Barcelona, Catalonia 作者： 来源： 发布时间：2021-03-16
1. Population and Area
Pop: 7,522,596 (city)
Area: 32,108 km2 (munip.)
Elev: 13 masl
Barcelona location in Spain within the community of Catalonia
https://goo.gl/maps/1BC71WD41tSbKHSd9
2. Natural geography
Nature and weather
Topography
Located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona sits on a gently sloping plain formed between the fluvial deltas of the Llobregat rivers, to the southwest, and Besós, to the northeast. It limits to the southeast with the coast line, and in the northwest with the Collserola mountain range (with the Tibidabo summit of 516 m asl as the highest point), which continues parallel to the coast line, encasing the city in a very limited perimeter.
Barcelona's coastline has changed over time to the point that in prehistoric times it reached where Plaza de Catalunya is located today. The land on which Barceloneta was based did not exist a century and a half before the construction of this neighborhood. These lands are the result of the accumulation of sand sediments dragged by the marine currents coming from the north and that would be contained by the breakwater of the port built in 1640, and that ended up joining the old island of Maians (where the station of Francia) with the mainland, forming the base land of Barceloneta.
The part of Barcelona closest to the coastal mountains is dotted with small peaks, some of which are urbanized, and others crowned by parks, such as Carmelo (265.6 meters), Monterols (127.3 meters), and Putxet ( 182.7 meters), the Rovira (206.8 meters) and the Turó de la Peira (138 meters). But the best-known peak in Barcelona, just above the coastline and separating the city from the Llobregat delta, is the Montjuic mountain (184.8 meters) .21 Finally, mention the promontory of only 16.9 m where the historic nucleus of the city, Mount Táber, is located.
Flora and fauna
Catalonia is a showcase of European landscapes on a small scale. Just over 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 square miles) hosting a variety of substrates, soils, climates, directions, altitudes and distances to the sea. The area is of great ecological diversity and a remarkable wealth of landscapes, habitats and species.
The fauna of Catalonia comprises a minority of animals endemic to the region and a majority of non-native animals. Much of Catalonia enjoys a Mediterranean climate (except mountain areas), which makes many of the animals that live there adapted to Mediterranean ecosystems. Of mammals, there are plentiful wild boar, red foxes, as well as roe deer and in the Pyrenees, the Pyrenean chamois. Other large species such as the bear have been recently reintroduced.
Waters of Balearic Sea are rich in biodiversity, and even the megafaunas of ocean; various type of whales (such as fin, sperm, and pilot) and dolphins live within the area.
Köppen Classification: Mediterranean Climate
Under the Köppen Climate Classification climate classification, "dry-summer subtropical" climates are often referred to as "Mediterranean". This climate zone has an an average temperature above 10°C (50°F) in their warmest months, and an average in the coldest between 18 to -3°C (64 to 27°F). Summers tend to be dry with less than one-third that of the wettest winter month, and with less than 30mm (1.18 in) of precipitation in a summer month. Many of the regions with Mediterranean climates have relatively mild winters and very warm summers.
The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Csa". (Mediterran Climate).
The average temperature for the year in Barcelona is 59.9°F (15.5°C). The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of 74.5°F (23.6°C). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 48.0°F (8.9°C).
The highest recorded temperature in Barcelona is 93.0°F (33.9°C), which was recorded in July. The lowest recorded temperature in Barcelona is 19.0°F (-7.2°C), which was recorded in January.
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Barcelona is 25.2" (640.1 mm). The month with the most precipitation on average is October with 3.6" (91.4 mm) of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of 0.8" (20.3 mm). There are an average of 55.0 days of precipitation, with the most precipitation occurring in October with 6.0 days and the least precipitation occurring in July with 2.0 days.
In terms of liquid precipitation, there are an average of 102.0 days of rain, with the most rain occurring in April with 10.0 days of rain, and the least rain occurring in July with 6.0 days of rain.
http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=18180&cityname=Barcelona%2C+Catalonia%2C+Spain&units=
Getting there and around
Get there
By plane – Low-cost carriers include Norwegian, Jet2.com, Vueling (a discount subsidiary of Iberia), Wizz Air, easyJet, Ryanair, Blue Air, Transavia, Germanwings, TUI Fly among others.
Barcelona-El Prat International Airport (IATA: BCN, ICAO: LEBL), is a major transport hub and flights land from all over Europe and beyond. The airport is only about 12-14 km away from the city centre.
