Première station: Catalonia(Barcelona)

Catalonia是一个自认为有别于西班牙其他地区的自傲的地方．它是半岛东北角一个不太大的三角形区域，既有高耸的山峰也有长长的海滩．首府Barcelona是西班牙最美丽的城市之一，但是Costa Brava，比利牛斯山脉或Tarragona也都是值得一去的地方．


A mediterranean trade capital
Beginning in the 12th century, Barcelona became the centre of intense commercial activity in both the west and east Mediterranean. When Benjamí de Tudela visited the city he noted that the port already enjoyed prestige all over the Mediterranean. Vessels from Pisa, Genoa, Sicily, Greece, Alexandria, and even from as far away as Asia docked there. Between 1249 and 1274 king James I of Catalonia and Aragon organized the institutional life of the city through the Consell de Cent (Council of One Hundred). Throughout the 13th century Barcelona grew so rapidly that the walls encircling the city had to be extended, and a new wall and its respective gates were built along what is now the Rambla. In the early 14th century Barcelona developed into one of the foremost powers in the Mediterranean basin. The city expanded so much in these years of economic growth that in 1374 king Peter III of Catalonia and Aragon (Peter the Ceremonious) ordered a further extension of the walls, which gave rise to the Raval district. At that time the population of the city was approximately 25,000. The death toll caused by the plague years of 1333 and 1348 disrupted life in the city and economic growth declined, a situation that led to the destruction of the Jewish district in 1391 and the crisis in the city government in the 15th century, and eventually to the 1462-1472 civil war. Recuperation did not begin until the late 15th century, with the construction of the new quay and the subsequent recovery of Mediterranean trade. The conquest of Mallorca (1229), Valencia (1233-1245), Sicily (1282), Sardinia (1324), Naples (1442), the dukedoms of Athens (1311) and Neopàtria in Greece (1319) by the Catalan-Aragonese crown constitute the main political milestones of the expansion of Barcelona and Catalonia throughout the Mediterranean during the lower Middle Ages.

Barcelona under the House of Habsburg
In 1512 the Florentine Guicciardini, speaking of Barcelona, said: “It is situated on a coastal strip of land next to the sea, in a very suitable place for trade, although this does not thrive as much as in the past”. However, he also had this to say: “It is a fine, large, densely populated city (…) in general it can boast of fine houses throughout every district”. During the 16th and 17th centuries, few changes took place in the urban structure of Barcelona, which remained within the confines of the old 14th century walls.
In the 16th century it enjoyed a relative prosperity thanks mainly to the activity in the dockyard and the craftsmen’s guilds. Many mansions and convents were built in this century: the first Jesuit convent was built in 1553; the convent of the Discalced Carmelites in 1593; the convent of the Angels between 1562 and 1566; the convent of the Elizabeths in 1554; the convents of the Guardian Angels and the Repentants in 1587; the façade of the Palau de la Generalitat, from 1597; in the 17th century (1626), the new convent of Our Lady of Bonsuccés; the Fivaller Mansion (completed in the 17th century) and the Centelles Mansion (1514); the building of the Estudi General and parts of the Hospital of the Holy Cross, especially the Renaissance façade. The 17th century was in the main a time of crisis. This led to uprising and the war in 1640, which did not end until 1659. Also during this century various religious and civic buildings were constructed in the Baroque style: the Discalced Augustinian convent of Santa Mònica (1636); the Discalced Trinitarian convent of Saint Severus (1698-1705), Bethlehem (1680) and the Josepets; the Casa de Convalescència of the Holy Cross Hospital; the Casa de la Misericòrdia (1693); the Dalmases Mansion and the Mansion of the Counts of Solterra, of Marimon –in Caldes de Montbui– and of Maldà; and the Franciscan College of St Bonaventura (1652). In 1598, work on the new quayside was resumed. In the 16th century, the growing aristocratic presence in the city gave rise to the construction of noble town-houses such as those of the Gralla, Durai, Mai and Ardiaca Desplà. Between 1641 and 1714, Barcelona underwent six different sieges, some with devastating effects. Throughout this time the population numbered between 28,000 and 40,000 inhabitants. During the same period the population of Madrid was 100,000 and that of Paris and London, 570,000. The epidemics of 1520, 1530, 1558 and 1589-1590, to name only the most serious, decimated the city over and over again. In the late 17th century, the country underwent a certain economic recovery. In 1701-1702, the citizens of Barcelona obtained authorization from Philip V of Spain to send two ships per year to the Americas, until then the exclusive preserve of the Castilian crown.

