Barcelona [antikvár]

Seen from the mountain top of Tibidabo, Barcelona shows us a dense network of streets arrangedacross the plain facing the sea, between the Llobregat and Besos rivers, and sheltered by theCollserola range. History and chance have shaped this urban fabric which alternates betweenfanciful and mixed up spaces with other straighter and more rational ones. The horizon of thesea, which we can see from here, merges with the Mediterranean history of this city of warmlight, the heir to diverse cultures. From its Iberian origins, the contact with the Greek world andthe Roman refoundation as the Barcino colony, Barcelona has been the capital city of Cataloniasince the 10th century.The heart of the city corresponds to the old walled perimeter of the Roman era whose design,simply and solidly made, can be clearly traced today and the later medieval extensions, a spacefreshened by the river of life of the Rambla and the sea limits of the port. For centuries, theexpansion in trade carried out by the citizens of Barcelona favoured economic development andstrengthened the craftsmen's guilds and the industry related to navigation. The building of the Llotja,the church of Santa Maria del Mar and the Drassanes tells us, from the singularity of their uniquearchitecture, of those times of splendour, as do the history and names of many streets and squares.The unusual layout of this part of the city enables one to continuously rediscover many littlecorners and interesting details, and narrow streets, hidden from the sun, lead to other spaces ofrare beauty with buildings of valuable architecture, today restored and fitted up for new publicuse. From Roman times the governing bodies have been located in the heart of this historic district the Consell de Cent, the Council of one hundred, the first democratic parliament in Europe,