BARCELONA

Area (Km²) 98,2
Altitude (m.) 18
Distance to capital (km) 625
Northern boundary Montcada i Reixac,
Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Sant Adrià de Besòs Southern boundary El Prat de LlobregatEastern boundary Mar Mediterráneo

Barcelona is a north European city in the South( Spain), white industrious, middle-class, but also traditionalist, popular, and Mediterranean with a pleasant climate. The tension between tradition and progress characterizes both the city and its almost two million inhabitants. Barcelona is set on a plain that gently descends from Sierra de Collserola (with its highest mountain, Tibidabo, 512 metres) to the sea. Its political and civic centre lies in plaza de Saint Jaume, where City Hall and the Generalitat building (Catalan government) can be found.

The second-largest city in the country, is Spain's major commercial and industrial centre and one of the most important Mediterranean ports.

The Spanish are very funny, they like eating, speaking, and dancing. Because of this, Spain is a country is the big one in number of restaurants per inhabitants ; the typical foods are "paella"

and "tortilla". The parties are very famous too, beginning at 23h pm and finishing in the morning.

One traditional costume is a "siesta" , the time of all closed ( between 12h pm and 5h pm.)

Barcelona has the beautiful Gothic architecture and has a museum with a fine collection of Picasso. The old cathedral, the Episcopal Palace, the Palau de la Generalitat and the Plaça del Rei have architecture to rival the Baroque splendours of central Europe.

The Ramblas is a wonderful tour, they are home to food, flower and bird markets and are lined by bookstalls. Beyond Plaça Catalunya, the Eixample (Ensanche), whose name means

Museums worth visiting include the Picasso Museum, the Museum of Catalan Art, the Maritime Museum, the Peldralbes Monastery housing a Thyssen collection and the Zoological Museum.

Like most towns and cities in Catalonia, Barcelona is famous for its excellent Romanesque art; and of course it contains the most famous examples of the work of the visionary Catalan architect, Antonio Gaudí, which views over the city

The funicular to Tibidabo, the highest of the peaks that enclose Barcelona, and the cable car to Montjuic in the southern suburbs, offer spectacular views over the city. Fun fairs are located on this places.

Gaudí was born in the 1850s, and began work at the age of 32 on what is now one of the world's most extraordinary churches, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Statues portraying biblical scenes are sculpted into the walls of the building, and although unfinished (Gaudí died while work was still in progress)

the people of Barcelona are intensely proud of it. Now a century old, construction still continues, and this fact is a local debate. Overlooking the city and the port, Parc Güell

was conceived as a garden city. It was never completed, but the park features exquisite tiled pavilions and fountains. The walkways stand on curious sculpted pillars and are flanked by throne-like stone seats.

Art & Culture

BARCELONA