GENERAL INFORMATION

Barcelona, is the capital and most populous city of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,605,602 in 2006. It is located on the Mediterranean coast (  41°23′N, 2°11′E), between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and is limited to the west by the Serra de Collserola ridge (512 m/1,680 ft).

Barcelona is a major economic centre, with one of Europe's principal Mediterranean ports, and Barcelona International Airport is the second largest in Spain. Founded as a Roman city, Barcelona became the capital of the Counts of Barcelona and the Crown of Aragon. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination and has a rich cultural heritage. Particularly renowned are architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner that have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

As the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona houses the seat of the Catalan government, known as the Generalitat de Catalunya; of particular note are the executive branch, the parliament and the Supreme Court of Catalonia. The city is also the capital of the county (comarca) of the Barcelonès


GEOGRAPHY

The Mediterranean Sea nudges the coast of the city of Barcelona, while the Collserola ridge (part of the Serralada Litoral) borders the west of the city, with pine and oak woodland, fields and meadows, as well as wetland vegetation.

The Catalan capital, 166 kilometres from the French border and 120 kilometres south of the Pyrenees, is on a plain bordered by two rivers: the Llobregat in the south and the Besòs in the north.

Barcelona, in the area closest to the Serralada Litoral, is dotted with small hills (Monterols, Putget, Carmel, Rovira and Peira), and was once full of streams and small marshes. The promontory of Montjuïc is also by the coast, rising to a height of 191.7 metres.

Barcelona has a surface area of 100.4 square kilometres, forming part of the Barcelonès County, along with Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Badalona and Sant Adrià to the north, and Hospitalet de Llobregat along the southern border of the city.

The climate in Barcelona is typically Mediterranean. Summers are hot and humid, winters mild, and most of the rainfall is in spring and autumn. The average annual temperature for 2005, according to the Observatori de Can Bruixa, was 17.6 degrees Celsius.

HISTORY

The foundation of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to Hercules 400 years before the building of Rome, and that it was rebuilt by the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BC. The second legend attributes the foundation directly to Hamilcar Barca.

About 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum (Roman military camp) centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill near the contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Under the Romans it was a colony, with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. Mela mentions it among the small towns of the district, probably as it was eclipsed by its neighbour Tarraco (modern Tarragona); but it may be gathered from later writers that it gradually grew in wealth and consequence, favoured as it was with a beautiful situation and an excellent harbour. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens.The city minted its own coins; some from the era of Galba survive.

Some important Roman ruins are exposed under the Plaça del Rei, entrance by the city museum (Museu d'Història de la Ciutat), and the typically Roman grid-planning is still visible today in the layout of the historical centre, the Barri Gòtic ("Gothic Quarter"). Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral.The cathedral, also known as basilica La Seu is said to have been founded in 343. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early fifth century, by the Moors in the early eighth century, reconquered from the emir in 801 by Charlemagne's son Louis who made Barcelona the seat of Carolingian "Spanish Marches" (Marca Hispanica), a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona. Barcelona was still a Christian frontier territory when it was sacked by Al-Mansur in 985.

The Counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include all of Catalonia, later the Crown of Aragon which conquered many overseas possessions, ruling the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories in Naples and Sicily and as far as Athens in the thirteenth century. The forging of a dynastic link between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline.


CITY DISTRIBUTION

Barcelona, with a population census of 1,593,075 on 1 January 2005, is divided into ten administrative districts, each one with its own district council, which allows a decentralised, local administration, closer to the residents.

The ten city districts are Ciutat Vella, Eixample, Sants-Montjuïc, Les Corts, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Gràcia, Horta-Guinardó, Nou Barris, Sant Andreu and Sant Martí.

This division of the city has its roots based on the history of the city. Ciutat Vella is the old centre of the city and the Eixample is where the city expanded after the city walls were knocked down. The other districts correspond to municipal areas which were around the old city, outside the walls, and which became part of Barcelona during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Each district is divided into different wards, each with its own personality and historic traditions.


CURRENCY

The euro (€) is the official currency of thirteen of the 27 member states of the European Union. Spain is one of these, therefore the official currency in Barcelona, since 1 January 2001, has been the euro.


LANGUAGE

Catalan is the official language of Catalonia, according to the Statute of Catalonia and the Spanish Constitution, together with Castilian, the official language of Spain.

People have the right to use both official languages, and citizens of Catalonia have the right and the obligation to know them.

The two languages exist in a bilingual situation in Barcelona, similar to situations in other parts of the world. Catalan and Castilian are the languages understood, written, read and spoken by the majority of the population of Barcelona.

The city is open to the co-existence of, and dialogue between, different languages. The importance of tourism, and the fact that Barcelona overflows with many different cultures, means that other languages, such as English, French, Italian, German and different Arabic and Asian languages, are all heard on the streets in the city.

MUSEUMS

In the majority of shops, museums, cultural and social centres and venues in the city, the languages most commonly used for signs, notices and information are the two official languages and English, a fact which enriches the socio-cultural fabric and the everyday life of Barceloneans.