By car – There are several main roads leading to Barcelona from France and Spain and traffic is usually relatively light outside of peak hours. It is possible to find free parking spaces a few metro stops from the centre of the city.
Blue parking spaces must be paid for M-Sa 09:00-14:00 and 16:00-18:00. At some crossroads the free time ends at 08:00. Anyone can use a blue space, but they aren't that easy to find. You pay at the meter and put the ticket on the dashboard. Green parking spaces are for residents only. White parking spaces are free at all times but there aren't any in the city centre.
The city car parks have some special offers for tourists.
By train – A cheap and fast option is the half-hourly RENFE R2 Nord suburban train line calling at Sants (travel time is 18 min), Passeig de Gràcia (24 min), El Clot-Aragó (30 min) and more stations beyond Barcelona city limits. Please be advised that this airport train has changed, and no longer terminates at Estació de França (it now goes through the centre of Barcelona and into the suburbs, so it is important to know at which station you should get off). The train terminates next to T2 by section B, with a connecting green coloured bus service to T1 (plan for an extra 15 min of travel). The airport train station has got facilities for disabled people: escalators, lifts, etc. A single ticket for the train is €6.30 (January 2018), but you can also buy a T-Casual travelcard (€11.35 for ten trips over any period of time; each of those trips includes 3 bus, metro, train or tramway transfers made within 75 min) instead. You can buy a T-Casual from the ticket vending machine at the airport station and at the tobacco shop in front of Terminal 2B; you can buy a T-Casual travelcard at Terminal 1 in the tobacco shop just outside the arrival lounge exit.
If you arrive at T1, you'll need to catch the free airport transfer bus (it goes from T1 to T2B then T2C then loops again to T1) and stops right next to the Aerobus stop. The ride is at least 10 minutes long. Get off the bus, head into the terminal, follow the sign to Renfe, go up the escalators, leave the terminal building, go through the overhead pass until you get to the train station. About a 10-20-minute walk. Buy the T-Casual pass and use it to access the station.
Don't rely on trains if your flight arrives after 11 pm: the last suburban train's departure time is 23:38 (January 2018).
By bus – Barcelona Nord, ☎ +34 902 260 606. Contact for all bus connections, national (e.g. 18 buses per day from Madrid) and international.
Megabus: run coach services between Barcelona Estacion del Norte and London Victoria Coach Station, via Paris and Toulouse. They also connect to Amsterdam, Cologne, Brussels and many UK cities. They can be very cheap but be prepared for a 24-26-hour coach ride from London! Also note the 50p booking fee. They nominally provide UK plug sockets (one shared between two people - they also have a USB port for charging phones) and free wifi on board, but the plug sockets are unreliable and wifi only works while in the UK and Spain. Passengers should be at departure point at least 30 minutes before departure time (except London Victoria where you are required to arrive 60 minutes before departure).
By metro – The airport is linked to Barcelona by Line 9 of the Barcelona Metro with a station in each terminal, the Aeroport T1 station situated directly underneath the airport terminal T1 and the Aeroport T2 station close to the Aeroport rail station at the terminal T2. The line connects with several Barcelona Metro lines to the city center. Going to the airport Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 stations is charged with an extra of 4.5 euros if you are traveling with a single ticket or with a T-Casual pass. The airport charge can be paid before exiting the metro. No need to pay the fee if you are traveling with daily, monthly, quarterly or Hola BCN! tickets.
Rideshare – Check out Blabla Car's carpooling service for rideshare options between Madrid and the city you are visiting. A great option if you don't have a driver's license or want to avoid public transport.
COVID19 – International entry into Spain: partially open
Non-essential travel is open with certain safety requirements. 1.5m social distancing and use of masks are mandatory within Spain.
Some COVID-19 travel conditions may apply in Spain and transport services are subject to change.
Get around
Local Buses – Local buses are available locally for a fraction of the cost of a taxi around town. You need to speak Spanish to be able to ask for directions or ask the driver to tell you where to get off.
Uber is expanding rapidly across Spain and now offers services in cities across the country. Uber has almost every Spanish city in its network every year, check for availability when you arrive at your destination. Beat, Cabify and Didi are also developing and currently operate in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Valladolid, Murcia, and Bilbao. Check for availability in the city you are visiting.
