Barcelona is in the southeastern corner of Spain. It is the principle city of the once (and future?) country of Catalunya. Catalunya, alone and through various treaties, even had its own empire, albeit small and short lived. And before King John of England was forced to by the barons to cede some control, the Catalan Prince signed a document far more reaching in the establishment of democracy.
The oldest parts of the city are down by the waterfront. The Bari Gotic is surrounded by other small districts and pretty much made up the whole of the town until the nineteenth century. There are several buildings in the Bari Gotic that date from as early as the 10th century. But starting almost 200 years ago, Barcelona began a great expansion called the Eixample. It was built according to a plan by one of the city’s great architects (whose name I can’t remember). The plan called for the construction of great city blocks of apartment buildings, with commercial establishments on the ground floor, the centers of the blocks open for sun, air, lawn and gardens for the residents and the block’s corners all cut off at 45º to accommodate great traffic circles. The traffic circles have given way to modern stoplights. Many of the buildings were built during the Art Nuveau period and all have the ubiquitous, and famous, balconies with wrought iron railings.
A spider web of boulevards crisscrosses Barcelona. These Passeig (PAH-sah) are wide with one or two lanes for motor traffic on each side of a tree lined center strip for bike traffic, pedestrians or both. We took pictures of the bike lanes for our anti-motor vehicle crusader son, Peter. A lot of the walking Connie and I did – 7 to 8 miles a day – was under the trees of these avenues. The most famous passeigh is the Ramblas.
Throughout its history, Barcelona has been one of the most liberal places on the planet. The area was one of the last to hold out against Franco during the Spanish Civil War and he made them pay. He even went so far as to ban the Catalan flag and language. He had his own building phase and though the many apartment buildings aren’t quite as grim as Soviet Union construction, the outer rim of Barcelona claims no part of the architectural fame and beauty the city is known for.
Finally, there is an argument for Catalan being the first Romance language. Many Roman soldiers retired to Spain, with the higher-ranking vets preferring the north and central parts of the country and the enlisted men preferring the south. It’s argued that the Romans in the north resisted the effect of the local language on their Latin while those in the south were more amenable to change.