Two thousand years between mar and muntanya

• Barcino
• Walls
• Eixample
• Parks
• Monuments (hover over them)

Schematic plan, sea at the bottom and mountain at the top, the way Barcelonans find their bearings (“mar” / “muntanya”). North points to the upper left. Approximate scale.

Forty dates that made the city

Landmarks · the timeline to scale

1. -15
   Barcino founded under Augustus
2. 350
   Wall of 78 towers
3. 415
   Ataulf murdered in Barcino
4. 717
   Muslim conquest
5. 801
   Louis the Pious takes the city
6. 878
   Guifré el Pilós, count
7. 985
   Sack by Al-Mansur
8. 1137
   Birth of the Crown of Aragon
9. 1265
   Consell de Cent
10. 1298
    Gothic cathedral
11. 1329
    Santa Maria del Mar
12. 1348
    Black Death
13. 1359
    Generalitat
14. 1378
    Royal Drassanes
15. 1401
    Taula de Canvi
16. 1493
    Columbus in Barcelona
17. 1640
    Corpus de Sang
18. 1714
    11 September: the city falls
19. 1753
    Barceloneta
20. 1832
    Bonaplata steam engine
21. 1848
    First railway in Spain
22. 1854
    The walls come down
23. 1859
    Cerdà Plan
24. 1882
    Sagrada Família
25. 1888
    Universal Exhibition and Columbus
26. 1897
    Great annexation
27. 1899
    FC Barcelona
28. 1909
    Tragic Week
29. 1919
    Eight-hour day
30. 1926
    Death of Gaudí
31. 1929
    Montjuïc Exhibition
32. 1931
    Macià proclaims the Catalan Republic
33. 1938
    Italian bombing raids
34. 1940
    Companys executed by firing squad
35. 1957
    Camp Nou
36. 1977
    “Ja sóc aquí”
37. 1992
    Olympic Games
38. 2004
    Fòrum
39. 2017
    Attack and 1 October
40. 2026
    Tower of Jesus, 172.5 m

Before Rome: the Laietani

≈ 600 – 15 BC

Before it was a city, Barcelona was a landscape: a plain wedged between two rivers, the Llobregat and the Besòs. It backs onto the Serra de Collserola. On the sea side, an isolated hill stands guard: Montjuïc. The Iberian Laietani lived here in fortified villages. On Montjuïc, archaeologists have found a settlement and grain silos. Coins of the period bear the name Laieśken.

Guides will tell you that Hercules, or the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, founded the city, hence “Barca-nona”. It is a fine story, forged by Renaissance scholars who wanted a prestigious origin. No excavation supports it. The name most probably comes from an Iberian place name, Barkeno, struck on coins.

1. 6th c.
   Iberian settlements on Montjuïc and across the plain.
2. 3rd c.
   Coins bearing the name Barkeno.
3. 218 BC
   The Romans land at Empúries: the conquest begins.

Barcino, the little Roman town

15 BC – 415

A few years before the Common Era, under Augustus, Rome founded a colony on Mont Táber. This is a 16-metre mound at the heart of today’s Gothic Quarter. Its full name is a political programme: Colonia Iulia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It covered about 12.5 hectares, roughly seventeen football pitches.

The plan is classical: two main axes, the cardo and the decumanus, cross at the forum. Today the Plaça Sant Jaume lies there, seat of the city hall and the Catalan government. Power has not moved in two thousand years. In the 4th century, under threat, the town built a wall over 1,200 metres long, bristling with 78 towers. Fine stretches of it survive.

In 415, the Visigothic king Ataulf settled in Barcino with his wife Galla Placidia, the emperor’s sister. He was murdered there the same year. For a few months, Barcelona was the capital of a kingdom.

1. ≈ 10 BC
   Colony founded under Augustus.
2. 1st c.
   Temple of the imperial cult, at the top of the Táber.
3. 4th c.
   Wall strengthened: 78 towers.
4. 415
   Ataulf murdered in Barcino.

Visigoths, Moors and counts

415 – 988

After Rome, the city changed hands repeatedly. The Visigoths held church councils here. In 717-718, Muslim troops took it with little resistance. In 801, Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, retook it after a siege. Barcelona became the southern tip of the Hispanic March, a buffer zone of the Carolingian empire.

