Barcelona tourist information

The Sardana Dance Barcelona

For a glimpse of the soul of Barcelona, witness the ancient regional dance called the sardana, often performed on Sunday afternoons in front of the stately Gothic cathedral and in other of the city's squares. The circle of ordinary men and women moving in simple, slow steps to traditional music of flute and drum provides an apt metaphor of the city and its people.

The sardana-once described by a poet as a dance "of people going forth holding hands"-is indicative of the sense of community (some might call it clannishness) and passion for music that is typical of Barcelona.

Barcelona has long been a great Mediterranean port and Spain's "second city," but its strongest identity is as the capital of the fiercely individualistic and communal people of Catalonia, the Catalans. It has served as a stronghold of Catalan nationalism in more repressive times, and the locus of Catalan representation vis-a-vis the government of Madrid in freer ones.

There always has been a strong regional identity and pride here. After the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in 1975 ended his 36-year right­wing dictatorship, the lilting Catalan language, no longer suppressed as it was under Franco, quickly regained its place as the dominant one of the region. Streets and place-names were changed back from Castilian to Catalan, and with the democratic constitution of King Juan Carlos, the region of Catalonia-encompassing the provinces of Barcelona, Girona (Gerona in Castilian Spanish), Lleida (Urida), and Tarragona-was designated one of the country's 17 comunidades autonomas (autonomous communities).

Thousands of visitors a year fly into Barcelona Airport from all over the world, to discover the magic of the city and also to explore the Costa Brava with its beachside towns including: Blanes, Tossa de Mar and Lloret de Mar. For travellers who want to enjoy the area at their own pace, cheap car hire, taxis and good public transport links are available from Barcelona International Airport.

Given its position across the Pyrenees from France, Barcelona has a history and language that link it as much to France as to Spain. Catalan is closely related to the French langue d'oc, or Provenal, and is spoken in French Catalonia as well. The Castilian Spanish gracias (thank you) becomes gracies (pronounced "grah-see-ehss") in Catalan, and buenos dias (good morning or good day) is bon dia; to wish someone goodbye, sayadeu instead of adios.

The history of Barcelona

The history of Barcelona dates back to 218 Be, when Hamilcar Barca, a powerful Carthaginian (and Hannibal's father), founded a settlement named after him called Barcino. The Romans developed the town, throwing up walls, parts of which are stilI visible. The Visigoths fought over it in the 5th century AD; the Moors in the 8th century. In 801 Barcelona was conquered by Charlemagne, and it became the dividing line between Christian Europe and Muslim Spain. During the 9th and 10th centuries, local lords, the Counts of Barcelona, became strong enough to establish their independence and drive the Moors from the lands to the south, and by 1100 Barcelona had dominion over all of Catalonia (thus giving rise to Barcelona's proud title of Ciutat Condal, "City of the Counts"). When Ramon Berenguer IV, a 12th-century Count of Barcelona, married an Aragonese heiress and became King of Aragon, the city became the capi­tal of the combined Catalan and Aragonese kingdom.

At one point, Barcelona was a major Mediterranean power, a force whose might is still evident today in the medieval streets of the city's old Gothic Quarter, the Barri Gotic. During the 1400s, Barcelona rivaled Genoa and Venice in Mediterranean trade. At the end of the 15th century it was assimilated into the new Spain of the Reyes Catolicos ("Catholic Monarchs") Ferdinand and Isabella. The opening of the Western Hemisphere, however, proved disastrous for Catalonia. As trade moved from east to west, Cadiz and other Spanish ports on the Atlantic rose in importance, and Barcelona declined, even as the influx of treasure from the Americas fuelled inflation ruinous throughout Spain.

Thereafter, the question of Catalan autonomy became a consistent theme in Barcelona's history, and the city and region often picked the wrong team in making a stand against the rest of Spain. They rose up against the Spanish crown during the Thirty Years War in the 17th century and failed in an attempt to set up an independent nation. In the early 18th century, they backed the Habsburgs in the War of the Spanish Succession, prompting the victorious Bourbons to put an end to what Catalonian autonomy remained. Only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries did Barcelona begin to recoup. Success in industry fostered a cultural revival-the Renaixenqa-and a newfound sense of Catalan identity. Architects such as Antoni Gaudi i Cornet (1852-1926) and his contemporaries designed and raised buildings of astonishing creativity in new city quarters. Barcelona was as much a centre of Art Nouveau as Paris or Vienna, although here the style was called modrnisme. Catalan, Spanish, and other European artists, including Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, and Juan Gris, attracted by the city's life and colour and the spirit of its people, made it a meeting place. Anarchism and other political radicalism flourished, and Barcelona became the capital of a short-lived autonomous Catalan government set up in 1932. Then, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), it became the seat of the Republican government from November 1937 until its fall to Franco's Nationalist rebels in January 1939.