History of Barcelona

The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear. Remains from the Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods have been found on the coastal plain near the city. The ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighborhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC.{{cite web|author1=Servei d'Arqueologia of Institut de Cultura de Barcelona|title=Caserna de Sant Pau del Camp|url=http://cartaarqueologica.bcn.cat/989|website=CartaArqueologica|publisher=Ajuntament de Barcelona|accessdate=2 May 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303224118/http://cartaarqueologica.bcn.cat/989|archivedate=March 3, 2016|page=Description and Historical Notes|language=Spanish|quote=The intervention at the site began with an archaeological survey that yielded positive results and triggered a second phase in which extensive excavation of the affected area was conducted, making it possible to document its successive occupations and uses. Level IV, defined by a set of 24 burials (all individual graves except for one double) and diverse habitatational structures including 9 silos and 26 hearths, had been dated to the Neolithic in the first phase. In the second phase, a team was able to establish a better defined chronological sequence based on the more recent studies (Molist et al, 2008). Datings by the AMS system of two bone silos (5360-5210 BC and 5310-5200 BC respectively) allowed identifying a first occupation by a Cardial Culture settlement during the Neolithic while burials were dated to (4250 - 3700 BC, between the Neolithic and Postcardial Middle Neolithic periods... The second phase of archaeological investigations at level II revealed remains attributable to the Bronze Age. Specifically, two different cultural backgrounds were distinguishable at this level. The oldest, dating to the Bronze Age, was represented by eight fireplaces and five storage structures, one of which was used as a secondary burial site, i.e., the individual remains were not arranged in a deliberate manner. They also found accumulations of stones, some of which were laid in alignment including right angles and identified as the remains of dwelling structures. The Late Bronze level III was represented by indeterminate indications of domiciles... The third chronological phase was represented by the use of the area as a Roman necropolis. In a plotted field of about 100 m² were found a total of 34 burial tombs, of which thirty were primary and four secondary, dating to between the 4th and the 6th centuries.}}{{cite journal|author1=MM Montaña |author2=OV Campos |author3=R Farré |title=Study of the Neolithic Excavation Site of the Sant Pau del Camp Barracks |journal=Quarhis |date=2008 |volume=II |issue=4 |page=3 |url=https://www.bcn.cat/.../04_QUARHIS_01_jaciment. |accessdate=2 May 2016 |quote=The study of stratum IV of the site of the Sant Pau del Camp barracks allows for the documentation of a settlement occupied during the Ancient Neolithic Age on the coastal plain of the Barcelona metropolitan area, in the Raval zone of the city of Barcelona. Interdisciplinary studies have analysed the archaeological register documented at the excavation at the beginning of the 1990s and these have allowed for the definition of the chronology of the settlement and its characteristics... The results confirm the existence of a settlement in the Ancient Neolithic Age that, during its final moments (Postcardial), extended its functions as a necropolis. }}{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Later, in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the area was settled by the Laietani, an Ιberian people,{{cite book|author=Felipe Fernández-Armesto|title=Barcelona: A Thousand Years of the City's Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7AskAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Laietani%22|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-285273-1|page=10}} at Barkeno on the Tàber hill (in the present-day Ciutat Vella, or "Old City") and at Laie (or Laiesken),{{cite book|author=Luis Silgo Gauche|title=Estudio de Toponimia Ibérica. la Toponimia de Las Fuentes Clásicas, Monedas E Inscripciones|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_FoUzgl353QC&pg=PA113|year=2013|publisher=Editorial Visión Libros|isbn=978-84-9011-948-8|page=113}} believed to have been located on Montjuïc.{{cite book|author1=Ronald Syme|author2=Anthony Richard Birley|title=Roman Papers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmRoAAAAMAAJ|date=2 June 1988|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-814873-9|page=83}} Both settlements struck coinage which survives to this day.{{cite web|title=Cecas ibéricas en la zona catalana|url=http://www.tesorillo.com/hispania/2ibericas1.htm#layetanos|work=Tesorillo.com|publisher=Numismática Antigua|accessdate=15 April 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407040537/http://tesorillo.com/hispania/2ibericas1.htm|archivedate=April 7, 2014|location=Madrid, Spain|date=15 July 2010}}{{cite book|author=Leandre Villaronga|title=Les dracmes ibèriques i llurs divisors|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gkicOc2UlhgC&pg=PA154|date=1 January 1998|publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans|isbn=978-84-7283-418-7|page=154}}{{cite book|author=Josep Padró i Parcerisa|title=Egyptian-type Documents: From the Mediterranean Littoral of the Iberian Peninsula Before the Roman Conquest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0uYUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3|year=1983|publisher=Brill Archive|isbn=90-04-06133-9|page=3}}