The counts appointed by the Franks soon made themselves at home. Guifré el Pilós (Wilfred the Hairy), count from 878 to 897, made his title hereditary. Catalans regard him as the founder of the dynasty. Legend has the emperor tracing the four red bars of the senyera with fingers dipped in the wounded count’s blood. It was invented in the 16th century.

In 985, the Andalusi leader Al-Mansur razed the city. Count Borrell II called on the Franks for help; nobody came. In 988, he refused to pay homage to the new king, Hugh Capet. Catalans date their de facto independence from this refusal.

1. 717
   Muslim conquest.
2. 801
   Louis the Pious takes Barcelona.
3. 878
   Guifré el Pilós becomes count.
4. 985
   City sacked by Al-Mansur.
5. 988
   Break with Hugh Capet.

The golden age of the Crown of Aragon

1137 – 1410

In 1137, Count Ramon Berenguer IV was betrothed to Petronilla, heiress of Aragon. The Crown of Aragon was born, a confederation with Barcelona as its economic engine. James I the Conqueror (1213-1276) took Majorca and Valencia. He gave the city the Consell de Cent, a council of a hundred burghers and craftsmen that would govern it for over four centuries.

The city outgrew its Roman walls. A new circuit was built along a dry riverbed, the future Rambla, then a third enclosing the Raval. Merchants paid for Santa Maria del Mar, built in just 54 years (1329-1383). Tradition says the bastaixos, the port’s porters, carried its stones down from Montjuïc on their backs. The Drassanes, the royal shipyards, built the Crown’s galleys.

Barcelona drew up the Llibre del Consolat de Mar, a code of maritime law used throughout the Mediterranean. It created the Generalitat in 1359 and, in 1401, the Taula de Canvi, one of Europe’s first public banks. Yet the plague of 1348 wiped out a large share of the population. In 1410, Martin the Humane died without an heir, ending the dynasty of the Counts of Barcelona.

1. 1137
   Dynastic union with Aragon.
2. 1229
   Conquest of Majorca.
3. 1265
   Consell de Cent created.
4. 1298
   Gothic cathedral begun.
5. 1329
   Ground broken for Santa Maria del Mar.
6. 1348
   Black Death.
7. 1359
   Birth of the Generalitat.
8. 1401
   Taula de Canvi.

Decline, revolts and the siege

1410 – 1714

The new Castilian dynasty, the Trastámaras, arrived in 1412. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile (1469) bound Catalonia to a new whole. Its centre of gravity shifted towards Madrid and the Atlantic. Yet in April 1493, the Catholic Monarchs received Christopher Columbus in Barcelona, back from his first voyage. Tradition places the scene in the Saló del Tinell.

On 7 June 1640, harvesters in revolt against the soldiers of Philip IV killed the viceroy. This was the Corpus de Sang, start of the Reapers’ War. Catalonia placed itself under the protection of Louis XIII, then Barcelona surrendered in 1652. Under the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), Roussillon became French.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, Barcelona backed Archduke Charles of Austria against Philip V of Bourbon. It withstood a fourteen-month siege. On 11 September 1714, the city fell. The Nueva Planta decrees abolished the Catalan institutions. To keep watch on the city, the king had over a thousand houses in La Ribera razed and a citadel built. 11 September has become Catalonia’s national day, the Diada.

1. 1412
   Compromise of Caspe.
2. 1493
   Columbus received by the Catholic Monarchs.
3. 1640
   Corpus de Sang.
4. 1659
   Treaty of the Pyrenees.
5. 1714
   Fall of Barcelona, 11 September.
6. 1716
   Nueva Planta decrees.

Steam, cotton and the Cerdà Plan

1714 – 1888

In the 18th century, Barcelona recovered through textiles. The “indianes”, printed cotton cloths, made its fortune. In 1778, the opening of trade with the Americas enriched the “indianos” returning from Cuba. In 1832, the Bonaplata mill installed Spain’s first industrial steam engine. In 1848 the first railway line on the peninsula opened, to Mataró.

The problem: everyone lived crammed inside ramparts the army forbade them to cross. Cholera epidemics, wretched life expectancy. In 1854, the city finally won the right to tear down its walls. The plan by the engineer Ildefons Cerdà was approved in 1859. It is a grid of square blocks of about 113 metres, with 20-metre streets and corners cut at 45°. At first, only two sides were to be built, to let in sun and air.