These services offer people with smartphones a way to book a cab through a mobile app for a pre-agreed price. Fares are comparable with Sitio type cabs, and sometimes trade at a premium to this when local demand increases.
Bicycle – Due to the demands of bicycle hire companies, the city's bike share system 'Bicing' is not available to tourists. Therefore, maybe consider walking instead. However, there are also several private bike rental services.
https://wikitravel.org/en/Barcelona
3. GDP
GDP: 117,000 M EUR (2010, metro area)
4. Industry characteristics
The Barcelona metropolitan area comprises over 66% of the people of Catalonia, one of the richer regions in Europe and the fourth richest region per capita in Spain, with a GDP per capita amounting to €28,400 (16% more than the EU average). The greater Barcelona metropolitan area had a GDP amounting to $177 billion (equivalent to $34,821 in per capita terms, 44% more than the EU average), making it the 4th most economically powerful city by gross GDP in the European Union, and 35th in the world in 2009.[85] Barcelona city had a very high GDP of €80,894 per head in 2004, according to Eurostat. Furthermore, Barcelona was Europe's fourth best business city and fastest improving European city, with growth improved by 17% per year as of 2009.
Barcelona was the 24th most "livable city" in the world in 2015 according to lifestyle magazine Monocle. Similarly, according to Innovation Analysts 2thinknow, Barcelona occupies 13th place in the world on Innovation Cities™ Global Index. At the same time it is according to the Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2020 one of the most affordable cities in the world for a luxury lifestyle.
Barcelona has a long-standing mercantile tradition. Less well known is that the city industrialised early, taking off in 1833, when Catalonia's already sophisticated textile industry began to use steam power. It became the first and most important industrial city in the Mediterranean basin. Since then, manufacturing has played a large role in its history.
Borsa de Barcelona (Barcelona Stock Exchange) is the main stock exchange in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
Barcelona was recognised as the Southern European City of the Future for 2014/15, based on its economic potential, by FDi Magazine in their bi-annual rankings.
Trade fair and exhibitions
Drawing upon its tradition of creative art and craftsmanship, Barcelona is known for its award-winning industrial design. It also has several congress halls, notably Fira de Barcelona – the second largest trade fair and exhibition centre in Europe, that host a quickly growing number of national and international events each year (at present above 50). The total exhibition floor space of Fira de Barcelona venues is 405,000 m2 (41 ha), not counting Gran Via centre on the Plaza de Europa. However, the Eurozone crisis and deep cuts in business travel affected the council's positioning of the city as a convention centre.
An important business centre, the World Trade Center Barcelona, is located in Barcelona's Port Vell harbour.
The city is known for hosting well as world-class conferences and expositions, including the 1888 Exposición Universal de Barcelona, the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition (Expo 1929), the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures and the 2004 World Urban Forum.
Tourism
Barcelona was the 20th-most-visited city in the world by international visitors and the fifth most visited city in Europe after London, Paris, Istanbul and Rome, with 5.5 million international visitors in 2011. By 2015, both Prague and Milan had more international visitors. With its Rambles, Barcelona is ranked the most popular city to visit in Spain.
Barcelona as internationally renowned a tourist destination, with numerous recreational areas, one of the best beaches in the world,[97][98] mild and warm climate, historical monuments, including eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 519 hotels as of March 2016 including 35 five star hotels, and developed tourist infrastructure.
Manufacturing sector
Industry generates 21% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of the region, with the energy, chemical and metallurgy industries accounting for 47% of industrial production. The Barcelona metropolitan area had 67% of the total number of industrial establishments in Catalonia as of 1997.
Barcelona has long been an important European automobile manufacturing centre. Formerly there were automobile factories of AFA, Abadal, Actividades Industriales, Alvarez, America, Artés de Arcos, Balandrás, Baradat-Esteve, Biscúter, J. Castro, Clúa, David, Delfín, Díaz y Grilló, Ebro trucks, Edis, Elizalde, Automóviles España, Eucort, Fenix, Fábrica Hispano, Auto Academia Garriga, Fábrica Española de Automóviles Hebe, Hispano-Suiza, Huracán Motors, Talleres Hereter, Junior SL, Kapi, La Cuadra, M.A., Automóviles Matas, Motores y Motos, Nacional Custals, National Pescara, Nacional RG, Nacional Rubi, Nacional Sitjes, Automóviles Nike, Orix, Otro Ford, Partia, Pegaso, PTV, Ricart, Ricart-España, Industrias Salvador, Siata Española, Stevenson, Romagosa y Compañía, Garaje Storm, Talleres Hereter, Trimak, Automóviles Victoria, Manufacturas Mecánicas Aleu.
