Barcelona City - Local Travel information and City Guide » City Info » History

The beautiful city of Barcelona was established on the Mediterranean coast a few thousand years ago. Various dynasties with immense cultural impact invaded the city that has contributed to the varied history of Barcelona. The influence of Romans, Arabs, and Christians across the city is felt prominently to date.

Archaeological remains and literary evidence provide a brief idea about the various periods that ruled Barcelona. These periods could be seen as under:

Roman Barcelona

Across the 1st century A.D., Romans established small colonies around the Taber mount and on the site of the old Iberian villages. Though these cities were small, they did form a compact & well-linked network covering almost the entire country.

Between the fourth century and the thirteenth century, the city nucleus founded by the Romans was pooled, leading to Barcelona's actual expansion, which later gave a definitive shape to the city. Today, whoever visits the city can find the Barcino remains an excellent example and trace of Roman walls.

During the 13th and 14th century the Catalonian Empire was a great power in the Mediterranean area, and Barcelonans dominated sea trade to a great extent.

Gothic Barcelona

Barcelona city flourished with the Roman culture and perpetuated till the dawn of the 14th century, both socially and politically, on equal terms. It then witnessed the formation of a Gothic city around its statistical and political centre by creating architectural formation-like walls across the city.

At the same time, Barcelona did witness growth in the form of merchants, traders, artisans, navigators, and professionals in almost all spheres of areas that gave a noteworthy contribution to the enhancement of the social status of the city.

The Gothic Area is a historical object of the assets of Barcelona's expansive era. With all its bravura medieval buildings, the city is one of its kind in Europe.

Modernist Barcelona

The public statement of the new Cadiz constitution in 1812 was a remarkable event in the history of Barcelona that led a platform to many other critical historic announcements of the city. Also, the inner tensions of the city did change the course of its political and geographical condition.

The city faced much destruction due to the struggles that brutally ruined many of its fantastic masterpieces, like the Roman walls that protected the city for quite a long time. Amongst the rest, the destruction of the Ciutadella Militar is one of the major ones.

Barcelona unarguably remains a city of disparity, from the Gothic Quarter built on Roman ruins to its Art Noveau Eixample district dominated by Gaudí's exuberant architecture.

The Eixample – Barcelona

During the 19th century, Barcelona city expanded to a remarkable extent with an increase in its population. Design engineer Idelfons Cerdà's plan was followed to extend the city in Catalan Eixample. Though the construction began in 1860, blocks were erected to construct houses that were thought to contain enough open and green spaces, but it was hardly followed. The final creations were poles apart from the original plan of Cerda. However, Eixample is still an excellent example of utopian civil engineering that fetch many tourists to date.

Anarchy also flourished to quite a large extent in Barcelona & Spain throughout the 19th century that concluded in several bomb attacks on bishops & even military people killing many.

Barcelona of the 21st century

The '92 Olympics formed and altered the city of Barcelona to a remarkable extent & brought it out of the devastating historical past to a tremendous international status that it holds today.

Barcelona- the city that we see today has evolved with the changing times, keeping a perfect balance with its culture, times of yore & traditions that positively accepted a cosmopolitan outlook to other cultures with an open mind.

The city is Europe's one of the most fervently progressing cities that embrace a promising future.