Cataluña

The Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Catalan: Comunitat Autònoma de Catalunya; Spanish: Comunidad Autónoma de Cataluña; Aranese: Comunautat Autonoma de Catalonha), known informally as Catalonia, is today one of the seventeen autonomous communities that constitute Spain. Its territory corresponds to most of the historic territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. The autonomous community of Catalonia covers an area of 31,950 km with an official population of 6.8 million (2004). Immigrants represent 6.8% of the total population.

Catalonia was officially recognised as a nationality in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy enacted in 1979 pursuant to the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

Official languages are Catalan, Spanish (also known as Castilian), and (in Val d'Aran) Aranese.

Catalonia is the original heartland of the Catalan language, and remains the most important and largest territory where the language is spoken.

Catalan is one of the two official languages of Catalonia, as established in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy [1]: the other is Spanish (Castilian), which is the language throughout Spain (its official status confirmed by the 1978 Spanish Constitution). Catalonia has regulated its institutions and their various jurisdictions within the framework provided by the Spanish constitution in the "Sau Statute."

The Catalan Government has a policy of promoting the Catalan language. Thus, state education is partly given in catalan and partly in spanish, and government bureaucracy is entirely in Catalan, Catalan media is heavily subsidised and business are required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) at least in Catalan. Whilst these efforts have ensured that Catalan is increasingly dominant at an official and academic level, there is no evidence that they have changed the social use of the language, with people whose mother tongue is Spanish still using Spanish as their everyday language. Some Catalan speakers argue that this policy is necessary to protect their language in the face of residents and immigrants who fail to learn or use Catalan.

Catalan is properly regarded by most linguists as being an Ibero-Romance language (the group that includes Spanish). It has many features of Gallo-Romance languages such as French.

Occitan, in its Aranese variety (a dialect of Gascon) is official and subject to special protection in the Val d'Aran (Aran Valley). This small region of 7,000 is the only place where Occitan (spoken mainly in France and some Italian valleys) has full official status.

Barcelona is the capital city of Catalonia, a nation in the Iberian Peninsula, which is part of the spanish state. It is located in the comarca of Barcelonès, along the Mediterranean coast (41grados 23?N 2grados 11?E) between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs. It is 160 km (100 mi) south of the Pyrenees mountain range. The population of the city proper is 1,593,075 (est. 2005), while the population of the metropolitan area is 4,686,701 (est. 2005). Population of the province of Barcelona is 5,226,354 (est. 2005), although this only covers 7,733 km (3,000 mi) around the city. The mayor of Barcelona is Joan Clos.

Tourist attractions

Ciutat Vella

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.

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 toward his homeland 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") - who shuffled off this mortal coil in 2003. The gorilla died of skin cancer, to which a contributing factor was no doubt his decades-long exposure to Barcelona's fierce Mediterranean sunshine in a small open pen. This aspect was conveniently overlooked in the wave of sentimental gush that filled the local media following the primate's demise.

Modernist architecture

Outstanding is the legacy of architect Antoni Gaudí, who lived and worked in Barcelona and Madrid, 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 (MACBA) is also worth a visit, not only because of its paintings and sculptures, but because of its architecture, and the vibrant square in front of it, the sitting wall used by skaters, and the inveriably changing wall of graffiti. The building was designed by the American architect Richard Meier. The Fundació Antoni Tàpies holds a collection of Tàpies works.

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.

Sports

Barcelona is the home city of two internationally-known football teams: currently champions of both Spain and Europe FC Barcelona, also known as Barça, who play at the 100,000 capacity Camp Nou stadium, and Spanish Cup currently champion RCD Espanyol, who play at the 56,000 capacity Olympic Stadium. FC Barcelona has also internationally known basketball, handball and roller hockey teams that play at the Palau Blaugrana, situated in the same complex as the Camp Nou.

Near Barcelona, in Montmeló, the 131,000 capacity Circuit de Catalunya racetrack hosts the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix.

Also Barcelona is one of the most attractive cities for skateboarding, and thousands of skateboarders visit it each year. This overwhelming popularity of Barcelona among skateboarders lead to a new anti-skateboarding (and multiple other activities) law, which came in effect on the first day of 2006. Even though it is still possible to skateboard in the city, skateboarders are sometimes given tickets.