| Legend attributes the Carthaginian
foundation of Barcino to Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal. About
15 BC, Romans redrew the town as a castrum (a Roman military camp)
centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill nearby the
contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). The Roman
Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino was outshone by
the province's capital Tarragona but some important Roman remains
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 on the map of the historical
centre, the Barri Gótic ("Gothic Quarter"). Some
remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated
in the cathedral butted up against them
The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early 5th century,
by the Moors in the early 8th 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 formed the
Crown of Aragon who conquered many overseas possessions, ruling
the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories as far
as Athens in the 13th century. The forging of a dynastic link
between the Crown of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of
Barcelona's decline.
The city was devastated after the Catalonian Republic of 1640
- 1652, and again during the War of the Spanish Succession in
1714. King Philip V of Spain demolished half of the merchants'
quarter (La Ribera) to build a military citadel, as a way of both
punishing and controlling the rebel city. Official use of Catalan
language was forbidden, and the University withdrew.
Barcelona and the province of Catalonia were annexed by the French
Empire of Napoleon after he invaded Spain and put his brother
Joseph on the Spanish throne. It was returned to Spain after Napoleon's
downfall.
During the 19th century, Barcelona grew with the industrial revolution
and the introduction of many new industries. During a period of
weaker control by the Madrid authorities, the medieval walls were
torn down and the citadel of La Ribera was converted into an urban
park: the modern Parc de la Ciutadella, site of the 1888 "Universal
Exposition" (World's Fair). The exposition also left behind
the Arc de Triomf and the Museu de Zoologia (a building originally
used during the fair as a cafe-restaurant). The fields that had
surrounded the artificially constricted city became the Eixample
("extension"), a bustling modern city surrounding the
old.
Famous people who have lived and worked in Barcelona include:
Master Painters Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí,
Antoni Tàpies, Enrique Tábara, Eugenio Granell,
Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares, Juan Villafuerte; Architect Antoni
Gaudí. |