From the Spanish war of Succession to the Catalan Renaissance
The defeat of 1714 signalled the end of the Catalan state and ushered in a period of severe repression that brought about great changes in the institutional structure of Barcelona. In 1718 the population of the city was 37,000. The victors ordered 1,200 houses in the Ribera neighbourhood to be knocked down to make way for the construction of a military fortress. While this process of denationalization was taking place in Catalonia throughout the 18th century, Barcelona continued to expand. In 1770 there were 70,000 inhabitants, and in 1787, 95,000. By the end of the period under study, that is to say, until 1832, this figure had increased to 117,000. Construction work on the Barceloneta district began in 1753. Between 1714 and 1832, a decisive period for the future of the city, Barcelona underwent a transformation. The entire physiognomy of the city was changed. The first third of the 19th century was a time of intense urban modernization. In 1820, building work on the Passeig de Gràcia began. Barcelona became a magnet for immigrants, especially exiles from France. During the 18th century (starting in 1736) “industrial” centres were set up for the manufacture of indianes, or patterned cotton fabrics. In 1796 there were 104 such factories with 3,048 looms providing work for 12,979 employees. In spite of the increase in agricultural production on the alluvial plain of the city’s hinterland, in 1763-64 and 1788-89 there were severe shortages of foodstuffs. The 1789 food crisis gave rise to the famous rebombori del pa, or bread riots. Between 1739 and 1748 Barcelona’s commerce with the Americas via Cádiz, the port which held the monopoly on trade with the New World, continued to grow. In 1765, the port of Barcelona was designated the official point of departure for trade with America. The peace treaty signed in1785 by Carles III (Charles III of Spain) and the Great Turk enabled merchandise to arrive from China.
The crisis at the end of the century, with wars against England (1779-83; 1796-1801; 1804-1808), and against revolutionary France, the so-called Great War (1793-95), and the subsequent Napoleonic invasion (1808-1814), all put a brake on industrial growth. The great transformation took place between 1814 and 1833. In 1829 there were 341 factories engaged in spinning, weaving and fabric printing. The city stood at the threshold of the industrial revolution. It was during this period that the city experienced a surge of cultural, artistic, academic and scientific activity. With the death of Ferdinand VII of Spain in 1833, a new chapter in the history of Barcelona began. In that same year, 1833, Bonaventura-Carles Aribau published his poem Oda a la Pàtria ("Ode to the Homeland"), which is widely regarded as the springboard for the great Catalan movement of cultural, linguistic and political renewal known as the Renaixença (rebirth or renaissance). Spanish monarchs who successively visited Barcelona during this time (Charles III, from October 17th to 22nd in 1759; Charles IV, in September, 1802; and the longest, by Ferdinand VII, from September 4th , 1827 to April 9th , 1828) were enthusiastically received by Catalans. Ferdinand VII signed an agreement with the industrial bourgeoisie in which they swore fidelity to the throne in exchange for protectionist privileges. In 1760, in an official memorandum of grievances, the same bourgeoisie had complained to the king then incumbent about the crown’s neglect of Catalonia.

From Cerda's Enlargement plan to the 1888 Expo
From the fin de siecle to the 1929 Expo

The second Spanish Republic
The victory of Republican parties all over Spain in the municipal elections held on April 12th , 1931, led Lluís Companys to proclaim the Republic from the balcony of Barcelona City Hall two days later. He was the first elected politician to make this annoucement publicly, and was followed shortly after by the leader of ERC (“Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya” – “Catalan Republican Left Party”), Francesc Macià, who proclaimed the Catalan Republic from the Palau de la Generalitat (Catalan Government Building). On April 17th , the Catalan Government cabinet renounced the Spanish Republic in favour of the independent Generalitat de Catalunya. In September 1932, the Statute for an Autonomous Catalan Government was approved, and in December of the same year the first meeting of the Republican Parliament, elected on November 20th , was held in Barcelona. On October 6th , 1934, in consequence of president Lluís Companys’ declaration of the Catalan State, all the members of the Catalan government were imprisoned by order of the right-wing government in Madrid, and the Statute was quashed (January 2nd , 1935). When the left-wing parties emerged as victors once again in the general election of February 16th , 1936, Companys and his colleagues were released. The military uprising on July 18th of the same year was put down in Barcelona, but in the Catalan capital especially, the internal strife between anarchists and communists, known as the May 1937 Incidents, led to a civil war within the Civil War. On October 31st , 1937, the Spanish Republican Government moved to Barcelona, making it the political capital of Spain. When Franco’s troops entered Lleida, the dictator issued a decree dissolving the Generalitat, which became effective on January 26th , 1939, when Barcelona finally fell to the Nationalist forces. In July 1934, the Macià Plan had been approved. It consisted of a programme for developing the Eixample neighbourhood, improving conditions in the old quarter, dividing the capital into districts and linking the city with the Llobregat coastal plain. The Casa Bloc project in Sant Andreu de Palomar to provide housing in a working class area was actually carried out. The same could not be said for the Ciutat de Repós i de Vacances (Workers’ City of Leisure and Vacation), which had been designed to provide for the leisure and holidays of the working classes. The war prevented it from going ahead. On October 31st , 1931, the Regional Planning programme for the reorganization of territory in Catalonia had also been approved: “It is necessary to create a Catalonia-City in which Barcelona will be but a large neighbourhood”. An important event in the cultural sphere was the creation of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (August 28th , 1933). During the Spanish Civil War Barcelona was heavily bombed by the Nationalist air force, and between March 16th and 17th 1938 alone, 551 people died and 1,151 were injured as a result of these attacks. These bombardments accounted for a total of 1,816 dead and 2,719 injured.

