Barcelona has something
to suit everyone and, despite
being big enough to house over
three million people, is a
surprisingly easy place to find
your way around. The modern city
came into being in the late
nineteenth century when a vast
planning project was conceived
to link the small core of the
old town with the villages
around it. The city remains to a
large extent a series of
self-contained neighbourhoods,
and these have retained their
separate identities and
functions upto the present day.
Most things of historic interest
are in the old town, which -
despite its confused streets and
alleys - is small enough to
master quickly on foot. A couple
of central park areas - formerly
defensive positions for various
city rulers - hold the bulk of
Barcelona's best museums, while
beyond, in the planned new town
areas, the good transport system
and a decent map are all you
need to negotiate your way
around the regular grid-pattern
of streets and avenues.
The old town - La
Ciutat Vella or Casc Antíc
- spreads northwest from the
harbour for about 1.5km up to
the southern borders of the
city's nineteenth-century grid
system. At its heart is the Barri
Gòtic ( Barrio Gótico
in Castilian), the medieval
nucleus of the city - around 500
square metres of gloomy,
twisting streets and historic
buildings, including the
cathedral and the palaces and
museums around Plaça del Rei.
Bisecting the old town, at the
western edge of the Barri Gòtic,
are the famous Ramblas ,
Barcelona's main thoroughfare -
a succession of five short,
lively streets which combine to
form a continuous broad avenue.
You're likely to emerge here off
the train from the airport or
the metro from Sants station,
either in Plaça de Catalunya
, at the top of the Ramblas (and
the edge of the old town), or at
Liceu metro station, halfway
down. At the southern end of the
Ramblas lies the harbour
and the Port Vell (old
port) development, where
walkways and a swing bridge skip
across the harbour to a popular
shopping, restaurant and cinema
complex. West of the Ramblas,
between the harbour and c/l'Hospital
(Carrer de l'Hospital), lies the
warren of streets known locally
as the Barrio Chino
(China Town) and officially as
El Raval de Sant Pau, or simply El
Raval . On the far side of
the Via Laietana, northern
boundary of the Gòtic ,
you'll find La Ribera ,
whose eastern end, known as El
Born , is home to the
celebrated Museu Picasso.
The old town is flanked by
green spaces on either side,
with the agreeable Parc de la
Ciutadella ( Parque de la
Ciudadela ) east of La
Ribera, and the fortress-topped
hill of Montjuïc ( Montjuïch
) to the southwest, where the
city's best museums and main
Olympic stadium are sited. A
cable car connects Montjuïc
with Barceloneta , the
waterfront district east of the
harbour, below the Parc de la
Ciutadella. This former fishing
suburb is still noted for its
excellent seafood restaurants.
Beyond here to the northeast,
the old industrial suburb of Poble
Nou has been thoroughly
transformed over the last few
years from grim decay into the Parc
de Mar site - a new marina
(the Port Olímpic ),
Olympic Village, apartment
blocks and beach all now jostle
for space.
Beyond Plaça de Catalunya
stretches the modern city and
commercial centre. Known as the Eixample
( Ensanche ), it was a
symbol of the thrusting
expansionism of Barcelona's
early industrial age. The simple
grid plan of this extension is
split by two huge avenues that
lead out of the city: the Gran
Via de les Corts Catalanes
and the Avinguda Diagonal
. Between the two, west of the
centre, is the city's main train
station, Sants Estació ,
now flanked by a brace of
stylish urban parks. No visit to
Barcelona is complete without at
least a day spent in the
Eixample, as it's here that some
of Europe's most extraordinary
architecture - including Gaudí's
Sagrada Família - is
located. Each block of the
Eixample is known as a mansana
, and originally the patio in
the centre of each one was
supposed to contain a garden.
Lack of space - and early
speculation - meant that most
were eventually built over with
garages and the like; part of
the city's current regeneration
scheme involves turning some
back into open public spaces and
restoring the often startling modernista
buildings that adorn them.
Beyond the Eixample lie suburbs
which until relatively recently
were separate villages. The
nearest, and the one you're most
likely to visit, is trendy Gràcia
, with its small squares and
lively bars. Or there are the
parks of nearby Horta ,
and wealthy Sarrià and Pedralbes
way to the northwest of the
city. Gaudí left his mark in
these areas, too, particularly
in the splendid Parc Güell
, but also in a series of
embellished buildings and
private suburban houses which
the enthusiast will find simple
to track down.
The good public transport
links make it easy to head
further out of the city ,
too. The mountain-top monastery
of Montserrat is the most
obvious day-trip to make, though
the beaches on either
side of the city also beckon in
the summer. With more time, you
can follow various trails around
the local wine country, head
south to the Roman town of Tarragona
, or north to medieval Girona
and the Dalí museum in Figueres
.
However, there are some
reminders of the Jewish population
in Barcelona: on the eastern side
of Montjuïc (Jewish Mountain) was
the Jewish cemetery and the castle
at Montjuïc displays around
thirty tombstones recovered from
the cemetery in the early
twentieth century, while many
documentary records of medieval
Jewish life survive in local
archives. With the demise of the
Franco regime, a small community
was again established in
Barcelona, and there is a synagogue
in the city; see
"Directory" for more
details.
