to him to assistance, the county takes a freedom in fact. Paradoxically, this event will mark the beginning of a stage of expansion of Catalonia which will imply the other Spanish operating states (Hispanic). On the one hand many Mozarab S and Jews (in this time, one did not speak Castilian yet about " purity of blood ") fleeing persecutions in the caliphate of Cordoue will find refuge in the old Spanish operating states, bringing their knowledge. In addition to be able to rebuild the peasants will rent their services as mercenaries of the caliph. Returned to Catalonia, they will be organized for autodéfendre and will employ the agricultural techniques used in the caliphate of Cordoue. They will build mills, to irrigate the ground. The commercial exchanges with the caliphate will increase quickly. It results a population increase and technical from it as of the end from the 10th century. The monastic push and the development of the Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-to-Compostelle will allow the transmission of this technical push the other states of the Spanish Marche, then with the rest of Europe. Culturally, knowledge circulates too. The pope Sylvestre II which was regarded as the man more cultivated of his time studied in Barcelona, where it supplements his formation in the scientific discipline. He gives to the honor the ancient culture through Virgile, Porphyre of Tyr, Aristote, Cicéron and Boèce. It is by the latter that it is initiated with the arithmetic one. From there it approaches practical calculations and manufactures a table to be counted, the abacus known as of Gerbert. Other made major, the presence of peasants soldiers, owners of their mill will lead to an interpretation not-absolutist of feudalism. Kings d' Aragon will have to compose with their thirds states. The installation of a feudal state in Catalonia during the 11th century did not imply that the county of Barcelona took a certain predominance on the other counties of Marca. Barcelona became the center of a territory which included/understood current Catalogne, various maritime possessions as well as the catalano-Aragonese confederation during a good part of her history. Barcelona was one of the principal Mediterranean powers during 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

As from the 15th century, the city enters during one time of decline with dynastic alliances with the Castille: a first marriage takes place between Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabelle de Castille (the catholic Kings). Barcelona is first once devastated with the République of Catalonia (1640 to 1652, year when the French are besieged in the city). After the seat of 1697, it is again devastated during the war of succession (of 1705 with 1714, it is lost by the Franco-Spanish ones, then still besieged in 1705 and 1706) which has as a consequence the disappearance of the institutions specific to Catalonia (consell of One hundred and Generalitat).

The economic revival started at the end of the 17th century and industrialization at the 19th century make it possible Barcelona to be converted into an important political and cultural center. Pascual Madoz, politician and writer, will be during some time, in 1854, governor of Barcelona from which it will modernize the urbanization while fighting against the cholera epidemic.

A few decades later, the Spain is set ablaze by the Spanish Civil war. Barcelona supports the Republican Forces. The city is taken by the forces of Franco in February 1939.

Since the end of the Years 1970, Barcelona began a new cultural development and urban, under the supervision of Josep Acebillo Marin, which gave him its current attractivity. The return of the democracy (and to autonomy), the increasing participation of the civil society, the important urban reforms as some international events as the Olympic Games of summer of 1992 gave to the city a strong cosmopolitan component and made of it a very attractive city for international tourism.

In 2003, Barcelona accommodated the fifteenth festival Europa Cantat

Demography

Barcelona is the second town of Spain by its population. The city is populated of approximately 1,605,602 inhabitants. The agglomeration counts 5,327,872 inhabitants.

Geographical location

Barcelona is on the coast, at the edge of the sea the Mediterranean, between the mouths of the rivers Besòs and LLobregat. The commune is limited:
  • in North by the communes of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adrià de Besòs
  • in the West by the communes of Montcada-i-Reixac and Sant Cugat del Vallès
  • in the South by the free zone (Hospitalet and Esplugues de Llobregat)
  • in the East by the sea.
The relief of the city is composed of three distinct parts: the mountain of the Collserola (with the summit of the Tibidabo which dominates the city with its 512 meters), the plain and deltas of the Besòs and the LLobregat marking the urban limits perpendicular to the sea. Other hillocks emergent above the littoral plain, of which most famous is that of Montjuïc to 173 meters, near the port, and old Olympic site.

Barcelona is located at 180 km of the Col of Perthus and the border with the France. On the other side of the Pyrenees is located the department of the the Eastern Pyrenees of culture and Catalan language.

