Barcelona

Today was my day to explore Barcelona, Spain and it was a lovely day!

Our tour started with a drive around the city to get a look at the overall feel of the city. I found it to be clean, friendly, and comfortable.  My tour guide was named Connie and she took great pride in her city.  She often pointed out the many positive improvements that were made after Barcelona hosted ths Olympics in 1992. They made sustainable use of the Olympic Village by converting it into residential communities with public sporting facilities.  The stadium is also used for professional football (soccer).

My favorite part of the tour was the older part containing both Roman and Medieval sections!

On the edge of the cathedral of Barcelona, there is a section of the original Roman wall. (There is a photo at the bottom oc this section.). Barcelona was not a major Roman colony because there was little trading this far west at the time. However, it does still have a Roman presence including the streets and aqueducts that still bring water to some drinking fountains.  When it was Roman, the city was called Tarragona.

There is evidence that Christianity came to the Catalonia region of Spain and Barcelona as early as the 3rd century AD and there has been a religious structure at the site of the Cathedral of Barcelona since before it was first mentioned in texts dating from 599 AD. It was dedicated to Saint Eulalia in 877 AD. The story I was told was that she was a Christian in the time of the Romans who would not acknowledge the Roman gods, so she was tortured at the age of thirteen.

The cathedral is a combination of Romanesque design and beginning in 1317 AD, it was continued in a Gothic style.

You can see the differing styles that were completed over several centuries. The nave is surrounded by 32 chapels, each one was sponsored, designed, and paid for by the various guilds of the city.

The Grand Organ, below, took two years to build and was completed in 1539 AD. All of the wood in the catheral is oak from northern Spain

The cathedral was the site of the 1519 gathering of all of the sovereigns of Europe in the Order of the Golden Fleece.  They met as an assembly of peace. According to my tour guide, they claim that this meeting was the inspiration for the United Nations, which was formed after World War II.

The spires and the facade on this side of the cathedral were completed in 1913 based on a competition begun in 1882 at the cost of 1,700,000 pesetas. To understand the value, when the Spanish converted their currency from the pesetas to the euro iin 2002, one euro was worth 166 pesetas and today's conversion of euros to US dollars was 0.96 euros for one US dollar.  That is one expensive façade!

Below, you can see what is left of the Roman wall that once surrounded and protected the city.