Today, the headquarters and a large factory of SEAT (the largest Spanish automobile manufacturer) are in one of its suburbs. There is also a Nissan factory in the logistics and industrial area of the city. The factory of Derbi, a large manufacturer of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds, also lies near the city.
As in other modern cities, the manufacturing sector has long since been overtaken by the services sector, though it remains very important. The region's leading industries are textiles, chemical, pharmaceutical, motor, electronic, printing, logistics, publishing, in telecommunications industry and culture the notable Mobile World Congress, and information technology services.
Fashion
The traditional importance of textiles is reflected in Barcelona's drive to become a major fashion centre. There have been many attempts to launch Barcelona as a fashion capital, notably Gaudi Home.
Beginning in the summer of 2000, the city hosted the Bread & Butter urban fashion fair until 2009, when its organisers announced that it would be returning to Berlin. This was a hard blow for the city as the fair brought €100 m to the city in just three days.
Since 2009, The Brandery, an urban fashion show, has been held in Barcelona twice a year until 2012. According to the Global Language Monitor's annual ranking of the world's top fifty fashion capitals Barcelona was named as the seventh most important fashion capital of the world right after Milano and before Berlin in 2015.
Key project: the Barcelona project that will turn Barcelona into a green metropolis
Barcelona wants to become a true green metropolis, to combat the serious problems of heat island, noise and atmospheric pollution and improve the quality of all its citizens.
The Catalan capital is committed to conserving and improving its ecological infrastructure so that nature in the city forms a true green network that benefits all citizens. To achieve this, Urban Ecology has developed the Green and Biodiversity Plan that defines the challenges, objectives and commitments of the municipal government in relation to the conservation of the city's green and biological diversity. The document plans long-term actions to achieve an ecological infrastructure that produces benefits for people and constitutes not only an environmental service but also a social one to face future challenges.
The objectives of the 2020 Bacelona Green and Biodiversity Plan
1.Conserve and improve the natural heritage of the city and avoid the loss of species and habitats.
2.Get the maximum green space and work on its connectivity through green corridors.
3.Obtain the maximum environmental and social services from green and biodiversity and enhance the value that society assigns them.
4.Make the city more resilient to emerging challenges such as climate change.
The Green and Biodiversity Plan proposes the Barcelona of 2050 as a city where nature and the city will interact and will be enhanced through the connectivity of green; in other words: a city in which the urban ecological infrastructure will be connected to the peripheral territory and will provide more environmental and social services, a city in which biodiversity will be appreciated as the collective heritage that it is and, ultimately, a city in which will take advantage of all the opportunities to introduce nature and encourage people's contact with natural elements, with the conviction that a greener city is a healthier city.
https://www.tysmagazine.com/proyecto-barcelona-la-convertira-la-ciudad-condal-una-metropolis-verde
5. Attractions
The historic center and Las Ramblas
One of the most attractive and popular places is Las Ramblas, a promenade located between Plaza Catalunya, the city center, and the old port. There you will find newsagents, flower stands, street actors, cafes, restaurants and shops. Near the port, markets tend to be set up, as well as painters and cartoonists of all kinds, highlighting the area for its artistic and cosmopolitan nature. Strolling along Las Ramblas, you can admire several buildings of interest, such as the Palacio de la Virreina, the La Boquería market and the famous Gran Teatro del Liceo theater, in which operas and ballets are performed. A side street a few meters long leads to the Plaza Real, an open public space surrounded by buildings with porches that house beer gardens and restaurants, and where stamp and coin collectors gather on weekends.
FC Barcelona football team
Each year thousands of football fans from all over the world flock to Camp Nou - the home of Barcelona FC.
FC Barcelona is a sports club best known worldwide for its football team, one of the largest and the second richest in the world. It has 74 national trophies (while finishing 46 times as runners-up) and 17 continental prizes (with being runners-up 11 times), including five UEFA Champions League trophies out of eight finals and three FIFA Club World Cup wins out of four finals. It is the only male football team in the world to win six trophies in a calendar year (in 2009).