After Franco's victory
This was a period of poverty, hardship and enormous urban chaos. The tide of immigrants arriving in Barcelona, coupled with the lack of housing, led to the construction of slum dwellings. Some 200,000 of these sub-standard dwellings went up in various areas of the city. In 1953, the Pla Comarcal de Barcelona (Regional Plan) replaced the first Pla Nacional d’Habitatge (National Housing Scheme) in an attempt to control immigration and organize city planning. Between 1953 and 1962, 2,719 new flats were built in the area known as the “Congrés Eucarístic”. In 1939, Barcelona had a population of 1,085,951. By 1957 the number of inhabitants had reached 1,466,937. In 1944, 20,240 immigrants arrived in the city; 69,987 arrived in the following year, and in 1948 the figure was 35,569. Immigration increased over five-year periods in the following manner: 1941-1945: 111,567; 1946-1950: 45,353; 1951-1955: 86,801; and 1956-1960: 104,460. Over the same period (1940-1957), life expectancy for both men and women in Barcelona showed a marked increase. In 1940-1941, it was 54 for men and 62 for women. Between 1949 and 1952, it rose to 62 and 68, respectively, and between 1954 and 1957 it was 67 and 73. During the forties, poverty in the city was widespread. According to the novelist Francisco Candel, in those years “the Diagonal was full of cabarets and the factories with tuberculosis”. 1951 was the year of the tram strike, when the people of Barcelona refused to pay the increase in the price of a ticket. In 1952, the International Eucharistic Congress was held in the city, an occasion for the military regime to mount an enormous propaganda campaign, as well as a boost for building activity and the beginning of tourism. The setting up of the SEAT car company between 1949 and 1953 provided many new jobs (more than 5,000 in 1958). Barcelona became the main location for clandestine opposition against the regime, although this was still relatively small and badly organized. In 1945, various political organizations joined together to form the Catalan National Alliance for Democracy and the National Council for Catalan Democracy, neither of which lasted for very long. The dictatorship adopted stringent measures to remove all traces of Catalan culture during this period, as well as to prevent the formation of an effective resistance, which survived only in small groups and behind closed doors.