Districts and districts

The Ville is divided into ten districts of which here the list (we indicate for the majority of them the Quartier (city) S interesting which are there):

  1. Ciutat Calved: el Deepening, el Barri Gòtic, the Ribera, and the Barceloneta

  2. the Eixample: Sant Antoni, Esquerra of Eixample, Dreta of Eixample, Sagrada Família
  3. Sants - Montjuïc: Edge Tunis, Montjuïc, Hostafrancs, Sants
  4. Corts
  5. Sarrià - Sant Gervasi: Pedralbes, Sarrià, Vallvidrera, Sant Gervasi
  6. Gràcia: Vallcarca, Safety, Gràcia, el Camp of in Grassot
  7. Horta - Guinardó: Horta, El Carmel, el Guinardó, the Teixonera
  8. Nou Barris: Carried, the Trinitat Nova, the Guineueta, Vilapicina, Roquetes
  9. Sant Andreu: el Congress, Sant Andreu de Palomar, the Trinitat Calved
  10. Sant Martí: Strong Pius, Sant Martí Of Provence, el Poble Nou, the Verneda

Environment

The city dense, is limited by the sea on a side and is leant with the mountain of the other. It makes important efforts for a more durable and bearable and to develop saving energy and energies soft, clean and sure, solar development in particular.
Le Parc of Collserola is a Park périurbain of 8.465 ha created in 1987 to protect spaces from nature against the periurbanisation. This park dominates the back of Barcelona over the first buttresses of the sierra of Collserola, part of the littoral cordillera (rising at this place to 268 m). It shelters many species which for some penetrate the city. A tower of telecommunications (the " Torre Colserola ") built at the time of the Olympic Games is the most building of Spain (288 meters) and very impressive.

Town planning and displacements

The Tram, disappeared at the end from the Years 1970, was reintroduced with the inauguration in May 2004 of 4 new lines an overall length of 45 kilometers. Their function is to ensure a service road of the peripheral districts while creating connections with the lines of Métro. A dense and practical network of bus furrows the city. It is the means of transport more used by the buildings as by the tourists who find lines tourist proposing 3 circuits in Barcelona.

See also: Subway of Barcelona

Economy

Catalonia has been the principal Spanish industrial area, with automotive engineering, electronics, chemistry and the textile like growth industries and, for a few years, the agroalimentary one. The services account for 60% of the activity, industry 36% and the agriculture less than 4%. Under the impulse of capitals of industry more European than Spanish, the province joined Languedoc-Roussillon and the Midday-Pyrenees area to form a “Euro-area”.

The Port

It is one of the most important ports of the Mediterranean, especially on the level of the passengers. In 2004 work started to double its capacity by 2012. During the year 2005 there were 1.228.561 of passengers of the boats of crossing. Beside the port is located Maremagnum, a great shopping mall, a cinema and an aquarium. The port is divided into two great parts, industrial and commercial. The port belongs to Las Ramblas.

Languages

Barcelona being located into full Catalonia, it thus has two official languages: the Spanish (Castilian) and the Catalan (official language of the Catalonia).

The Catalan is the usual language, which one speaks at the house, in the street, or with work. To communicate with the tourists, the inhabitants of Barcelona often speak the Castillan.

On the control panels, only the Catalan is used, no translation does not exist in this field (contrary to the Valencian Communauté, it so bilingual and where the control panels are translated in the two languages).

The Catalan is spoken by more than 70% of the population whereas bilingual the Catalan/Castillan would account for 85% of the population. Unilingual the Castillan accounts for only 10% of the population.

Places of interest

; The Put Batlló: Masterpiece of the famous architect Antoni Gaudi is already a myth of Article Behind an exceptional modernistic frontage, representing the waves of the sea after the lull, hides a whole world of surprised and a refined succession of architectural details… Batllo Put reached the centenary in 2004. ; The Casc Antic: The oldest district which testifies to the medieval city with the Holy-Eulalie Cathédrale of Barcelona. It is divided into 3 districts: El Barri Gòtic and El Raval or Barri Xino (Chinese District, it is right an allegory) and Born
One find there all the early works of Antoni Gaudí: the reverberators of the Placed Reial, for example.

the modernistic building emblématique of Casc Antic is the Palau of Música Catalana builds in 1908, work of the Architecte Lluís Domènech I Montaner.

; The Ciutadella: The Parc of Ciutadella is the place where the World Fair was held of 1888. Remain of this time the Triumphal arch by which one entered the enclosure of the Exposure and current Museu de Zoologie in which there was then a bar-restaurant.

; The Eixample: its name of the expansion of the city holds (as a Catalan to eixamplar=élargir) which was planned by the architect Ildefons Cerdà. It started in 1859.

