Basics
City History
Barcelona’s origins go back more than 2,500 years when Phoenicians and Carthaginians settled in the area and chose to have a commercial port. The name of Carthaginian ruler Amilcar Barca is often referred to as the origin of the name Barcino, later used by the Romans.
The Roman City
The Carthaginians were replaced by the Romans in the 1st century B.C. who preferred Tarraco (modern day Tarragona) as their regional capital. Barcelona has several surviving monuments from this period, concentrated around the Plaça Sant Jaume and the gothic quarter. During the third century AD Barcino replaced Tarraco in importance and became the major Roman outpost in the area of Hispania Citerior; the Roman walls, still visible as part of later buildings in the Gothic quarter, were reinforced in this period to repel the frankish and german invasions.
From the Visigoths to the Moors
With the disintegration of the Roman Empire came the invasion of the Visigoths who occupied Barcino in 415 A.D. and renamed the city Barcinona.
Three hundred years later at the beginning of the 8th century the moors conquered Barcelona during their drive from northern Africa to the south of France. Only one hundred years later, the Franks led by Louis the Pious occupied Barcelona and established a strong military presence in what became known as the Spanish Mark, the front line of a constant battle between the Christian kingdoms of the North with the Arabs. This conflict eventually evolved into what became known as the Reconquest.
The Carolingian Empire established a number of Counties and the most important of these was that of Barcelona. The origins of the Catalan nation are to be found in Wilfred the Hairy, Count of Barcelona who established a hereditary system of succesion. Before his death in the year 898 he managed to unify the county of Barcelona with the rest of the Carolingian territories . In the year 988 Count Borrell II achieved independence from the Carolingian kings for the County of Barcelona and became the dominant political and military force in the region later known as Catalonia.
The Golden Age
The 11th and 12th centuries consolidated Barcelona as an important Mediterranean city. In the year 1070 gold was the medium of exchange in 95% of the commercial transactions.
The internationalization of trade by way of maritime transportation was fundamental in the development of 12th century Barcelona, and soon the city became as influential as Genoa or Venice. The growth of the city then and later was to be directly related to the increasing importance of its port. There are still some buildings from this prosperous period, such as the romanesque style church of Sant Pau del Camp or the chapel of Santa Llucia in the Cathedral.
A good selection of artwork commissioned or purchased by Barcelona’s rich patrons can be seen in several of the city’s museums, such as the MNAC (National Museum of Catalan Art) or the City History Museum in the Plaça del Rei.
Jaume I "The Conqueror" established the "Consell de Cent" in the 13th century, an innovative form of government. The Cathedral of Barcelona was begun in the 13th century and shows just how prosperous the city had become. It was the preamble to the building boom of the 14th century when Barcelona was reaching out and conquering foreign ports under Jaume II.
The chapel of St. Agatha in the Royal Palace of the Plaça del Rei was built for Jaume II, who died in 1327. The foundations of the church of Sta. Maria del Pí were laid in 1322 and the church of Santa Maria del Mar was begun in 1329. The plague decimated the population of Barcelona and at one point half the councillors and 4 of 5 magistrates had died. But the building boom continued unabated until the end of the century.
Under Pere III (1336-1387) the city was particularly embellished with civil buildings. The vaulted halls of the Saló del Tinell and the impressive vaulted structure of the royal shipyards (Reials Drassanes, today the Maritime Museum) are part of this building crusade. Pere III embarked on a series of Mediterranean wars and had his galleons built in Barcelona’s shipyards. Public building activity was matched by private investment and the results can be seen on the Carrer Montcada, for instance, with palaces built for Barcelona’s wealthy merchant families.
As the kingdom grew so did the expenses, until the point where expenses overtook income. Mallorca and Genoa posed serious economic threats to Barcelona’s hegemony of the Mediterranean, and war broke out between Genoa and Barcelona. The economic and political crisis of the end of the 14th century gave way to social tension that erupted with the pogrom of 1391which found the authorities powerless to protect the jewish community of Barcelona from a massacre.
The Decline and Recovery
Between 1479 and 1516 Barcelona’s rulers were more interested in rich and productive Castile, also theirs, than in promoting the Mediterranean seaboard.
However, the potential of Barcelona to be as important for international trade as Genoa or Venice always kept them interested in maintaining their mandate. Barcelona had a unique status, and was considered a partner of royal Spain, and as such enjoyed special freedoms.
The representative parliamentary assembly (Les Corts) could limit central control over Barcelona. In the early 17th century, with the Spanish monarchy teetering due to excessive growth and economic mismanagement, the Catalans began to worry about losing their immunity from taxation.
