Search This Blog

Friday 24 February 2012

Barcelona

Barcelona is Spain's second-largest city, its largest port, and its chief commercial center.

Barcelona was founded by the Carthaginians in the 3rd century BC.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Barcelona was a center of Catalan separatism, including the Catalan Revolt (1640–52) against Philip IV of Spain. 

Barcelona in 1563

The Great Plague of Seville decimated Barcelona in the early 1650s, Some estimate it halved the city's population.

Barcelona was devastated during the War of Spanish Succession in 1714 when during the Siege of Barcelona the capital city of Catalonia was forced to surrender to Spanish and French Bourbon armies.

FC Barcelona, one of the most successful football clubs in Spain, was founded by Swiss football pioneer Joan Gamper on November 29, 1899.

Work on Barcelona’s fantastical Sagrada Familia Roman Catholic church was expected to be complete by 2026 — 144 years after it was begun by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi in 1882. He joked that his client, God, was in no hurry to see it finished. The finish date has now been delayed further due to the coronavirus pandemic

Gaudi spent his last 15 years living as a hermit beneath the unfinished structure of his great Barcelona church. He was run over by a tram and looked so bedraggled that bystanders took him for a tramp and were slow in getting him to hospital, where he died on June 10, 1926.

Barcelona FC’s Camp Nou opened on September 24, 1957.  It is currently the largest stadium in Europe with a seating capacity of 99,354.

By Oh-Barcelona.com from Barcelona, Spain - The Camp Nou Stadium - Wikipedia

The city hosted the Summer Olympics between July 25 and August 9, 1992. It was the first and to date only Olympics to be held in Spain.

When Barcelona won the Riba Gold Medal in 1999, it was the first and only time that the winner was a city, not an architect.

Pope John Paul II was a fair goalkeeper in his youth and a honorary member of Barcelona FC.

Barcelona has built around 300 playgrounds for senior citizens that are meant to improve fitness and decrease isolation.

Barcelona's 197 foot Columbus Monument was built to mark how Christopher Columbus reported to Queen Isabella after his first voyage to the Americas. The statue shows him supposedly pointing to the New World, but he is actually pointing south, to Algeria.


La Rambla is a tree-lined pedestrian street in central Barcelona. It stretches for 1.2 km (0.75 mi) connecting the Plaça de Catalunya in its center with the Christopher Columbus Monument at Port Vell.

Barcelona is ranked the most popular city to visit in Spain. It received a record number 12 million visitors in 2019. 

No comments:

Post a Comment