With the stadium's capacity of almost 100,000 people, the grounds are a Mecca for football fans around the world. The infamous Barcelona FC Stadium and Museum Tour is the most popular of all tours in Barcelona. Even if there is no match taking place on the day that you visit, still crowds of fans are probably gonna be at the stadium, paying their respects to the 'shrine to football' in Barcelona. It's true to say that Camp Nou is more than just a stadium, just as Barcelona FC is said to be 'more than just a club'.
https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/sport/barcelona-fc/barcelona-fc-tour.html
The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia
The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia (in Catalan, Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família), known simply as the Sagrada Familia, is a Catholic basilica in Barcelona (Spain), designed by the architect Antoni Gaudí. Begun in 1882, it is still under construction. It is Gaudí's masterpiece, and the greatest exponent of Catalan modernist architecture. It is one of the most visited monuments in Spain, together with the Prado Museum and the Alhambra in Granada, 1 and it is the most visited church in Europe after the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican. When completed it will be the tallest Christian church of the world.
La Sagrada Familia is a reflection of Gaudí's artistic fullness: he worked on it for most of his professional career, but especially in the last years of his career, where he reached the culmination of his naturalistic style, making a synthesis of all solutions and styles tested up to then. Gaudí achieved a perfect harmony in the interrelation between structural and ornamental elements, between plasticity and aesthetics, between function and form, between content and container, achieving the integration of all the arts into a structured and logical whole.
6. History
Pre-history
The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear. The ruins of an early settlement have been found, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. The second legend attributes the foundation of the city directly to the historical Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who supposedly named the city Barcino after his family in the 3rd century BC, but there is no historical or linguistic evidence that this is true.
Roman Barcelona
In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum (Roman military camp) centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill near the contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. Pomponius Mela mentions it among the small towns of the district, probably as it was eclipsed by its neighbour Tarraco (modern Tarragona), but it may be gathered from later writers that it gradually grew in wealth and consequence, favoured as it was with a beautiful situation and an excellent harbour. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens. The city minted its own coins; some from the era of Galba survive.
Important Roman vestiges are displayed in Plaça del Rei underground, as a part of the Barcelona City History Museum (MUHBA); the typically Roman grid plan is still visible today in the layout of the historical centre, the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter). Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, known very formally by the long name of Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de Barcelona, is also sometimes called La Seu, which simply means cathedral (and see, among other things) in Catalan. It is said to have been founded in 343.
Medieval Barcelona
The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early 5th century, becoming for a few years the capital of all Hispania. After being conquered by the Arabs in the early 8th century, it was conquered in 801 by Charlemagne's son Louis, who made Barcelona the seat of the Carolingian "Hispanic March" (Marca Hispanica), a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona.
The Counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include all of Catalonia, although on 6 July 985, Barcelona was sacked by the army of Almanzor. The sack was so traumatic that most of Barcelona's population was either killed or enslaved. In 1137, Aragon and the County of Barcelona merged in dynastic union by the marriage of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronilla of Aragon, their titles finally borne by only one person when their son Alfonso II of Aragon ascended to the throne in 1162. His territories were later to be known as the Crown of Aragon, which conquered many overseas possessions and ruled the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories in Naples and Sicily and as far as Athens in the 13th century.
Barcelona was the leading slave trade centre of the Crown of Aragon up until the 15th century, when it was eclipsed by Valencia. It initially fed from eastern and balkan slave stock later drawing from a Maghribian and, ultimately, Subsaharan pool of slaves.
The forging of a dynastic link between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline. The Bank of Barcelona (Taula de canvi), probably the oldest public bank in Europe, was established by the city magistrates in 1401. It originated from necessities of the state, as did the Bank of Venice (1402) and the Bank of Genoa (1407).
Barcelona under the Spanish monarchy
The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 united the two royal lines. Madrid became the centre of political power whilst the colonisation of the Americas reduced the financial importance (at least in relative terms) of Mediterranean trade. Barcelona was a centre of Catalan separatism, including the Catalan Revolt (1640–52) against Philip IV of Spain. The great plague of 1650–1654 halved the city's population.
In the 18th century, a fortress was built at Montjuïc that overlooked the harbour. In 1794, this fortress was used by the French astronomer Pierre François André Méchain for observations relating to a survey stretching to Dunkirk that provided the official basis of the measurement of a metre. The definitive metre bar, manufactured from platinum, was presented to the French legislative assembly on 22 June 1799. Much of Barcelona was negatively affected by the Napoleonic wars, but the start of industrialisation saw the fortunes of the province improve.
