Barcelona

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and the second-largest city in Spain. It lies on the Mediterranean Sea, about 120 kilometers south of the Pyrenees and the border with France. Barcelona is the administrative seat of the province and the Comarca Barcelonès. Barcelona is located in the northeast of the Iberian peninsula on the coast of the Mediterranean on a five-mile-wide plateau, which is limited by the Serra de Collserola and the rivers Llobregat in the south and the north Besòs. The Pyrenees are about 120 kilometers north of the city. The Serra de Collserola, part of the coastal mountain range forms the gently rounded background of the city. Its highest point is the Tibidabo, 512 meters high and is topped by the 288.4 meter high and highly visible transmission tower Torre de Collserola. The highest point of the city center is 12 meters high Mont Taber on which the cathedral is built. The town is small, usually cultivated hills through it, which set up on their neighborhoods gave the name of Caramel (267 meters), Monterol (121 meters), Putxet (181 meters), Rovira (261 m) and Peira (133 meters) . The mountain of Montjuïc (173 m) is located in the southwest and overlooks the harbor. On him lies the fortress from the 17th and 18 Century, controlled as a substitute for the town of Ciutadella. Today the fort is a military museum, and the mountain is home to several Olympic and cultural facilities as well-known gardens. In the north the city adjoins the municipalities of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adria de Besos, in the south of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Esplugues de Llobregat, located in the southeast and the Mediterranean Sea to the west are Montcada i Reixac and Sant Cugat del Vallès and Cerdanyola del Vallès.Innerhalb the urban area population of about 1.6 million people, including foreigners 15.9 per cent (as at 31 December 2005). Thus, Barcelona is the eleventh largest municipality of the European Union and to Hamburg, the second largest, which is not the capital of a Member State. Along with the merged into the Area Metropolitana de Barcelona municipalities of the agglomeration, the population 3.16 million. In the extended catchment area of the metropolitan region (Ambit Metropolità de Barcelona) total 4.86 million people live. The history of Barcelona began 2000 years ago with the Iberian settlement Barkeno. Its easily defensible position on a coastal plain between the Collserola ridge and the Mediterranean on the way from Central Europe to the Iberian Peninsula, the importance of this city has secured through the ages. The Port of Barcelona is one of the largest ports in Europe and the Mediterranean. It is divided into three sections: the Port Vell ('old port'), the major industrial port beneath the Montjuic, the Port Franc de Barcelona - and this is where the ferries and cruise ships, but also for container ships - and the small, 1992-built Olympic Port (, Olympic Port '). Barcelona is to achieve not only has its own airport El Prat, but also via the airports of Girona, Reus and Lleida Alguaire. End of the 19th Century was in Barcelona a unique form of Art Nouveau, the modernist. Their most prominent representative is Antoni Gaudí, who lived and worked in Barcelona supported by the industrialist Eusebi Güell. From him many famous buildings can be visited. Major museums are the Museum Joan Miró, which contains the Museu Picasso with numerous lesser-known works by Pablo Picasso, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), the major Roman wall paintings and other medieval works of art, and by Richard Meier designed Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). The largest sports club, FC Barcelona, Camp Nou stadium which is also the largest stadium in Europe. The sports club Espanyol, who played until 2009 at the Olympic Stadium on Montjuïc and has now moved into the newly built Estadi Cornellà-El Prat in Cornellà district, is the second largest sports club in Barcelona. In Barcelona you will find buildings from the entire 2000-year history, from Roman times through the era of Gothic, Catalan Art Nouveau - The Modernist - until the most modern and impressive buildings. Many of the buildings in Barcelona are famous landmarks and real attractions for visitors. Some buildings made the architecture of Catalonia famous far beyond the borders of Spain. To build significant momentum in Barcelona went modern and beautiful buildings, especially in the modern era of the Olympic Games from 1992. Here they managed to get rid of the sadness of the Franco era and continue the tradition of creativity, lived in a modernist, with modern styles. Not always without controversy, but that makes the charm of many buildings. Incidentally, no other city in the world From so many sights are on the UNESCO list of World Heritage. Barcelona is not only interested in the cultural stuff, even the night owls come fully on their costs. Start the party life leisurely. In the afternoon along the shopping street with the main shopping streets, then against 21 clock for dinner at one of the many restaurants, then in a bar, then from 1 clock to a club or Spain Discothek.In eaten very late, if at some restaurants, the Tourists have stopped and the kitchen opens earlier. The bars usually close at 3 Clock, Clock ago 1 one does not need to go to a disco if you do not want to just be alone on the dance floor.