Spain

If there was ever a building to sum up the character of a city, then Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia would be the perfect choice for Barcelona. For this is an ever changing city, constantly re-inventing itself but managing to retain its proud Catalan heritage. Here, state-of-the-art buildings sit comfortably next to historic ones, city cafés can be enjoyed before or after a day at the beach and traditional restaurants are the perfect antidote to the trendy bars.

Before the 20th century

Barcelona has emerged from a wannabe history. With Castilian kings pumping cannonballs over the city walls and anarchists disagreeing on which shoulder to hang their rifles, the city shrank in the shadow of greater cities and powers for centuries.

Legend establishes the foundation of 'Barcino' by the Carthaginians at around 230 BC, and although the city was later invaded by both the Visigoths and the Muslims, the history of Barcelona only truly began after armies from what is now France pushed back the Muslims in AD 801. At the time, the plains and mountains to the northwest and north of Barcelona were populated by the people who by then could be identified as 'Catalans' (although surviving documented references to the term only date to the 10th century).

In the 12th century, Catalonia grew rich on pickings from the fall of the Muslim caliphate of Córdoba. The Catalans managed to keep their creative beacon alight through to the 14th century, when Barcelona ruled a mini-empire that included Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, Valencia, the Balearics, the French regions of Rousillon and Cerdagne and parts of Greece. But by the 15th century, devastated by the plague, spectacular bank crashes, and the Genoese squeezing its markets, the empire ran out of steam. While the Catalans may have hoped that union with the kingdom of Castile would pump cash back into the coffers and vitality onto the streets, heirs to the crowns of Castile and Aragón were more interested in juicing Catalonia to finance their own imperial ambitions.

A 1462 rebellion against King Joan II ended in a siege in 1473 that devastated the city. Barcelona was more or less annexed into the Castilian state, but was excluded from the plundering of the Americas that brought fantastic riches to 16th-century Castile. By now, the peasants had started to revolt. Disaffected Catalans resorted to arms a number of times, and the last revolt, during the War of the Spanish Succession, saw Catalonia siding with Britain and Austria against Felipe V, the French contender for the Spanish throne. That was their undoing. Barcelona fell in 1714 after another shocking siege, and as well as banning the Catalan language, Felipe built a huge fort, the Ciutadella, to watch over his ungrateful subjects.

After 1778 Catalonia was permitted to trade with America, and the region's fortunes gradually turned around. Spain's first industrial revolution, based on cotton, was launched there, and other industries based on wine, cork and iron also developed. By the 1830s, the European Romantic movement virtually rescued Catalan culture and language just as it was in danger of disappearing. The Catalan Renaixença, or Renaissance, was a crusade led by poets and writers to popularise the people's language. A fervent nationalist movement sprang up around the same time, and was embraced by all parties of the political spectrum.

Modern history

The decades around the turn of the 20th century were a fast ride, with anarchists, Republicans, bourgeois regionalists, gangsters, police terrorists, political gunmen called pistoleros and centrists in Madrid all clamouring for a slice of the action. This followed an explosion in Barcelona's population - from around 115,000 in 1800 to more than half a million by 1900, then over a million by 1930 - as workers flocked in for industrial jobs. As many as 80% of the city's workers embraced the anarchist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) by the end of WWI, and industrial relations hit an all-time low during a wave of strikes in 1919-20 when employers hired assassins to kill union leaders.

Within days of Spain's Second Republic forming in 1931, a coalition of leftists and Catalan nationalists under the moniker Esquerra Republicana di Catalunya (ERC) won the election and soon declared a republic within an 'Iberian Federation'. In 1934 the regional ERC government proclaimed a Catalan state, triggering the arrest of key government figures. In 1936, in the face of rising ultra-right popularity, the ERC joined forces with other leftist groups across the country to form the Popular Front, which convincingly won elections of that year. In May 1937 infighting between factions of the municipal government - notably communists, anarchists and the POUM - exploded into a three-day street fight that killed at least 1500 people.

The Republican effort across Spain was troubled by similar infighting, which destroyed any chance they may have had of defeating Franco's fascist militia. Barcelona, the last stronghold of the Republicans, fell to Franco's forces in January 1939, and the war ended a few months later. Thousands of Catalans fled across the border to France, Andorra and further afield.

Franco wasted no time in banning the Catalan language and flooding the region with impoverished immigrants from Andalucía in the vain hope that the pesky Catalans, with their continual movements for independence, would be swamped. But the plan soured somewhat when the migrants' children and grandchildren turned out to be more Catalan than the Catalans. Franco even banned one of the Catalans' joyful expressions of national unity, the sardana, a public circle dance.

But they'd barely turned the last sods on El Caudillo's grave when Catalonia burst out again in an effort to recreate itself as a nation. Catalan was revived with a vengeance and the Generalitat, or local parliament, was reinstated. Catalonia was granted limited autonomy in 1980 and today people gather all over town several times a week to dance the sardana. While there's still talk of independence, it remains just talk.

Recent history

The 1992 Olympics spurred a burst of public works, bringing new life to areas such as Montjuïc, where the major events were held, and the once-shabby waterfront. The impetus has barely let up. The Fòrum area on the northeast waterfront has been transformed from wasteland into a high-rise residential and congress district with a new marina. Other spectacular buildings, such as Jean Nouvel's Torre Agbar, are just part of a continuing program of urban transformation: Toyo Ito is designing two landmark twisting towers for the new Fira 2 trade fair; Lord Richard Rogers has added the landmark business hotel, Hesperia Tower, in L'Hospitalet; and local boy Ricard Bofill is creating an 88m spinnaker-shaped hotel on the Mediterranean shoreline at the southern end of the Barceloneta beaches.

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There are plenty of opportunities for exercise in this healthy, sports-keen city. If you're a golfer, you'll be itching to play in Spain, one of the capitals of the game. The seafront is the best spot for jogging, walking, skating and blading.

Barcelona enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with cool winters and hot summers. If it's sun you're after, the best months to go are May, June and September. The heat is at its harshest in July and August, with highs sometimes reaching the mid-30°s C (90°F).

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Transport

Getting there and away

If you're flying to Barcelona, the airport is 12km (7.5mi) southwest of the city centre. It's a fairly busy airport and receives many direct flights from North America and Europe.

Alternatively you can catch an international train to Barcelona. Buses are a cheaper, less comfortable way of getting there. For something a little different, you can get to Barcelona via ferry from the Balearic Islands and Italy.

Getting around

The metro is probably the swiftest and easiest way to get around inner areas, and buses or suburban trains to travel a little further out. Buses service the airport and can get you into town pretty efficiently.

Obviously, in a town like Barcelona your boots are made for walking but hiring a bike can be handy too, despite the sometimes hair-raising traffic. Speaking of which, driving in Barcelona is a frustrating business, so utilise the public transport or snag one of the many taxis available if you really need private wheels.

Health & Legal Requirements

Dangers and annoyances

It cannot be stressed enough that newcomers to Barcelona must be on their guard. Petty theft is a problem in the city centre, on public transport and around main sights. Report thefts to the national police. You are unlikely to recover your goods but you will need to make this formal denuncia for insurance purposes. To avoid endless queues at the comisaría (police station), you can make the report by phone (tel: 902 102112) in various languages or on the web at www.policia.es (in Spanish; click on 'Denuncias'). The following day you go to the station of your choice to pick up and sign the report, without queuing. You can also report losses to the Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra (www.gencat.net/mossos, in Catalan). They have a handy (and busy) police station (Carrer Nou de la Rambla 80) near La Rambla. You could also try the Guàrdia Urbana (local police; La Rambla 43).