Barcelona - Touristic Guide

Barcellona is the capital and most populous city of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,605,602 in 2006. It is located on the Mediterranean coast (41°23′N, 2°11′E), between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and is limited to the west by the Serra de Collserola ridge (512m). In 1992 it was center of summery Olympic Games. In 2004 it has accommodated an international event, the universal Forum of the Cultures.

 Barcelona is located on the northeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula, facing the Mediterranian Sea on a plateau approximately 5 km wide limited by the mountain range of Collserola, the Llobregat river to the south-west and the Besos river to the north.This plateau has 170 km² of which 101 km² are are occupied by the city itself. It is 160 km south of the Pyrenees and the catalonian border with France. 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 BC.

 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 BC. The second legend attributes the foundation directly to Hamilcar Barca Subsequently the Roman reorganized the city as a castrum (a fortified army camp), situated to Mons Taber, a hill where today they rise from a part the town hall and the other the center of the Generalitat (region) (Plaça de Sant Jaume). The city was christened from the Roman with the name of Colony Iulia Augusta Paternal Faventia Barcino. The ancient organization of the roads is still visible in the cartine of the historical center and from it walls Roman remained in feet.
 The city then was conquered from the Visigoths in V the century, from i Moors in VIII the century, from i Franchi in year 801 - than of it they made the understood one them of the peasantry of Barcelona and plundering from Al-Mansur in the 985.

 To leave the X century of Barcelona one along period of prosperity lived that continued also when, in 1137, for a game of alliances, joined to the reign of Aragon, becoming some the more representative center. The city divided one of the greater ports of the Mediterranean Mar (its merchants and shipowners rivaled with the genovians), the center became rich of gorgeous gothic buildings and, between the XIII and XIV the century, two encircled new building of it fortified the medieval heart.

 The union with the reign of Castile, begun with the wedding between Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in late ' the 400, marked the term of independence of the Catalogna.
 L'industrializzazione del '800 e proseguita in tutto il '900 risollevò l'economia e la città tornò a essere un importante centro commerciale, politico e culturale. Testimoni ne sono le due Esposizioni Universali oranizzate nel 1888 e nel 1926. Nella seconda metà del XIX secolo il progetto di abbattere le antiche mura medievali fece spazio a l'Estensione (in catalano Eixample) che allargò i confini della città fino a inglobare i paesini della vicina periferia. Fu il caso di Gràcia, Sarrià, Horta, Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, Les Corts, Sants, Sant Andreu de Palomar e Sant Martí de Provençals.

 Industrialization of the ' 800 and continued in all the ' 900 risolved the economy and the city returned to be an important center trades them, political and cultural. Witnesses of are the two organizations Universal Exposures in 1888 and 1926. In the second half of XIX the century the plan to pull down the ancient ones walls medieval made space to the Extension (in Eixample Catalan) that it increased the borders of the city until inglobes the small villages of the near periphery. It was the case of Gràcia, Sarrià, Horta, Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, Les Corts, Sants, Sant Andreu de Palomar and Sant Martí de Provençals.

 During the war, the city was bombed in various occasions mainly from Italian Legionaria Aviation, but also from nazi the Condor Legion to the service of the fascist interests of general Franco. There were 385 strafings, whose they caused 2750 died. The 26 city was occupied January 1939 from the pro-Franco army. The regimen abolished the independent political institutions and the use of the Catalan language. During the 36 years of the dictatorship), Barcelona was looked at newly in a period of social and cultural forfeiture. Strong immigration - essentially from the south of Spain iniettò in the city substrate a great number of inhabitants of Spanish language, reducing the impact of the Catalan. To the end of years ' 70, the return to the democracy carried also a recovery of the Catalan political-cultural identity. Barcelona began a new cultural and urbanistico development that has converted it in the modern metropolis that is nowadays. Olympic Games, organizes in 1992 very, contributed to you to the development of the Catalan understood one them. In the years that go from the olympic designation in 1986 to 1992, Barcelona was transformed radically, renewing themselves, becoming larger and promovating its image in the world.