Posts Tagged ‘history’
When you visit Barcelona don’t forget to enter the endless alleys of Born.The Born district is a part of the old town. It’s a mix of old and new. The fashionable blends with the whispers of the ancient history that makes you feel like you have travelled back in time.
There are plenty of cozy restaurants and bars in the narrow streets. Just pick one as you walk by and enjoy the atmosphere of the bohemic interior and low vaults, and if you like shopping you will find a lot of small designershops. Born has lately become a very trendy place to hang out in. Everything is fashionable in art, clothes design, restaurants, wine bars and discotheques. Not to forget about the culture. In the area you will experience the art of Picasso in the Picasso museum and the tranquility of the Gothic church, Santa Maria del Mar, known as the People’s Cathedral. There are a lot of beautiful squares combining the streets, and the Passeig del Born was from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries the main square of Barcelona with a lot of different festivities like tournaments and carnivals. If you decide to visit this fantastic district of El Borne, don’t forget to take a walk in the narrow streets and alleys, soaking up the atmosphere of this old and historical place!
A legend says that, about 400 years before Rome was build, Hercules founded the city of Barcelona and named it “Βαρκινών”. According to another legend, in the third century BC, a Carthaginian called Hamilcar Barca named the city “Barcino” after his family. The most credible version is the fact that in 15BC the Romans staked the city out as a military camp, or “castrum”, and named it “Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino”, with its centre being on a small hill near the modern day Plaça de Sant Jaume.
Although shadowed by its neighbour Tarraco (Tarragona), due to its excellent location and beautiful harbour, the city slowly expanded and grew in wealth, even making its own currency. In 400 years, the Visigoths came from the north-east and conquered the city, taking Barcelona as their own. 300 years later, the Moors rose up from northern Africa, and although they didn´t have the same impact on Barcelona as they had on southern Spain, they held the city for 100 years. Then came Charlemagne´s son Louis, who reconquered and instigated an Iberian Lordship status in the city as a Marca Hispanica (Spanish March), a bufferzone between the Frankish Kingdom and the Moors who occupated Al-Andalus (Andalucia).
After the 20th century dictatorship and fascist regime, Barcelona thrives and holds a status of a one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. It combines old culture, marked with ruins and thousand-year-old building remains, and modern looks. The city was also one of the first big industrial centers in Continental Europe.
Short and to the point, if you want to see for yourself what Barcelona is like, you can consider a guided tour of the city.
