Barcelona it´s History Part 2

During the roman time the Jewish religion had been tolerated by the Romans, however the Jewish suffered of discrimination. Anyhow the Jews still had an important influence on Barcelona. The word Montjuic of the Montjuic Mountain means mountain of the Jews.

During 711 the Moorish forces arrived at the Iberian Peninsula. After they concurred and devastated Tarraco, Barcelona surrendered peacefully. During these years Moorish rules applied in Barcelona ( Barshiluna). The cathedral was converted into a mosque and there were extra taxes for the non-Muslims.

However the Moorish control didn´t take long while Louis the Pious captured Barcelona in 801. This was his most southerly gains form the Moors. The area around Barcelona became the Spanish Marches (which was a buffer zone between them and the Moorish), with Barcelona as seat of the county.

In 1162 the area was inherited by Alfonso 2 of Aragon. Barcelona was an important city for him since it was the biggest settlement in Catalonia ( 4X the size of Girona). Since it´s location at the Mediterranean Sea the economy of Barcelona transferred directly trade. In 1469 Ferdinand 2 of Aragon married Isabelle 1 of Castile. Due to this marriage the two most important royal lines were united. After the marriage centre of political power became Madrid and because of the colonization of the Americas the financial importance of the Mediterranean trade reduced.

During the beginning of the 18th century the successes in the New World lead to a war between some of the major European countries. This led to the abolition of the Catalan autonomy, and ultimately to the end of national influences in Barcelona.

As the rest of Europe the industrial revolution arrived in Catalonia. All the Catalonia cities became important industrial centers, which led to an increase in wealth. After the revolution Barcelona was annexed by Napoleonic France and became a part of the French Empire.

In 1888 Barcelona hosted the Universal Exposition; this led to urbanizing of Barcelona. Barcelona absorbed some of there outskirts. One of them was Eixample(which means the extension).

FlatsByDays can offer apartments all around the city for instance our Cathedral apartment and our Gothic apartment. Living in the Gothic area will lead to an experience of this History.

The third and last part will be about the 20th century and Barcelona right now (Architecture, city etc)

Barcelona, a city with a long History!

The history stretches back 2000 years ago when Barcelona was named Barkeno. It was an easily defensible city due to its location (between the sea and the Collserola ridge). The city was settled by the Laietani in the third century, on the Taber Hill (now: Ciutat Vella) and at Laie (Montjuic).

There are a lot of myths concerning the history of Barcelona. At the moment there are two founding myths. The first one is about Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca (father of Hannibal) who came up with the name Barkeno. People believe that Barkeno is Iberic for Barcelona. The second myth is about Hercules. When Hercules was searching for the Golden Fleece one of his nine ships was lost, Hercules decided to locate the ship. He found the ship but it was completely wrecked: however his crew survived it and was taken to a beautiful location with the name Barca Nona (Ninth Ship).

After the Carthaginian control the Romans conquered the whole Iberian Peninsula. The north-east of the Peninsula was the first region to fall under the ´new´ Roman Control. When the Romans settled Barcelona they called it Barcino, in contrast to now Barcino was less important then Tarraco (Now: Tarragona) and Caesaraugusta (Now: Zaragoza). Barcino was controlled by Tarraco. However Barcino had a strategic position on the Via Augusta which allowed a commercial and economic development and it enjoyed immunity from imperial taxation.

During the Roman Control Barcino´s main economic activity was the cultivation, the cultivated wine was widely exported over the Roman Empire. Barcelona´s main public building was a temple which was dedicated to Ceasar Augustus.

As you can read Barcelona is a great city with a beautiful history. With our apartments around the old city centre (Portaferissa, Bellafila and Opera) you can be a part of the wonderful history.

Next week the blog will be about the period after the Roman Control. The Christian communities and Jewish influences.

Public Transportation in Barcelona

The metropolitan of Barcelona has 1.6 Million inhabitants. These people need to be transported all around the city: due to this fact Barcelona has reliable public transport. There are different ways of transportation to travel around the city.

Maybe the quickest and easiest way is the Metro. The Barcelona metro is going all around the city and is open until 24.00(Monday-Thursday), 2.00 AM (Friday), All night (Saturday). Since the metro is going everywhere it´s a nice way to transport inside Barcelona. We recommend you to buy a T-10 ticket, this ticket costs 7.95€ and includes 10 tickets. 1 Ticket is valid for 1.15H, which means that changing from bus to metro in 1.15h is free.

The Bus is also a nice way of transportation. Since there´re so many stops around the city, you can come more close to your destination then by metro. The only downside is that the bus takes longer. Barcelona has special bus strips, due to these strips the busses won´t slow down by traffic. The busses are also using the T-10 tickets.

If you decide to ´escape´ from Barcelona for a day it´s recommend taking the train. The trains in Spain are pretty punctual and cheap. A round ticket to for instance Sitges is 7€. Sitges is a beautiful small village with a beautiful beach. We can recommend you to go there for a day to enjoy its beautiful beaches. The trains are using their own tickets, and can be bought at the stations. Barcelona has multiple train stations (Barcelona Sants, Passeig de Gracia and Estacio Franca). Passeig de Gracia has a metro station as well so it´s pretty easy to hop from metro to train.

FlatsByDays has a variety of apartments which are very close to the public transport. Our Bellafila apartments are just in the middle of metro station Liceu (Green) and station Jaume (Yellow), due to this fact you can get from our apartments everywhere by taking public transport.

The Sagrada Familia, Barcelona´s pearl!

The Sagrada Familia is one of the symbols that stand for Barcelona. The Sagrada has been under construction since 1882, the church will be consecrated by the Pope on November 7, 2010.

The church was designed by Antoni Gaudi, whom is still very important for Barcelona since a majority of his creatures are still in wonderful shape and can be found in Barcelona. After his death in 1926 the work continued under the direction of Gaudi´s friend, Domenech Sugranyes. Barcelona is still trying to finish the constructions in 2026 (100 years after Gaudi´s death).

It took Gaudi 5 years to finish the entrance. From that moment on Gaudi realized that the constructions would take a tremendous amount of time. Therefore he opened in 1909 the Sagrada Temporary schools. These schools were designed for the children of the workers and for the local children who were members of its community. During the last months of his life he became so involved that he decided to live next to the church. He lived in a room next to the workshop; this room was used for making scale models, doing sketches etc.

Just after his death the team moved on by using Gaudi´s original plans and drawings, due to this fact the four bell towers were completed in 1930. During the civil war the construction stopped, throughout the civil war multiple parts of the temple were damaged and desecrated. Therefore after the civil war the restoration of the crypt started. It took until the end 80´s of the 20th century to finish the outside of the Temple. From the begin 90´s the team started building the inside of the Gaudi´s creature. Since the Sagrada has been under construction for so long, they are restorate the temple as well. This means that they are building and restorate the temple.

The construction on the temple is not supported by the government. The initial stages were funded by private funds. At the moment the construction is paid by the entrance tickets and by private donations through the friends of the temple fund.

The Bellafila Apartments are just some metro stops away from this beautiful creation of Gaudi