This period of constitutional conflict was especially noticed in Barcelona, where all the Catalan institutions inherited from the Middle Ages were based. The elevated cost of the 30 years war and the hostilities with France starting in 1635 brought the Spanish need for men and money to Catalonia. In 1640 a revolt against Spain began in Barcelona and spread to the rest of Catalonia. The rebels changed their allegiance to Louis XIII of France. Catalonia’s people and wealth were decimated during the next 16 years, with the 1652 siege of Barcelona by Don Juan José de Austria ending the rebellion. The conquering general was a generous winner and a remarkable rebuilding of the city followed, only to be wasted with the 1680 and 1690 wars against France.
The war of Spanish Succession marked the end of Catalan privileges. Relations with the bourbon king Philip V were bad from the start due to his totalitarian political ideas. The royal viceroy in Barcelona repeatedly infringed the Catalan constitutions. Although Barcelona’s merchants were generally peaceful they could stand no more interference from Spain and stated that as a sovereign nation they had a right to secede from a monarchy that no longer respected their rights. On the 20th of June of 1705 Catalonia signed a treaty with England and Genoa. The war with Spain lasted 9 years and ended with the surrender of Barcelona on September 11, 1714, today celebrated as Catalonia’s National day.
Philip V abolished the traditional Catalan constitutions and Barcelona became a mere provincial city, humiliated by the permanent presence of an occupying army in what is today the Ciutadella Park. But, as resourceful as ever, the defeat made Barcelona’s people turn to creating wealth again, starting new industries based on direct trade with the Americas, and the beginning of industrialization importing cotton from America. The economic indicators at the end of the 18th century skyrocketed.
The rapid economic expansion of Catalonia was stopped suddenly by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century. The post war years and the 1821 yellow fever epidemic caused the generally optimistic Barcelona city council to publicly declare that they doubted if the city would ever recover. By 1836 the recovery was complete and Barcelona was back on track developing different industries. Spain’s first railway was built between Barcelona and Mataró, 30 kilometres to the north, in 1848.
After the Spanish revolution of 1868 which removed the Bourbons from power in Spain, Barcelona and Madrid came to a relatively peaceful coexistence. In Barcelona the political tendency of Catalanism started gaining ground and there was a resurgence of interest in Catalan institutions, traditions and culture. The prosperity of the age was reflected in the 1888 World Exhibition and Barcelona became a city of cafes and terraces with a flamboyant bourgouisie.
The early years of the 20th century saw social unrest as the tension increased between the rich industrial barons and the working class. Anarchists from France came to Barcelona and gained a very strong following and sadly Barcelona became known as the city of terrorist bombs. There were general strikes in 1901 and 1902, and in 1909 Barcelona saw riots that lasted a week and extensive destruction, including the razing of 70 buildings belonging to religious orders that were systematically burned by the anarchists. The leader of the movement, Francesc Ferrer, was later executed. But not all was strife and conflict. These were the years of Modernism and very strong cultural currents were at work in Barcelona.
In the 1931 general elections the left wing coalition won and forcibly exiled King Alfonso XIII, who never abdicated. This was the beginning of the second republic and it allowed for great strides in Catalan aspirations. The socialist leader Francesc Macià returned from exile in Paris and became the president of Catalonia’s Generalitat. Macià’s ambitious plans for the city were cut short by the military insurrection of 1936.
The Spanish Civil War was the beginning of one of Spain’s darkest periods and the Catalan national identity was totally repressed. Not until Franco’s death and the new Spanish constitution of 1977 did Catalonia regain a measure of self government with the Estatut de Autonomia. The Franco years were disastrous for Barcelona as a city.
The massive migrations of the 50’s and 60’s from the impoverished south of Spain to Barcelona created tremendous urban planning problems that are evident to this day. The uncontrolled construction boom resulted in the creation of a densely populated and poorly serviced outer ring that became home to the hundreds of thousands of workers that came to live in Barcelona during the economic surge of the 1960’s.
That Barcelona has recovered a leading role in the world as an artistic, intellectual and business city in this short period of time is an endorsement of the energy and creative spirit of the city’s inhabitants.
The 1992 Olympic Games produced the most extensive changes to the city in all its history. We can see and admire all the physical changes such as parks, museums, roads, infrastructure; but even more important is that which you can’t see but you can sense: the pride and enthusiasm that Barcelona’s people have regained and that they are able to transmit to visitors.