Landowners loathed this plan imposed from Madrid; little by little they filled in all four sides and the block interiors. In 1888, the Universal Exhibition turned the hated citadel into the Parc de la Ciutadella. Its entrance is a brick Arc de Triomf.

1. 1753
   Barceloneta.
2. 1832
   Bonaplata steam mill.
3. 1847
   Liceu opens.
4. 1848
   Barcelona – Mataró railway.
5. 1854
   Walls demolished.
6. 1859
   Cerdà Plan approved.
7. 1888
   Universal Exhibition.

Modernisme and the “Rose of Fire”

1888 – 1931

The newly rich bourgeoisie wanted an architecture that said “Catalonia”. It found one in Modernisme. Antoni Gaudí took over the Sagrada Família in 1883, then designed Casa Batlló and La Pedrera on Passeig de Gràcia. Lluís Domènech i Montaner gave the city the Palau de la Música and the Hospital de Sant Pau; Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Casa Amatller. The flower tile still underfoot on the pavements is also attributed to him.

In 1897, the city annexed its neighbours: Gràcia, Sants, Sant Andreu, Sant Martí, Les Corts, Sant Gervasi. The industrial working class grew, and anarchism with it. A bomb at the Liceu in 1893, the Tragic Week of 1909 with its burnt convents: the city earned the nickname “la Rosa de Foc”. In 1919, the La Canadenca strike won the eight-hour day for all of Spain.

Gaudí, knocked down by a tram on 7 June 1926, died three days later. He had been taken for a beggar. In 1929, a second International Exhibition covered Montjuïc with palaces, a magic fountain and a German pavilion by Mies van der Rohe.

1. 1882
   Foundation stone of the Sagrada Família.
2. 1897
   Neighbouring villages annexed.
3. 1899
   FC Barcelona founded by Joan Gamper.
4. 1909
   Tragic Week.
5. 1919
   La Canadenca strike.
6. 1926
   Death of Gaudí.
7. 1929
   International Exhibition.

Republic, war and dictatorship

1931 – 1975

On 14 April 1931, Francesc Macià proclaimed the Catalan Republic from the balcony on Plaça Sant Jaume. Three days later, it became an autonomous Generalitat. On 19 July 1936, workers and assault guards crushed the military uprising in the streets. Barcelona became the capital of an anarchist revolution, described by George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia.

In March 1938, Italian aircraft serving Franco bombed the city for three days; nearly a thousand died. Shrapnel from the bomb that fell on Plaça de Sant Felip Neri in January 1938 still scars the church walls. On 26 January 1939, Franco’s troops entered the city.

President Lluís Companys, handed over from France by the Gestapo, was shot at Montjuïc Castle on 15 October 1940. Decades of repression of Catalan followed. From the 1950s, hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived from Andalusia, Murcia and Galicia. They were housed in shacks on Montjuïc and Somorrostro beach, then in large estates. The Camp Nou, opened in 1957, became, so it is said, one of the few places where people could shout in Catalan.

1. 1931
   Macià’s proclamation.
2. 1936
   The coup fails in Barcelona.
3. 1938
   March bombing raids.
4. 1939
   Franco’s troops enter.
5. 1940
   Companys executed.
6. 1950
   SEAT founded.
7. 1957
   Camp Nou opens.

Democracy, the Games and the Tower of Jesus

1975 – 2026

Franco died on 20 November 1975. On 23 October 1977, Josep Tarradellas, president of the Generalitat in exile, returned to Barcelona. From the balcony, he declared: “Ciutadans de Catalunya, ja sóc aquí!” The Socialist mayors Narcís Serra and then Pasqual Maragall staked everything on public space. Squares, parks, sculptures and the renewal of the old town followed.

On 17 October 1986, Juan Antonio Samaranch announced that Barcelona would host the 1992 Games. The city used them to turn towards the sea: railways buried, the Vila Olímpica, ring roads, beaches created or restored. The “Barcelona model” set an example, but it also drew tourists by the million. Rents, tourist flats, cruise ships: in 2024 the city announced plans to abolish its 10,000 or so tourist-rental licences by 2028.