Metropolitan Barcelona & transition towards democracy

The Barcelona of democracy
Municipal elections were held on April 3rd, 1979, with a 45% abstention. The Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC – Catalan Socialist Party) obtained 16 seats on the Council (33.9 %); the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC – Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia), 9 (18.8%); Convergència i Unió (CiU – Nationalist Conservative Party), 8 (18.5%); Centristes de Catalunya-Unió del Centre Democràtic (CC-UCD – Catalan Democratic Party of the Centre), 8 (16.7%), and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC – Catalan Republican Left), 2 (5.2%). A coalition pact (the so-called “Pact of Progress”) was signed by all members of the Council consisting of the PSC, PSUC, CiU and ERC, with Narcís Serra as mayor of Barcelona. In October 1981, the CiU left the municipal government. After the victory of the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español – Spanish Socialist Workers Party) in the general elections held in October 1982, Serra became Minister of Defence in Madrid and was succeeded as mayor by Pasqual Maragall (3 December 1982). Since then, with support from various parties (PSUC, IC, ERC), the Catalan Socialists have always governed at Barcelona City Hall.
The policies of the democratic municipal authorities have taken effect in many spheres, the opening up of Barcelona to the Mediterranean being one of them. The old Moll de la Fusta (Timber Wharf) was recovered for the city; the Maremàgnum complex, the IMAX cinema and the Aquarium were built, and the Museu d’Història de Catalunya (Museum of Catalan History) was opened on the quays. Between 1997 and 2002 a footbridge was built linking the “Adossat” and “Ponent” Quays, the breakwater along the “Inflambles” Wharf was extended and a second harbour mouth made. Montjuïc has been another area of activity, due principally to the preparations for the 1992 Olympic Games, with the construction of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, the Ciutat del Teatre (theatre complex), the INEF (Institute for physical education), and Santiago Calatrava’s 199m high telecommunications tower. However, the major project carried out on Montjuïc was the construction of the Olympic Ring, designed by the architects Correa, Milà, Margarit and Buxadé, which included the modernization of the old Olympic Stadium and the building of Arata Isozaki’s Palau Sant Jordi (Sports Palace of St George). The Collserola range of hills has been another site were development has taken place, with the creation of a natural park, rational urban planning, and Norman Foster’s 268m high telecommunications tower at Vallvidrera. In 1985, in anticipation of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Village or “Nova Icaria” urban development project (designed by Oriol Bohigas, Josep M. Martorell, David Mackay and Albert Puigdomènech) was officially approved and set into motion. 2,000 flats, 200 retail outlets and 70,000 square metres of office space were built. Other major projects were the extension of the Avinguda Diagonal to the sea, the construction of new ring roads and underpasses, the redevelopment of part of the Ciutat Vella (Old City), the building of new streets and avenues as well as large shopping malls and commercial centres, all of which have transformed Barcelona during this period. In 1985, the package of measures for the Protection and Improvement of the Urban Landscape was approved, and in 1986 the campaign “Smarten Yourself Up, Barcelona!” was put into operation. The new terminal designed by Ricard Bofill has helped to modernize the airport at El Prat, while numerous cultural facilities have either been improved or newly constructed; the National Theatre, the Auditorium, the new Liceu Opera House, the Palau de la Música Catalana (1989), the Tàpies Foundation (1990), the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Centre of Contemporary Culture, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, etc. In 2004, in time for the celebration of the “Universal Forum of Cultures”, the massive urban development project “Diagonal Mar” was brought to a conclusion.

Architecture

One of the most notable features of Barcelona is the city's great architectural richness, a characteristic that is the result of the succession of the peoples who have inhabited the city during many hundreds of years, and is manifested in an urban structure that has been configured in four major phases:
· The early nucleus. The first important architectural landmarks date back to the original nucleus inside the city's Roman walls, the centre of which is the Plaça de Sant Jaume. This first phase witnessed one of the crucial processes in the life of the city: its Romanization. · Mediaeval and modern Barcelona. The Mediaeval period gave Barcelona one of its outstanding architectural gems, the Gothic quarter, which presents all the splendour of an era epitomized by the Plaça del Rei, with its churches, houses, palaces and chapels and the façade of the Cathedral. Of note outside of the Gothic quarter are carrer Montcada and its noble palaces, the historic Hospital de la Santa Creu, the Drassanes shipyards and the monasteries of Sant Pau del Camp and Santa Maria de Pedralbes. Fine examples of the architecture of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries can be found in Barcelona in the churches of Betlem, the Mare de Déu de la Mercè, the Casa de la Caritat, the Palau de la Virreina, the Labyrinth in Horta and the various manor houses still to be seen in Barcelona. . The construction of the Eixample and Modernisme. In addition to outstanding public buildings such as the Boqueria market, the University, the Gran Teatre del Liceu Opera House and the Plaça Reial, this period was marked by the construction of Barcelona's Eixample or New Town to a project by Ildefons Cerdà. Modernisme, too, has left an architectural legacy of the first order. The work of Gaudí (the Sagrada Família, the Casa Milà-La Pedrera, the Casa Vicenç, the Casa Batlló, Park Güell, etc.), Puig i Cadafalch (the Amatller and Martí houses, the Palau Macaya, etc.) and Domènech i Montaner (the Hospital of Sant Pau, the Palau de la Música Catalana) are all key points of reference in the history of architecture, while a number of them are also World Heritage sites. · The present. Here we have a considerable number of very fine works of architecture constructed for the Universal Exhibition of 1929, many of which are on Montjuïc and around the Plaça d'Espanya (the Font Màgica, the Palau Nacional, the Poble Espanyol, the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, etc.). The most recent architecture to be built in Barcelona is in two phases: the first of these spans some 50 years, from the 40s to the 90s, and includes numerous residential blocks, the faculty buildings in Barcelona's university campus area, the Col.legi d'Arquitectes, the Fundación Joan Miró and the Trade office blocks; and a second that begins with the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and continues up to the present day. Of significance from this second phase are public amenities such as the Espanya Industrial park, the area around the Mapfre Towers or the Rambla del Raval, cultural facilities such as the MACBA, the CCCB, the Ciutat del Teatre, and the Auditori, and other new constructions being built for the Universal Forum of Cultures in 2004.