Plaça de Catalunya is a sprawling square of approximately fifty thousand square meters, instantly recognizable for the nine major streets and avenues that radiate from its perimeter, including La Rambla and the Passeig de Gràcia. It…
Barcelona History
This tour walks you through Barcelona's long history, from Roman ruins and medieval basilicas to civil war scars and Olympic venues. It is a great way to understand how the city evolved across two millennia.
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1. Plaça de Catalunya
2. Plaça de Sant Felip Neri
The Plaça de Sant Felip Neri is defined by the pockmarked stone walls of the baroque church that sits at its edge. These scars are not from time or weather, but are shrapnel marks left by bombs dropped during the Spanish Civil War.
3. Temple d'August
Four towering stone columns, each topped with Corinthian capitals and rising over nine meters high, define the remains of the Temple d'August. These massive pillars date to the first century before Christ, when they formed part of a grand…
4. Casa Padellàs (Barcelona History Museum MUHBA)
Casa Padellàs is a fifteenth-century Gothic palace that stands in the Plaça del Rei today because it was moved here piece by piece in nineteen thirty-one. The city government relocated the building from its original site on Carrer dels…
5. Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar
The Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar is defined by its massive, austere stone facade, featuring two tall towers and solid buttresses that frame a large central rose window. Unlike many medieval churches built by royal command, this basilica…
6. Fossar de les Moreres
The Fossar de les Moreres is a quiet, red-brick plaza tucked directly beside the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar. This site sits atop a former parish cemetery where defenders of Barcelona were buried following the city's final, desperate…
7. Ciutadella Park
Parc de la Ciutadella is defined by its sprawling, tree-lined paths and the massive, ornate Cascada Monumental, a fountain complex where a young Antoni Gaudí contributed to the hydraulic design. While it serves as the city’s primary public…
8. Montjuïc National Palace
The Palau Nacional is defined by a massive elliptical central dome that mimics the scale of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This stone-clad landmark sits at the crest of the Montjuïc hill, anchored by a grand staircase that sweeps…
9. Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium
The Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium is defined by its preserved nineteen-twenties stone façade, which anchors the building even as the interior has been completely rebuilt. Originally designed by architect Pere Domènech i Roura for the…