Barcelona is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in the Kingdom of Spain, as well as the country’s second most populous municipality, with a population of 1.6 million within city limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people. A magnificent European city that is famous not so much for the medieval center as for the extraordinary buildings in the Art Nouveau style, the creations of Antoni Gaudi and other architects.
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. Barcelona includes many cultural monuments – from Roman ruins to masterpieces of modern architecture, including the magnificent Gothic and Catalan modernist (modernist). Great artists of the XX century. – Pablo Picasso, Juan Miro and Antonio Tapies are dedicated to individual museums.
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, Barcelona continued to be an important city in the Crown of Aragon as an economic and administrative centre of this Crown. Overview of the city should start from the Gothic Quarter (Barry Gothic). His temples, palaces and museums embodied the fame of Catalonia, which reached its heyday with the mighty counts of Barcelona. In the 1990’s. The port area was rebuilt from the labyrinth of gloomy and neglected streets into the sparkling gates of the new culture and gastronomy of the Mediterranean.
The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear. The ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. In the western part of the old town there is the Eixample district of the late 19th century. Here – most of Barcelona’s modernist style, including the famous Sagrada Familia, an unfinished masterpiece by architect Antonio Gaudi. Since 1884, Gaudi has invested all his creative powers in the construction of the Sagrada Familia, the Cathedral of the Holy Family. The architect even settled on the construction site and spent the last 16 years of his life.
Important Roman vestiges are displayed in Plaça del Rei underground, as a part of the Barcelona City History Museum MUHBA; the typically Roman grid plan is still visible today in the layout of the hot historical centre, the Barri Gòtic. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral has 4 spiers, each rising to a height of more than 100 m, each decorated with colored ceramic tiles, and stone portals look as if made of melting wax or a bizarre formation of stalactites. The facade of Christmas is the most finished part of the Gaudà Cathedral, the doorways symbolize Faith, Hope and Charity. Next to the cathedral is his own fantastic Guell Park.