Barcelona houses a great number of museums, which cover different areas and eras. The National Museum of Art of Catalonia possesses a well-known collection of Romanesque art while the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art focuses on post-1945 Catalan and Spanish art. The Fundació Joan Miró, Picasso Museum and Fundació Antoni Tàpies hold important collections of these world-renowned artists.

Several museums cover the fields of history and archeology, like the City History Museum, the Museum of the History of Catalonia, the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia, the Barcelona Maritime Museum and the private-owned Egiptian Museum. The Erotic museum of Barcelona is among the most peculiar ones, while Cosmocaixa is a science museum that received the European Museum of the Year Award

ARCHITECTURE

The Barri Gòtic ("Gothic Quarter" in Catalan) is the centre of the old city of Barcelona. Many of the buildings date from medieval times, some from as far back as the Roman settlement of Barcelona. Catalan modernisme architecture (often known as Art Nouveau in the rest of Europe), developed between 1885 and 1950 and left an important legacy in Barcelona. A great number of these buildings are World Heritage Sites. Especially remarkable is the work of architect Antoni Gaudí, which can be seen throughout the city. His best known work is the immense but still unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882, and is still financed by private donations. As of 2007, completion is planned for 2026.

Barcelona won the 1999 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for its architecture,the first (and as of 2007, only) time that the winner has been a city, and not an individual architect.

TRANSPORTATION AND INFRAESTRUCTURES

AIRPORTS

Barcelona is served by Barcelona International Airport in the town of El Prat de Llobregat, about 3 km (2 mi) from Barcelona. It is the second-largest airport in Spain, and the largest on the Mediterranean coast. It is a main hub for Vueling Airlines and Clickair, and also a focus for Spanair, Air Europa and Iberia. The airport mainly serves domestic and European destinations, but some airlines offer destinations in Asia and the United States. The airport is connected to the city by highway, commuter train and scheduled bus service. The airport handled 32,800,570 passengers in 2007. A new terminal is being built, and it is expected to enter service in 2008.

Sabadell Airport is a smaller airport in the nearby town of Sabadell, devoted to pilot training, advertising flights, aerotaxi and private flights. Some low-cost airlines, like Ryanair and Martinair, prefer to use Girona-Costa Brava Airport, situated about 90 km (56 mi) to the north of Barcelona and Reus Airport, situated 77 km (48 mi) to the south.

SEAPORT

The Port of Barcelona has a 2000-year history and a great contemporary commercial importance. It is Europe's ninth largest container port, with a trade volume of 2.3 million TEU's in 2006. The port is managed by the Port Authority of Barcelona. Its 7.86 km² (3 sq mi) are divided into three zones: Port Vell (the Old Port), the commercial port and the logistics port (Barcelona Free Port). The port is undergoing an enlargement that will double its size thanks to diverting the mouth of the Llobregat river 2 km (1¼ mi) to the south.

The Port Vell area also houses the Maremagnum (a commercial mall), a multiplex cinema, the IMAX Port Vell and an aquarium.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Barcelona is served by a comprehensive local public transport network that includes a metro, a bus network, two separate tram networks (one of them, the Tramvia Blau, connects to the Tibidabo funicular), and several funiculars and aerial cable cars. The Barcelona Metro network comprises nine lines, identified by an "L" followed by the line number as well as by individual colours. Most of the network is operated by the Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), but three lines are FGC commuter lines that run through the city. When finished, the L9 will be the second longest underground metro line in Europe with 42.6 km; only shorter than London's 76 km Central Line.

The TMB also operates the city's tram networks, known as Trambaix and Trambesòs, and the city's daytime bus network, as well as a tourist bus service. The night bus network, known as Nitbus, is operated by Mohn. Transports Ciutat Comtal operates the regular Tomb Bus (along the Diagonal avenue) and Aerobus (to the airport) services. Other companies operate services that connect the city with towns in the metropolitan area.

The Funicular de Montjuïc climbs the Montjuïc hill. The Vallvidrera and Funicular de Tibidabo funiculars climb the Tibidabo hill. The city has two aerial cable cars: one to the Montjuïc castle and another that runs via Torre Jaume I and Torre Sant Sebastia over the port.

Barcelona is a major hub for RENFE, the Spanish state railway network, and its main intercity train station is Barcelona-Sants station. The AVE high-speed rail system was recently extended from Madrid to Tarragona in southern Catalonia, and is expected to reach Barcelona by 2007. Renfe cercanías/rodalies and the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) run Barcelona's widespread commuter train service.

The Estació del Nord (Northern Station), a former train station that was renovated for the 1992 Olympic Games, now serves as the terminus for long-distance and regional bus services.

Barcelona has a metered taxi fleet governed by the Institut Metropolità del Taxi (Metropolitan Taxi Institute), composed of more than 10,000 cars. Most of the licenses are in the hands of self-employed drivers.With their black and yellow livery, Barcelona's taxis are easily spotted.

On March 22, 2007[43], Barcelona's City Council started the Bicing service, a bicycle service understood as a public transport. Once the user has their user card, they can take a bicycle from any of the 100 stations spread around the city and use it anywhere the urban area of the city, and then leave it at another station. The service has been a success, with 50,000 subscribed users in three months.