The city has also known its tragedies and divisions. The Rambla attack struck on 17 August 2017; the self-determination referendum was held on 1 October that year. In 2026, Barcelona is UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture. On 20 February, the cross was set atop the Tower of Jesus Christ, at 172.5 metres. The Sagrada Família became the tallest church in the world. On 10 June, centenary of Gaudí’s death, Pope Leo XIV came to bless it.

1. 1977
   Tarradellas returns.
2. 1992
   Olympic Games (25 July – 9 August).
3. 2004
   Forum of Cultures.
4. 2010
   Sagrada Família consecrated as a basilica.
5. 2017
   Rambla attack; referendum of 1 October.
6. 2026
   Tower of Jesus completed; World Capital of Architecture.

How many Barcelonans?

Orders of magnitude. Before the 19th century, historians work from estimates (tax hearths, partial censuses); margins of error often exceed 20 %. The fall after 1979 reflects families leaving for the metropolitan periphery, not a decline of the region.

1. 01-26 · 1939
   Franco’s troops enter Barcelona.
2. 02-20 · 2026
   The cross crowns the Tower of Jesus Christ of the Sagrada Família, at 172.5 m.
3. 03-01 · 1951
   The tram boycott begins, the first large-scale protest against Franco’s regime.
4. 03-16 · 1938
   Three days of aerial bombing of the city begin.
5. 03-19 · 1882
   Foundation stone of the Sagrada Família laid.
6. 04-08 · 1888
   The Universal Exhibition opens.
7. 04-14 · 1931
   Francesc Macià proclaims the Catalan Republic.
8. 05-19 · 1929
   The Montjuïc International Exhibition opens.
9. 06-07 · 1640
   Corpus de Sang: the Reapers’ War begins.
10. 06-09 · 1859
    The government approves the Cerdà Plan.
11. 06-10 · 1926
    Antoni Gaudí dies, three days after being knocked down by a tram.
12. 07-19 · 1936
    The military uprising is crushed in the streets of Barcelona.
13. 07-25 · 1992
    Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
14. 07-26 · 1909
    The Tragic Week begins.
15. 08-17 · 2017
    Attack on the Rambla.
16. 09-11 · 1714
    Barcelona falls after a fourteen-month siege. Today it is the Diada.
17. 09-24 · 1957
    The Camp Nou opens.
18. 10-01 · 2017
    Self-determination referendum.
19. 10-15 · 1940
    President Lluís Companys is shot at Montjuïc Castle.
20. 10-17 · 1986
    Barcelona is chosen as the 1992 Olympic city.
21. 10-23 · 1977
    Tarradellas returns: “Ja sóc aquí!”
22. 10-28 · 1848
    The Barcelona – Mataró railway opens.
23. 11-07 · 2010
    Benedict XVI consecrates the Sagrada Família.
24. 11-20 · 1975
    Death of Franco.
25. 11-29 · 1899
    FC Barcelona founded.

Myth or fact?

Barcelona loves its legends. Eight claims heard in the streets and from guides. You decide.

• Barcelona was founded by the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca. Faux A Renaissance legend. The city is a Roman foundation of the Augustan period, on an Iberian site whose name, Barkeno, appears on coins.
• La Rambla was once a river. Vrai An intermittent stream ran along the 13th-century wall. Its name comes from the Arabic ramla, “sandy bed”.
• The four red bars of the Catalan flag were drawn in the blood of Guifré el Pilós. Faux The story first appears in 1551, in Pere Antoni Beuter. The bars are the heraldic emblem of the House of Barcelona, attested in the 12th century.
• The Sagrada Família is Barcelona’s cathedral. Faux It is a basilica, consecrated in 2010. The cathedral is that of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, in the Gothic Quarter.
• The cut corners of the Eixample were meant for steam trams. Vrai Cerdà wanted junctions where mechanical vehicles could turn and stop, and where more light could enter.
• The city’s beaches have always been there. Faux Before 1992, the coast was blocked by railway lines, factories and shacks. Today’s beaches were largely created for the Games.
• Gaudí died after being knocked down by a tram. Vrai On 7 June 1926, on the Gran Via. Shabbily dressed, he was at first taken for a vagrant. He died on 10 June.
• Christopher Columbus was born in Barcelona. Faux The theory of a Catalan Columbus has circulated for a century, without solid proof. Tradition holds for Genoa. He was, however, received in Barcelona in 1493.

Where to see it