Barcelona, Streets - 16

by AM FineArtPrints

Title

Barcelona, Streets - 16

Artist

AM FineArtPrints

Medium

Painting - Painting

Description

Barcelona, Streets - 16

Barcelona is a city of 1,620,809 inhabitants (institutional metropolitan area: 3,239,337 inhabitants) of Spain, the capital of Catalonia, an autonomous community of the north-eastern part of the state, as well as of the homonymous province and of the Barcelarès region. Dubbed Ciutat Comtal or Ciudad Condal (City of Counts), it is the second largest city in Spain after the capital Madrid.

In 1992 it was home to the Summer Olympic Games. In 2004 the Universal Forum of Cultures was held for the first time, the city hosted the International Exhibition of 1888 and that of 1929, and is the fixed location of the Mobile World Congress and the Union for the Mediterranean. Strong of tourism, of the port and of the proximity to France (160 km from Le Perthus), the city is the second largest industrial and financial center of Spain after Madrid, as well as the largest commercial and tourist port and one of the largest in Europe.

According to legend, the founder of the city of Barcelona was the Carthaginian Amilcare Barca, father of Hannibal. In reality, the existence of a Punic Barcelona could never be proved, just as the birth and development of a Greek settlement in the immediate vicinity of the city does not seem to have much more foundation. It is probable that the first inhabitants of Barcino, founded around 300 BC, were of the people of Iberian origin.

Subsequently, the Romans reorganized the city as a castrum (a military camp), located in Mons Taber, a hill where today the town hall stands on one side and the headquarters of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Plaça de Sant Jaume) on the other. The city was christened by the Romans under the name of Colonia Iulia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. The ancient organization of the streets is still visible in the maps of the historic center and in the Roman walls that have remained standing. It is believed that Barcino also had an amphitheater, probably located near the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.

The city was then conquered by the Visigoths in the fifth century, by the Moors in the eighth century, by the Franks, led by Ludovico il Pio, in the year 801. The latter made it the capital of the countryside of Barcelona. It was then sacked by the hajib omayyade Almanzor in 985.

From the tenth century Barcelona lived a long period of prosperity that continued even when, in 1137, for a game of alliances, the count became king of Aragon, and the city the most representative center of the kingdom and capital of the Principality of Catalonia. Barcelona became one of the major ports of the Mediterranean Sea (its merchants and ship owners rivaled the Genoese); the center was enriched with sumptuous gothic buildings and, between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, two new city walls strengthened its medieval heart.

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September 10th, 2019

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