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Barcelona
About Barcelona
Barcelona is the capital city of Catalonia, a region in Spain, located 160 km south of the Pyrenees mountain range, along the Mediterranean coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs. One of the most notable features of Barcelona is the city's great architectural richness from the Gothic quarter to the Eixample and Modernisme with the famous work by Gaudi, architecture constructed for the Universal Exhibition of 1929, and finally the most recent architecture like the faculty buildings in Barcelona's university campus area, and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics projects. Barcelona is also a city of festivals like the Sónar Festival of Advanced Musics and Multimedia Art, the Festival of Contemporany Musics, the Barcelona Guitar Festival, the Barcelona International Jazz Festival and the International Festival of Visual Theatre and Puppets. Not to forget Barcelona also is a city of great traditions like Carnival and festivities of Festa Major, the Festivities of the Mercè, Santa Eulàlia, Sant Jordi, Sant Joan, and the Christmas cavalvade of the Reis-the Three Kings. Did we already mention that Barcelona is renowned for its parks and open spaces? Try La Rambla, Parc Güell and its lovely beaches.
Local highlights
Explore the city!
- Visit Plaça de Sant Jaume inside the city's Roman walls
- Follow La Rambla boulevard from the city centre to the waterfront, crowded with florists, bird sellers, craft sellers, street entertainers, cafeterias and restaurants. See the world-famous opera house El Liceu, the food market of La Boqueria and the Plaça Reial.
- Visit the old harbour with medieval Drassanes (shipyards), Maitime Museum and the statue of Christopher Columbus
- See the Gothic quarter around the Plaça del Rei, with its churches, houses, palaces, chapels and the Cathedral
- See the many 16th, 17th and 18th century churches like Betlem, the Mare de Déu de la Mercè, the Casa de la Caritat, the Palau de la Virreina, the Labyrinth in Horta
- Visit Barcelona's Eixample or New Town a project by Ildefons Cerdà
- See the Moll de la Fusta and the area around the Palau de Mar to the Rambla de Mar and the Olympic Port area-Barcelona's most popular places for recreation and leisure
- The beaches of Sant Sebastià, La Barceloneta, Nova Icària, Bogatell, Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella, stretching more than four kilometers
- Collserola park-a metropolitan forest with some 10 million trees, four educational facilities, some old farmhouses and chapels, and the Rural Life Museum.
- For spectacular views over the city and the coast line go to Montjuïc hill with an old fortress overlooking the harbor. Or you can take the Tibidabo hill with an amusement park at the top. (which, after a long economic struggle, now belongs to the city council) and a monumental church on its summit. The church mosaics provide a curious example of the religious art style much in vogue during the dictatorship. Alternatively the Torre de Collserola, a telecommunications tower designed by Norman Foster which also has a windowed balcony with a great view over the city.
Explore the rich cultural heritage of Barcelona, such as
- The Sagrada Família church
- See the Museu Marítim with the full-scale model of a galley
- Museo Picasso
- Fundación Joan Miró
- Fundació Antoni Tàpies with a collection of Tapies works
- Museu d'Història de la Ciutat
- The Palau Nacional (a Unesco World Heritage Site) with the National Museum of Art of Catalonia
- The Contemporary Art Museum
- Hospital de Sant Pau (a Unesco World Heriatage Site) in the Eixample, designed by the Catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner
- See the work of Gaudí: the Sagrada Família(Nativity façade and crypt), the Casa Milà-La Pedrera, the Casa Vicenç, the Casa Batlló, Parc Güell and Palau Güell in the city's old center
- See the work by Puig i Cadafalch (the Amatller and Martí houses, the Palau Macaya) and Domènech i Montaner (the Hospital of Sant Pau, the Palau de la Música Catalana)
Highlights in the vicinity
- Figueres-home of the Salvador Dali museum Montserrat with the monastery nestled high in the mountains Sitges-a lovely beach town 35 km south of Barcelona Girona with its narrow streets and the ancient Jewish section.
Good to know
- No. of inhabitants: 1.6 Million
- Timezone: UTC +1
- Emergency tel. number: 112
Local transport
- Metro
- Bus Turistic links all of Barcelona’s tourist sites
- Try the 1450 metre long harbour aerial tramway
- Bicycle: try the Diagonal bike lane (can be very busy on workdays). Bicycles are permitted on the underground at weekends, and during the week you can take your bike on the underground from 5:00 to 6:00, from 9:30 to 16:30 and then from 20:30 till closing time. And don’t forget the route along the city's seafront!
- Tips
- Try a trip from el Gòtic to la Barceloneta
- El Born-the city's trendiest neighborhood.
- Parc de the Ciutadella with its spontaneous rhythms and dances from all over the world
- La Barceloneta-the old fisherman's neighborhood with traditional seafood restaurants
Inbound transport
- Nearest airport: El Prat International Airport ('El Prat') in the town of El Prat de Llobregat
- Trains: Barcelona is a hub for RENFE, the Spanish state railway network
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