A Short Barcelona History Lesson

The history of this city is a very agitated one and this same history has made it the way tourists see it today, but it also forced Barcelona to stay in the back and shadow of other cities for centuries and centuries. It is believed that the Carthaginians decided to found a new city, that is Barcelona in 230 BC but the Visigoths and then the Muslims invaded and tried to conquer it.

The Muslims ruled the city until 801 AD, the year when they were removed from its rule; the date coincides with the one when the true history of the city began. The Catalans are the ones who took over the control of Barcelona and in the 14th century, Barcelona was even ruling a small empire by itself; this empire included Sicily, Valencia, Malta, Sardinia, even the Balearic Islands and some regions belonging to France.

In the 15th century the city was hit with the plague, so its strength was lost; 1473 was the year when a horrible siege devastated and destroyed the biggest part of the city. 1714 was the year of another siege and devastation, so it is a wonder how the city was reborn from its own ashes and managed to survive and look like it does today. In 1778, Barcelona started its commerce with the Americas, so the flourishing period started to show its face to the city.

Wonderful periods

The Industrial Revolution, the Romantic Movement in Europe, the Renaissance, all these put their fingerprints on the city and helped it grow. A demographic explosion was suffered by Barcelona between the 1800s and the 1900s and the city grew even more in size and number of inhabitants, so new buildings and monuments were built.

The years of the World War I and World War II were difficult as they were for entire Europe, but Barcelona knew how to fight and how to survive as it had a vast experience in its past. Franco was the person who blackened long days in the history of the city as he tried to impose his beliefs and rules by flooding Barcelona and the entire region with poor immigrants coming from Andalusia.

For a city that was learning how to grow by working, this was a very harsh slap, but it knew one more time how to manage the situation, so the city that you are invited to visit today is a spectacular one!