Barcelona [antikvár]

BARCELONA ONE AND ONLY Barcelona is one of the few cities whose personality reflects an increasingly clear, yet ever changing and multifarious image the more you get to know them. Even fewer are those which reveal such startling contrasts, as between worlds beating with a different pulse. Barcelona is a many-hued, living city that changes with the light as the hours go by and fluctuates with the seasons. It is a social mosaic, all of whose pieces bear the imprint of the slow historical process that has made it unique. Barcelona is a two thousand year old city, the capital of a country with a milennium of history —Catalonia— to which it gives cohesion. Its whole past is projected into its present, in its buildings and streets the story of its growth from ancient times is clearly written. It is the essentially maritime capital of a people of merchants and sailors. In short, it is a Mediterranean city. Its unrivalled site and beauty are matched by the friendliness of its people. Its tradition of initiative, hard work and creativity is largely the product of the repeated influxes of foreign blood that are the lot of all cosmopolitan, hospitable, open-minded cities, and these factors doubtless also account for the vitality of its industrious, active population, full of ideas, and for its rich cultural and artistic heritage. All this is of help in understanding present-day Barcelona, a city surging forward into the future with the enthusiastic support of all its inhabitants. As on previous momentous occasions — the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and the International Exhibition of 1929 — Barcelona was determined that the historic date of 1992 should provide the opportunity for lasting modernization. The economic boom, the new, wellkept appearance of the city, and its very real presence on the international scene are no mere coincidence: they are the fruit of the unceasing activity of its citizens who advance boldly into the future while remaining faithful to their past. Christ in iVIajesty, iVIuseu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya N . V i.i' V