The Spanish Civil War and the Franco period
During the Spanish Civil War, the city, and Catalonia in general, were resolutely Republican. Many enterprises and public services were collectivised by the CNT and UGT unions. As the power of the Republican government and the Generalitat diminished, much of the city was under the effective control of anarchist groups. The anarchists lost control of the city to their own allies, the Communists and official government troops, after the street fighting of the Barcelona May Days. The fall of the city on 26 January 1939, caused a mass exodus of civilians who fled to the French border. The resistance of Barcelona to Franco's coup d'état was to have lasting effects after the defeat of the Republican government. The autonomous institutions of Catalonia were abolished, and the use of the Catalan language in public life was suppressed. Barcelona remained the second largest city in Spain, at the heart of a region which was relatively industrialised and prosperous, despite the devastation of the civil war. The result was a large-scale immigration from poorer regions of Spain (particularly Andalusia, Murcia and Galicia), which in turn led to rapid urbanisation.
Late twentieth century
In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics. The after-effects of this are credited with driving major changes in what had, up until then, been a largely industrial city. As part of the preparation for the games, industrial buildings along the sea-front were demolished and two miles of beach were created. New construction increased the road capacity of the city by 17%, the sewage handling capacity by 27% and the amount of new green areas and beaches by 78%. Between 1990 and 2004, the number of hotel rooms in the city doubled. Perhaps more importantly, the outside perception of the city was changed making, by 2012, Barcelona the 12th most popular city destination in the world and the 5th amongst European cities.
Recent history
The death of Franco in 1975 brought on a period of democratisation throughout Spain. Pressure for change was particularly strong in Barcelona, which considered that it had been punished during nearly forty years of Francoism for its support of the Republican government.[53] Massive, but peaceful, demonstrations on 11 September 1977 assembled over a million people in the streets of Barcelona to call for the restoration of Catalan autonomy. It was granted less than a month later.
The development of Barcelona was promoted by two events in 1986: Spanish accession to the European Community, and particularly Barcelona's designation as host city of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The process of urban regeneration has been rapid, and accompanied by a greatly increased international reputation of the city as a tourist destination. The increased cost of housing has led to a slight decline (−16.6%) in the population over the last two decades of the 20th century as many families move out into the suburbs. This decline has been reversed since 2001, as a new wave of immigration (particularly from Latin America and from Morocco) has gathered pace.
In 1987, an ETA car bombing at Hipercor killed 21 people. On 17 August 2017, a van was driven into pedestrians on La Rambla in the city, killing 14 and injuring at least 100, one of whom later died. Other attacks took place elsewhere in Catalonia. The Prime Minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, called the attack in Barcelona a jihadist attack. Amaq News Agency attributed indirect responsibility for the attack to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
7. Other Information: Barcelona’s squatters movement
Despite its standing as a modern and prosperous city, Barcelona is also home to numerous social centres and illegal squats that effectively form a shadow society mainly made up of the unemployed, immigrants, dropouts, anarchists, anti-authoritarians and autonomists. Peter Gelderloos estimates that there around 200 squatted buildings and 40 social centres across the city with thousands of inhabitants, making it one of the largest squatter movements in the world. He notes that they pirate electricity, internet and water allowing them to live on less than one euro a day. He argues that these squats embrace an anarcho-communist and anti-work philosophy, often freely fixing up new houses, cleaning, patching roofs, installing windows, toilets, showers, lights and kitchens. In the wake of austerity, the squats have provided a number of social services to the surrounding residents, including bicycle repair workshops, carpentry workshops, self-defense classes, free libraries, community gardens, free meals, computer labs, language classes, theatre groups, free medical care and legal support services. The squats help elderly residents avoid eviction and organise various protests throughout Barcelona. Notable squats include Can Vies and Can Masdeu. Police have repeatedly tried to shut down the squatters movement with waves of evictions and raids, but the movement is still going strong.
8. Contact Information
City Mayor: Ada Colau Ballano
Phone number: +34 (934) 02 7000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ada.colau
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdaColau
Website: https://www.barcelona.cat/en
Govt. Office Address: Pl. de Sant Jaume 1, 08002, Barcelona, Spain