Barcelona information
World architectural referent
One of the most important characteristics of
Barcelona is the city's great architectural richness, a feature
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 Barcelona's
Roman walls, the centre of which is the Plaça de Sant Jaume (St.
James Square). This first phase witnessed one of the crucial processes
in the life of the city: its Romanization.
· Mediaeval and modern city. The Mediaeval period
gave Barcelona one of its remarkable architectural gems, the Gothic
quarter, which presents all the splendour of an era epitomized
by the Plaça del Rei, with its churches, palaces, houses 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 relevant 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 the city 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
Fundació 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.