Barcelona City Guide Introduction

Barcelona City Guide Introduction - Barcelona, Spain

Stylish Barcelona is one of Spain's most captivatingly modern cities. Traces of the city’s long past are still gorgeously visible (fragments of a fourth-century Roman wall, anyone?) but artistic Barcelona is well known for pushing boundaries in everything from architecture to cuisine. It is also the first city of Catalonia, one of a number of Spanish regions consistently agitating for a greater measure of independence from Madrid.

For a city that prides itself on its cultural institutions, Barcelona is strikingly physical. Most of its excitement happens outside, on La Rambla, at the beach and on the streets, against the backdrop of stunning, quirky architecture like the encrusted Temple de la Sagrada Familia or Gaudi's fabled apartment blocks.

,