General Information

If you visit Barcelona, you can visit many attractions that has historical significance. In order to understand better what you see, it is recommended to read about the history of the city and Spain prior to your trip. We can promise this will not be a boring story because the city has a colorful, exciting and gripping history. Similar to other nations, Catalan and Spanish people could not avoid wars and other bloody and direful events. Yet, there were also many great and beautiful events in the history of the city.

The Ancient Period of Barcelona

The area of Barcelona and Costa Brava became inhabited relatively late, just at the end of the 1st millennium BC. The first human group that settled down in the neighborhood belonged to Laietana which is the Iberian people. Several settlements were established by them such as Barkeno and Laie. The first one was situated on the Taber hill, today this is the area of Ciutat Vella, the second one on the area of Montjuic.

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Barcelona in the Middle Ages

In the 5th century, after the fall of the Roman empire, the Visigoths conquered northern Spain. They controlled the whole Pyrenees, the area of Costa Brava and Catalonia. Actually, Visigoths did not influence the area culturally, or at least today we cannot find too many artistic or architectural remains from them. Moreover, they allowed for Christians to practice their religion and their language was quickly latinized.

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Barcelona During the Period of United Spain

Due to the alliance of all the counts and to the marriage between Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, that took place in 1469, Spain became more powerful which resulted in the victory over Muslim invaders. By the end of the 15th century the last Moors were dispelled from southern Spain.

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Barcelona during the 19th and 20th Century

At the beginning of the 19th century Catalonia was attacked by the army of the world-famous Corsican emperor and invader, Napoleon Bonaparte. Due to this, in 1812 Barcelona became part of the First French Empire. Catalan fought a guerilla warfare together with Castilians and other Spanish nationalities in order to dispel the French army from Spain. After these events the guerilla warfare became popular and it was used many times in many different countries.

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Barcelona during the 21th Century

After a great period in the Catalan history, in 1936 the Spanish Civil War was started. Of course, the war affected Catalan cities too. Straight before the war, Barcelona was preparing for the People’s Olympics which would have been held in the city during the summer of 1936. Several athletes joined to the troops of the Popular Front in order to fight against the fascist groups.

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