Overview

Barcelona - An Affair to Remember

Even though it is a 2000 year old city, Barcelona sprang upon the global tourist map only with the help of the 1992 Olympics. Since then there has been a renewed interest in the city’s immense cache of art, history and culture and it has become a highly favored tourist destination in Europe. More and more people are booking tickets to go to Barcelona to see its famous gothic architecture, taste its wonderful food or hit one of its several beaches.

Barcelona can easily be called a hidden gem on the Mediterranean coast; an enchanting city that has escaped the ruddy attention given to other famed cities on this shoreline. Located on the north –eastern coast of mainland Spain, this beautiful city is just two hours south of the French Pyrenees and sees a lot of traffic from other parts of Europe as well as other countries. Barcelona has become a hot spot for younger tourists who come here to savor the beaches, the good weather and the racy nightlife whereas the older tourists come looking for that hidden Gothic church they missed on their last trip, a new look at Picasso or a second round of shopping that doesn’t make you pray for an inheritance.

The ’92 Olympics started a spate of new developments in the city and the makeover mania continued long enough to turn Barcelona into one of the most dynamic and stylish cities on the continent. The city sizzles with its many activities, its hard-play partying culture, its food, fashion and music scene and is the newest place to be seen in. connected well to the rest of Europe and most other large cities in the world, Barcelona attracts a young and young-at-heart crowd to its Picasso, Paia and painted-with-fun beaches.

Before you join the ranks of Barcelona “Wanna-Go es” let us give you the whole story on this wonderful city.

The years gone by

The history of a place inevitably involves the etymology of its name and Barcelona has not one but two legends for how it came to be known by this name. One is that the city was founded by the great warrior Hercules four centuries before Rome was born and the other, more accepted story, attributes the birth of the city to the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named it “Barcino” after his family name ‘Barca’.

Going with the second and more popular story of the city’s birth, it would follow that the Carthaginians were the first inhabitants of this strategically placed spot in Iberian Peninsula and that they settled here around the year 250 BC. The insatiable Romans took over the Peninsula and by about 15 BC had established a military camp here centered around Mons Taber – the hilly area around today’s Placa de Sant Jaume. The Roman colony was named Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino and grew in strength and wealth, minting its own coins. Its wealth and strategic location attracted the Germanic tribes and the first waves of invasions started in about 250. By 400 CE, the Visigoths had invaded Spain, moving its capitol south to Madrid, and renaming Barcino, Barcinona. The city went through a few more invasions (Muslims from the North of Africa, and Franks), but they had little lasting influence.

Because of its great location, bordered by France to the North and the Mediterranean to the East, Barcelona eventually rose to prominence as a powerful trading city on the Mediterranean during the middle ages. This period has left a rich legacy of many beautiful buildings in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter.

Attention shifted from Barcelona to new opportunities across the Atlantic with the discovery of the Americas in 1492. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella saw better returns from focusing on the new land and Barcelona ceased to be the seat of the monarchy, and Madrid once again became the capital of the new Spanish Empire. The city’s fortunes dipped lower in the 17th and 18th centuries when a Catalonian revolt against Spain originated in Barcelona and lead to over a decade of decline in wealth and population. Then in 1702, during a struggle for succession to the Spanish throne, Catalonia favored the Archduke of Austria, while the rest of Spain supported the Frenchman, Felipe of Anjou. Felipe’s eventual victory in 1714 meant cultural and political suppression of the whole of Catalonia, including Barcelona for several decades.

However, as the sun rose on the nineteenth century, Barcelona was also witnessing a new period of resurgence and growth. The city’s population grew to three times its current numbers making a city expansion inevitable. This was fuelled by a time of industrial boom leading to a northward change in Barcelona’s economic status. There was resurgence in interest in Catalan traditions and culture, and Barcelona, once again, became an important center in Spain. Though the city continued to blossom with the 1888 Universal Exhibition, and the International Exhibition of 1929, Barcelona, as well as the rest of Spain, saw great social and political unrest through the 19th and 20th centuries.

A new round of cultural and political suppression started with the dictatorship of Primo de Ribera and Spain as a whole was experiencing an economic recession and a feeling of powerlessness. This culminated in a rebellion led by Francisco Franco, and eventually resulted in the Civil War. Catalonia stood by the legally established republic, and in 1939, when Barcelona, along with Madrid, fell, the war ended. Thus began a long period of even greater repression of Catalonian identity, as well as a stunt in economic, social, and cultural growth for Barcelona.

With the death of Franco in 1975, and the establishment of the first democratic elections in 1977, Spain was finally on its way toward reestablishing itself. At the same time, there was a surge of nationalist and autonomous ideas in Catalan, resulting in the administrative status of Catalonia as an Autonomous Community in 1979. During this time, Barcelona continued recovering and developing. The city proved itself to be a leading presence in the world as an artistic, cultural, and industrial city when it was chosen to host the 1992 Olympic Games. This event, in itself, produced many extensive changes to the city, including parks, museums, roads, and urban development.

The history of Barcelona has had many ups and downs, however, it demonstrates just how culturally independent, colorful, and spirited this city’s inhabitants are.

The best time to go

Being on the Mediterranean Coast, Barcelona is blessed with a large number of sunny days – all the better for tourists for whom Barcelona’s beaches are a strong magnet. This sunshine glut also helps Barcelona play host to people from all over the world throughout the year. Winters are mild and slightly humid and although summers make you reach for that bottle of water, the large straw hat and the tube of sunscreen more often, it is still very pleasant.

Cool Mediterranean winters and hot summers translate into year round activity and if one had to still pick the best time to go to Barcelona it would be the months of May, June and September. July and August see fewer tourists as the barometer sometimes gets to a scorching 30 degrees centigrade. The upside is better availability of hotels, easier reservations in restaurants and fewer people to jostle with at city attractions.

Being close to the sea means more humidity round the year with the worst time being September, surprisingly, that doesn’t stop the camera obsessed tourists. If the vagaries of weather bother you little you could also time your visit to coincide with one of the many festivals Barcelona hosts throughout the year. There is Festes de la Merce held on September 24 each year, Barcelona’s annual festival, Festes de Grácia held on August 15th every year and marked by revelry, excitement and colorful processions or Sant Jordi (April 23rd) and Revetlla De Sant Joan – the midsummer solstice celebration held on June 23rd every year.