Barcelona offers a unique opportunity for the tourist on foot to walk from Roman remains to the medieval city, and then to the modern city with its open thoroughfares and grid-iron street pattern. The historic city center is fairly flat, while the modern city fans out towards the surrounding hills, bordered by steep streets that are vaguely reminiscent of those found in San Francisco.
La Rambla near the waterfront A notable feature is La Rambla, a boulevard that runs from the city centre to the waterfront, thronged with crowds until late at night and lined by florists, bird sellers in the higher part, craft sellers in the lowest, street entertainers, cafeterias and restaurants.
Walking along La Rambla one can see the world-famous opera house El Liceu, the food market of La Boqueria and the Plaça Reial (literally Royal Square), with its arches and palm trees, amongst other interesting buildings. There's also a Wax Museum near the end. It is also worth keeping an eye out for pickpockets, for whom the boulevard is a favourite haunt.
La Rambla ends at the old harbour, where a statue of Christopher Columbus points eastwards across the Mediterranean Sea to his birth place of Genoa.
Next to it is the Museu Marítim (naval museum), which chronicles the history of life on the Mediterranean, including a full-scale model of a galley. The museum is housed in the medieval Drassanes (shipyards), where the ships that made Catalonia a great sea power in the Mediterranean were built.
The old harbour offers all kinds of other amenities, including the second largest aquarium in the Mediterranean area and an IMAX cinema.
To the north of the Gothic Quarter lie the Jardins de Fonseré i Mestre which contain modernist buildings housing zoological and geological collections.
The adjacent Parc de la Ciutadella includes both the Parlament de Catalunya (Catalan Parliament) and the Parc Zoològic de Barcelona (zoo) whose most famous resident was an albino gorilla - Floquet de Neu ("Snowflake") - that died in 2003.
Modernist architecture
The Sagrada Família churchOutstanding is the legacy of architect Antoni Gaudí, who lived and worked in Barcelona, and who left several famous works like the Palau Güell in the city's old center, the Parc Güell at the northern tip of Gràcia, and the immense but still unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882, financed by popular donations like the cathedrals in the Middle Ages (However, it is not a cathedral: the cathedral of Barcelona is the Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia, a Gothic building of the late Middle Ages). The Sagrada Família is billed for completion in 2020.
Another very notable modernist building in the older part of the city is the Palau de la Música Catalana, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built in 1908.
In the modern districts of the city are several avenues on which most of the international merchants offering clothing, jewelry, leather goods and other items have their stores.
The most elegant avenue is the Passeig de Gràcia, where two Gaudí buildings are situated, the Casa Milà (La Pedrera) and the Casa Batlló, along with buildings by other famous modernista architects:
Casa Ametller by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Casa Lleó Morera by Domènech i Montaner. Several of these buildings and indeed the Sagrada Familia church itself are threatened by Mayor Clos' plans to build a large railway tunnel for high-speed trains under the city's shaky 19th century foundations. In recent years, office developments along Passeig de Gràcia have been allowed to break up the architectural unity of the 19th and early 20th century buildings lining the avenue - a process which shows no signs of slackening.
Property speculation is also blighting other areas of the city, including the 19th century Poble Nou district with its many interesting buildings dating from Catalonia's Industrial Revolution. Many of these have now been levelled to make room for the city's ill-starred "22@" project to build an area for ICT-based firms.
Museums
Art visits include the museum of the Fundació Joan Miró, where several paintings and sculptures of this artist are shown, together with guest exhibitions from other museums around the world. There is also a unique museum featuring the lesser known works of Pablo Picasso from his earlier period. The National Museum of Art of Catalonia (in the Palau Nacional left behind by the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition) possesses a well-known collection of Romanesque art, including wall-paintings of Romanesque churches and chapels around Catalonia that have been transferred to the museum. The Contemporary Art Museum is also worth a visit, not only because of its paintings and sculptures, but because of its architecture. The building was designed by the American architect Richard Meier.
The Fundació Antoni Tàpies holds a collection of Tàpies works. Visitors should note that the opening times of Barcelona's museums vary considerably and are often highly inconvenient; careful planning is recommended to avoid wasted trips.
Montjuïc and Tibidabo
For spectacular views over the city and the coast line there are two hills.
One, Montjuïc hill, is next to the harbour and perched above a large container terminal. On its top is an old fortress which used to guard the entrance to the port.
Around the hill are a group of installations known as the "Olympic ring" and that were the heart of the 1992 summer Olympics: the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium (originally built in 1929 but completely refurbished for the 1992 Olympics), the Palau Sant Jordi (a multi-purpose installation designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, used primarily for all kinds of indoor sport events but also for concerts and other cultural activities) and the Bernat Picornell Pools.