At the present time, on an air sight one always sees the lines and contours of the district. According to the plans conceived by Cerdà, the surface of 9 km is divided into 550 blocks of houses called poma (" pomme" ; they are cut squares with side of 113,33 side meters), intersected by perfectly parallel streets and boulevards, except for three avenues: The Meridian one, in the north of which the NORTH-SOUTH layout course along a Meridian , the Parallel in the south whose layout is/western follows a Parallèle, and the Diagonal which crosses all the city of south-west to the North-East.
Each block of buildings was to find in its center of the green areas or the vegetable gardens for the inhabitants, unfortunately quickly occupied.
All the buildings are higher than than they had been envisaged at the time according to the plans of Cerdà.
It is there that one finds the majority of the buildings modernistic S of the city. It is not rare, while strolling in its streets, to fall on frontages decorated with floral reasons, sculptures, wrought iron grids. One also finds there celebrates it Sagrada Família, work unfinished of Antoni Gaudí, always in construction more than one century after the beginning of the building site!

; The Passeig de Gràcia: One finds in Passeig de Gràcia of works of the three principal Catalan architects:

*La Put Ametller Josep Puig I Cadafalch.
*La Put Batlló and the Pedrera of Antoni Gaudí.
*La Put Morera Lluís Domènech I Montaner.
One calls this block of houses Poma of Discòrdia (the Bone of contention) because more the modernistic great architects built side by side and competed permanently.
the most known house remains nevertheless the Casa Milà Gaudí, called “the Pedrera” ( the career , as a Catalan).

; The Park Güell: This Park on the heights of the city, was an order placed by the count Güell with Gaudí: nature and the Architecture merge and are supplemented in these places.

World heritage

The Palate Güell (in 1984), the Put Milà and the Parc Güell is regarded as world heritage by UNESCO.

Museums

The city accommodates several Musée S remarkable of which those dedicated to Joan Miró which presents a single collection to the world given by the painter himself and Pablo Picasso (All works of this artist are exposed in an old medieval palate). The National museum of Art of Catalonia as for him, is probably one of most beautiful and largest of the world. You will see many original Romance frescos there. The copies were rested on the spot of discovery!

Policy

The Parliament of Catalonia seat downtown this since the restoration of the General information of Catalonia, Generalitat as a Catalan.

Pasqual Maragall I Mira was Maire ( Consol Major ) of Barcelona between 1982 and 1997. Joan Clos succeeded to him until September 7th, 2006, Jordi Hereu is its successor.

Sports

The sport occupies a very particular place in the heart of the Catalans, in particular the Football. How to pass beside mythical the Barça? The evenings of matches, all the city lives for the Blaugrana , true institution since 1899 which occupies the very famous stage of the Camp Nou in the district of Corts in the North of the city. FC Barcelona is a club omnisport and is distinguished in particular in Basket-ball, Handball and hockey on shoes. Also let us not forget RCD Espanyol Barcelona, the other football club of the city based with Montjuïc in the enclosure of the Olympic stadium (Estadi Olimpic). It also one of the cities is recognized in the world of the skateboard.

Events

- Primavera Sound Festival , From May 31st to June 2nd, 2007. A large gathering of more than 90 artists pop-rock'n'roll to Park LED Forum.

- the Festival Sonar , from June 14th to 16th 2007. It is about the large-mass of the music techno, organized in adapted places.

Twinnings

Twinnings:

Partnerships:

Olympic Games

After Moscow in 1980, Barcelona marked the return of the Olympic Games of summer in Europe in 1992. The Catalan Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of CIO deeply influenced the choice of the city for the first Olympic Games in Spain. Madrid on the other hand, seems failed rather little, to bring back the OJ in Spain for 2012.

Literature

Here some works in which the town of Barcelona occupies a privileged place:

  • Barcelones, title in the plural, of Montalbán

  • the City of the wonders (in Castilian) Eduardo Mendoza.
  • Placed It LED diamond (as a Catalan) of Mercè Rodoreda, translated into French by Bernard Lesfargues
  • Nada (in Castilian) of Carmen Laforet
  • Guerra dels Cornuts (as a Catalan) Joan-Daniel Bezsonoff, translated into French by the author with the editions Balzac the War of the Cuckolds
  • Felicitat No are Completa (as a Catalan) Vicenç Pagès, translated into Castilian by the author
  • Small Infante de Castille (in French) Henry de Montherlant
  • “ El Quadern Gris” (as a Catalan) Josep Pla, 'translated into French the Gray Book
  • Pascual Madoz, Diccionario Geográfico Estadístico-Histórico de España there tired Posesiones de Ultramar" , published in Madrid of 1845 to 1850.
  • " Shade of the wind " of Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  • nights of Shangai and majority of works of Juan Marsé

Blasonnement

Metonymy

  • Note : Nova Icària referring to the myth Icare, the urban planners identified the rebuilding of the coastal area of Barcelona, between the Olympic Port and Diagonal del Mar, with Nova Icària . This name is found on a street skirting the coastal line and crossing the district of Poble Nou, like on one of the beaches bordering.

Famous people born in Barcelona

Gallery of images

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