Barcelona [antikvár]

THIS IS BARCELONA The ancient city of Laye was buiU up two thousand years ago, facing the sea, on a plain with the gentle slops of the Collcerola hills behind, protecting it from the North winds, bounded in the East by the River Besós and in the West by the River Llobregat. Its origins are as confused and obscure as remote history. After being conquered by the Romans, it became the Faventia Julia Augusta Fía Barcino Colony and was soon converted to Christianity. First walled in precinct in the iv century. Gothic capital with Ataúlfo. It was then conquered by the Arabs and later by the Frankish. The Marca Hispánica came into being and was divided into earldoms, which Wifredo el Velloso (Hairy), Count of Barcelona, managed to unite. His successors gained independence and capital city status for Cataluna. In the xii century Cataluna became united with Aragón, through the marriage of Ramón Berenguer IV. Jaime I el Conquistador (The Conqueror), began the great Catalan-Aragonese expansion campaign throughout the Mediterranean. The reigns of Jaime II and Pedro III marked the culmination of the House of Aragon's sea and imperial power. After the unification of the peninsular, Barcelona watched the ships set sail on African expeditions. With the Austrias, the coital of the monarchy had already been transferred to Madrid. The city fought against the Bourbons and then its expansion was held in suspense for a long time. Half way through the xix century, Barcelona once more took up its urban and commercial expansion. After the Worls Exhibition at the end of the century, the city left behind its provincial nature and started off on its great cosmopolitan venture. This, in the briefest of outlines, is the history of the city you have just come to. We must now disfinguish at least three sections, which correspond to three successive urban expansions : Old Barcelona, which is a peaceful quarter of monuments and craftsmen; the Ensanche, xix century, square and monotonous in design and the annexed boroughs. Although the boroughs of Sarriá, San Gervasio, Vallvidrera, which lie to- the North, climbing up the mountain slopes, are peaceful residential areas, the boroughs of Sans, Pueblo Seco, La Bordeta, on the East and West, as you approach the rivers, are industrial, hard-working, bustling and restless. Close to the sea, we have the great movement of the port, its great warehouses and the sailor district of La Barceloneta and the Tibidabo climbing up and breaking up the chain of mountains, as it once broke the three walled enclosures, and on the point of being perforated so that the city can continue to grow on the other slope, el Valles. This is a bird's eye view of the geography of the city, with its mild temperate climate, especially in winter. The sky would be clear and blue if thousands of smoking chimneys, a proof of the city's industrial power, did not produce that Enghsh^haze, which a glorious sun often manages to dispel.