Comprehensive Barcelona Information available at BarcelonaEguide.com

arcelona is the capital of Catalonia and the second

largest city in Spain with a po-pulation of about 4.5 million. A visual city with elegance and sophistication. A contrast of medieval and modern, with ve Barcelona buildings designated as World Heritage Sites. Muse-ums, art galleries and archi-tecturally signicant buildings and squares are all to be explored. Relax in the excellent restaurants, bars and cafes or indulge at one of the many shops. Escape from the urban environment at one of the beaches that line the city coast-line or in the hills that stretch inland.

Barcelona HistoryOriginally known as Barcino and founded in the 3rd Cen-tury. During the 5th Century the Visigoths controlled the city and then the Moors in the 8th Century. In the Middle Ages Barcelona was the capital of the Catalan empire and money was made from com-merce. During the 19th Century Barcelona expanded again with active trade with the Americas bringing a lot of wealth to the city. A Catalan renaissance movement emerged during the early 1900’s and Catalonia was declared a Republic in 1931.

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Comprehensive Barcelona Information available at BarcelonaEguide.com

Barcelona was taken by Fascist forces in 1939 and after Franco’s death in 1975 democracy came and the Catalan language was once again used. The Olympics of 1992 launched Barcelona onto the world stage. Considerable changes were made to the city before the Olympics including building museums, parks, roads and major infrastructure.

Barcelona Attrac-tionsFor a complete list of the many Barcelona attractions and things to do visit BarcelonaEguide.com. Only the main attractions are listed and full details of each are available on the web site. Barce-lona has a lot more to offer than listed here!

Beaches The seafront, from the Moll de la Fusta and the area around the Palau de Mar to the Rambla de Mar and the Olympic Port area is a popular recreational area. The beaches that stretch along the urban coast are Sant Sebastià, La Barceloneta, Nova Icària, Bogatell, Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella.

Barceloneta The area along the waterfront includes the Olympic Port and Port Vell, developed for the Barcelona Olympics and now a very popular place to walk and for entertainment. The aquarium with sh, penguins, sharks and a strong Mediterranean theme is one of the largest in Europe. In part of the Palau de Mar a former commercial warehouse is the Museu d’Hist?ria de Catalunya with interactive exhibits and authentic recreations. From the harbour a cable car runs up to Montju?c.

EixampleThe northern part of central Bar-celona extending north from Plaça Catalunya and has as at the centre the Passieg de Grà cia, a major shopping street and location of some of them main Gaudi build-ings.

MontjuïcMontjuïc overlooks Barcelona and where the main sites of the 1992 Olympics are to be found. Laid out on the slopes of Montjuïc with plants from all the main regions of the world are the Bar-celona Botanical Gardens. The magical fountains of Montjuïc on summer evenings have displays of light, colour and music. The Joan Miró Museum dedicated to Joan Miró with his numerous paint-ings, sculptures and sketches is just below the summit. The National Art Museum of Catalo-nia preserves the wall frescos of Romanic churches, a collection of Romanesque art and has works by Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusinol and Antoni Gaudi.

La Pedrera La Pedrera is one of Gaudi’s mas-terpieces built between 1905 and 1910. Characterized by the strange undulating rooftop and wrought ironwork. Inside is an exhibition of Gaudi’s work.

MACBA A collection of contemporary art going back 50 years. Exhibitions change during the year. A modern building designed by Richard Meier that contrasts with the surrounding traditional buildings in the centre of Barcelona. The forecourts are well used by skateboarders and features on numerous skateboard lms.

Comprehensive Barcelona Information available at BarcelonaEguide.com

Las Ramblas The wide tree lined boulevard known as La Rambla, is a long continuous pedes-trian avenue that changes names ve times as it cuts through Barcelona’s ‘old city’. Lined with cafes, restaurants and shops. A street of atmosphere and a place all visitors to Barcelona experience. All day long you will see buskers and mime artists as well as stalls selling owers, news-papers, birds and rab-bits. Near La Rambla is Barcelona’s most beautiful square Plaça

Sagrada Famí-lia The Church of the Holy Family designed by Antoni Gaudi was started in 1882, but it was never nished. Con-struction still continues based on Gaudi’s original plan. The magnicent spires of the unnished cathedral are one of Bar-celona’s landmarks. Some of the facades are open as is the nave, apse and museum.

Barcelona Football Club The Barcelona Football Club Museum is located in the main stand of the Nou Camp. Camp Nou is the biggest stadium in Europe. The museum explains the history of the club and houses many trophies. The tour includes a visit to the dressing area.

Reial with tall palm trees and lamp posts which was Gaudi’s rst commission in Barcelona. El Mirador de Colom next to the sea at the end of La Rambla provides from the top views of the Gothic Quarter, the Old Port, the Olym-pic Port and the Forum grounds. At the bottom of La Rambla is Museu de Cera with 300 wax models displayed in various elabo-rate settings.

Barcelona Cathedral Dating from 1298 but transformed into a Gothic Cathedral. In one wing of the Cathedral is the chap-ter house, the meeting place of the Cathedral chapter which is now the home of the Cathedral Museum.

Casa Batllo Built between 1904 and 1906 by Antoni Gaudi. The facade repre-senting a calm sea hides a hidden world of architectural surprises such as ceramic roof tiles, inge-nious use of light, parabolic arches in the attic and twisting ceilings.

Cosmocaixa Museu de la CienciaThe Cosmocaixa Science Museum has a number of thematic areas with the “Room of Matter”’, “Geo-logical Wall”; “Flooded Forest” and “Planetarium.

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Gothic Quarter The Gothic Quarter is east of the Rambla’s and contains medieval Gothic buildings dating from the 14th and 15th century. A maze of interconnecting streets linking with squares with plenty of cafés, bars and restaurants. The Gothic Quarter has the Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia in front of which is the broad, modern Plaça Nova. A good example of Gothic archi-tecture is Santa Maria del Mar with a very open feeling inside due to the spacing between the gothic columns. Museu Picasso housed in two medieval palaces displays some of the early works produced by Pablo Picasso during

Parc Güell Barcelona architect Antonio Gaudi developed Parc Güell with views of the city. The gardens have examples of his work, including ights of stairs, col-umns and a plaza decorated with mosaics. Gaudi House was built in 1904 as a show house for potential buyers at Parc Güell and where he lived until just before his death. The pink fai-rytale house contains some Gaudi designed furniture. The interpre-tation centre located in one of the gatehouses shows what the origi-nal park project looked like and provides general information on Parc Güell.

Tibidabo Tibidabo is just over 500 metre high and 6km northwest of Bar-celona. Tibidabo can be reached by funicular and is home to the Parc d’Attractions, an amusement park, the Torre de Collserola telecommunications tower which provides views of the whole city and Temple del Sagrat Cor church.

1901 - 1906 when he lived in Bar-celona. The Museum of the City of Barcelona provides access to underground Roman ruins and a complex of historic buildings in the centre of the Gothic Quarter.