Also situated on Montjuïc are the Botanical Gardens and the Mossèn Costa i Llobera gardens with their unique cactus collection.
Uptown is the hill of the Tibidabo, 512 meters high, with an amusement park (which, after a long economic struggle, now belongs to the city council) and a monumental church on its summit. The church mosaics provide a curious example of the religious art style much in vogue during the dictatorship.
There's also the Torre de Collserola, a telecommunications tower designed by Norman Foster which also has a windowed balcony with a great view over the city.
Public Transport
In addition to its port, of great historical and contemporary commercial importance, Barcelona is served by El Prat International Airport ('El Prat') in the town of El Prat de Llobregat.
Barcelona is a hub for RENFE, the Spanish state railway network, and its main suburban train station is Sants Estació (which is under renovation and enlargement at present in order to prepare for the arrival of the AVE system). The AVE high-speed rail system was recently extended from Madrid to Lleida in western Catalonia, and is expected to reach Barcelona by 2007.
Renfe and the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) run Barcelona's widespread commuter train service. Barcelona's transit company, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), runs the Barcelona Metro system and city bus. See List of Barcelona metro stations. Barcelona has recently adopted another transport option with two new tram lines known as Trambaix and Trambesòs.
Parks
Barcelona is renowned for its parks and open spaces, La Rambla, Parc Güell and the beaches being the most famous of them. See above for a description of La Rambla. See separate article on Parc Güell (1914), the large fantastical park designed by Antoni Gaudí as a private housing estate and opened to the public in 1922.
The site of the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929 and 1930, the Parc de Montjuïc was laid out by engineer Jean C. N. Forestier and architect Nicolas M. Rubio Tuduri. It is chiefly notable now for the cultural institutions that use the former palaces and exposition buildings. The German Pavilion, a landmark of modern architecture designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 Exhibition, was reconstructed on its original site in 1986. Montjuïc Stadium was renovated and enlarged by Vittorio Gregotti for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.
In 1983 the Plaça dels Països Catalans in front of the Sants railway station was redesigned by Helio Piñon Pallares and Albert Vaiplana Vea in pink granite paving with an undulating metal pergola and various hard furnishings that have become popular with skateboarders.
At the same time, the neighboring Vapor Nou factory, was converted into the Parc de la Espanya Industrial for public recreation. This park, designed by Luis Peña Ganchegui and Francesc Rius Camps and completed in 1985 integrated the industrial shapes of the site with a dominant water feature and displays of sculpture.
Since 1983 a formal program of park creation has been carried out by the Mancomunitat de Municipis de l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. The purpose of this program has been to reclaim space for the public which is threatened either by neglect or overdevelopment. Typically these new parks are carefully designed by architects, planners and landscape architects concerned not just with functional elements, but also with the unique characteristics of the site and its position in a layered understanding of the city. Though the budgets may be small, the level of ingenuity and care in design and implementation is often very high. Some examples (note that many are in the metropolitan area, not in Barcelona itself):
Carrer Brasil, 1996, Olga Tarraso and Jordi Hernrich. A Rambla built over parking spaces.
Parc del Torrent Ballesters (Viladecans), 1997, Arturo Frediani/SOB Associates. The design recaptures the pattern of agricultural use using beds of flowering plants. Trees and a pool strengthen the sensual escape from the surrounding city.
Parc de Canserra (Barberà del Vallès), 1996, Studio BCQ Parc de Torrent Congost (Granollers), 1996, Enric Battle and Joan Roig. A narrow linear park defined by hedge walls and a grid of trees on the bank of the Congost River.
Upgrading of Parc de Torreblanca, the historical site of an urban farm.
Fontsana, Sant Joan Despí on the site of a former refuse dump.
Parc del Besòs, La Mina housing estate.
Parc de les Planes, located at the boundary of three districts.
Parc del Litoral, at the mouth of the River Besòs.
Parc de la Creueta del Coll, 1987, Oriol Bohigas, Josep Martorell, David Mackay, architects. Once a quarry, it now boasts an artificial lake that serves as a public swimming pool in summer; it contains a magnificent statue by the Basque artist Eduardo Chillida.
Parc Nou del Prat, on the Llobregat delta, adjoining Sant Cosme and the airport This program of planned parks is often among the civic improvements for which the city actively seeks international events as spurs for redevelopment. For example, the upgrades to Montjuïc and the seaside industrial areas for the 1992 Olympic Games were accompanied by the building of recreational facilities in other parts of the city lacking development.
One notable site is the Vall d'Hebron, a deep ravine in the foothills of the Collserola range north of the city. The urban design by Eduard Bru created a terraced sequence of belvedere-like platforms with views of the city.
