History

Archeological traces have been found around Barcelona that date back to 1500 B.C. This is the very first factual prove for an early settlement.
Scientist know for sure, that Barcelona was a city from 800 B.C.
Later, around 200 B.C. Barcelona was conquerd by the Roman Empire and was named 'Julia Augusta Paterna Faventia Barcino', later on, only the last name was used 'Barcino'.
Barcino served as a base for further conquests in Spain, but Barcino was not as important as some of the other conquered cities were.
Even though, Barcino grew to a large city, in the 3rd century A.D. Barcino had a population of 6000.

From the 5th century A.D. on, Barcino, was often conquered and battles were fought. In the 7th century A.D. Barcelona was for example conquered from the Visigoth by Moorish forces. Many of the locals abonded the city. In the early 9th century A.D. the Spanish March also took over the control in Barcelona. Later, another Arabic king tried to conquer Barcelona, but he never managed to get control of the city. In the following centuries, the peace would come back to Barcelona. Barcelona would soon grow to an important trading city next to the Mediterranean Sea.

For a long time, it was reasonably quiet in the area, untill the 16th and 17th century. Eventually Catalan would loose its autonomy at the end of the 17th century. Barcelona was not important compared to other major cities in the contry. Untill the 19th century, when Barcelona became more and more important. In the following year's Barcelona grew to a succesfull city, for example: the city walls were removed so the city could expand more easily.

In the 20th century (1936), Spain plunged into a new civil war. Barcelona was bombarded several times by Franquist forces and fell in 1939. Fransisco Franco changed Barcelona into a rapid growing industial city, the result was a large-scale immigration from poorer regions of Spain to Barcelona. Some of the area's in Barcelona had to deal with an increase of population of more then ten times in just a decade. Franco also suppressed all foreing languages in public life, aswell as the Catalan language.

Until the '60's Spain was economically not important, but from the '60's, the economy started to grow, slowly. Mostly caused by tourists who visited the beautifull beaches. Barcelona was in this period still a no go area for tourists, caused by the high crime level.
Eventually Franco died in 1975. After 36 year's of dictating Spain.

In the following year's, Spain had difficulties to maintain the economical growth. Only when the Olympic Committee decided (in 1986) to hold the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, Spain started to invest heavily in infrastructure and cleaned Barcelona from crime.
Luckelly this aproach was succesfull and Spain, and mostly Barcelona became a safe area to go, even for tourists. Nowaday's Barcelona is one of the most modern and trendy cities in Europe.
At the moment Barcelona has a population of 1,5 million, but if you also include all the suburbs, the total population will reach 5,5 million people.
Barcelona is also known for it's architecture, many buildings throughout the city are declared as a World Heritage site by UNESCO, many of these buildings have been designed by Antoni Gaudí.