Some historians have maintained that a small Greek colony, Kallipolis (Καλλίπολις), was founded in the vicinity{{cite book|author1=Valeriano Bozal Fernández|author2=Valeriano Bozal|title=Historia del arte en España: Desde los orígenes hasta la Ilustración|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCIC2ntmJ80C&pg=PA28|year=1973|publisher=Ediciones Akal|isbn=978-84-7090-025-9|page=28}}{{cite book|author1=Pierson Dixon (Sir.)|author2=Pierson Dixon|title=The Iberians of Spain and Their Relations with the Aegean World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6GlpAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Kallipolis%22|year=1940|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=40}}{{cite book|author=Antonio Ballesteros Beretta|title=Historia de España y su influencia en la historia universal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OjTAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA212|year=1918|publisher=P. Salvat|page=212}} at around the same period, but conclusive archaeological evidence to support this has not been found.{{cite book|author=Michael Grant|title=A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLu5GGr4ff8C&q=%22Laietani%22|date=January 1986|publisher=H.W. Wilson|isbn=978-0-8242-0742-7|page=103}}

It is sometimes asserted that the area was occupied c. 230 BC by Carthaginian troops under the leadership of Hamilcar Barca,{{cite book|author1=William H. Robinson|author2=Jordi Falgàs|author3=Carmen Belen Lord|title=Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5xfngEACAAJ&pg=PA3|year=2006|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-12106-3|page=3}} but this is disputed. The alleged military occupation is often cited as the foundation of the modern city of Barcelona, although the northern limit of the Punic territories up to that time had been the river Ebro, located over 150 km to the south. There is no evidence that Barcelona was ever a Carthaginian settlement, or that its name in antiquity, Barcino, had any connection with the Barcid family of Hamilcar.{{cite book|author=P.F. Collier & Son Corporation|title=Collier's Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpQVAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Barcino%22|year=1957|publisher=Collier|page=48}}

At least two founding myths have been proposed for Barcelona by historians since the 15th century. One credits the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, with the foundation of the city around 230 BC, giving it the name Barkenon. Despite the similarities between the name of this Carthaginian family and that of the modern city, it is usually accepted that the origin of the name "Barcelona" is the Iberian word Barkeno.{{cite book|author1=Michael Dietler|author2=Carolina López-Ruiz|title=Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician, Greek, and Indigenous Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lX4sFmBYZ74C&pg=PA75|date=15 October 2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-14848-9|page=75}}{{cite book|author=James Maxwell Anderson|title=Ancient languages of the Hispanic peninsula|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d4FdAAAAMAAJ|date=30 June 1988|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-8191-6732-3|page=24}}

The second myth attributes the foundation of the city to Hercules{{cite book|author=Luis R. Corteguera|title=For the Common Good: Popular Politics in Barcelona, 1580-1640|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HhAjV4KygdQC&pg=PA7|year=2002|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0-8014-3780-6|page=7}} before the foundation of Rome. During the fourth of his Labours, Hercules joins Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, travelling across the Mediterranean in nine ships. One of the ships is lost in a storm off the Catalan coast, and Hercules sets out to locate it. He finds it wrecked by a small hill, but with the crew saved. The crew are so taken by the beauty of the location that they found a city with the name Barca Nona ("Ninth Ship").

Information about the period from 218 BC until the 1st century BC is scarce. The Roman Republic contested the Carthaginian control of the area, and eventually set out to conquer the whole of the Iberian Peninsula in the Cantabrian Wars, a conquest

which was declared complete by Caesar Augustus in 19 BC.{{cite book|title=The World and Its Peoples: Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5J2gAAAAMAAJ&q=%2219%20BC%22|year=1969|publisher=Greystone Press|page=73}} The north-east of the peninsula was the first region to fall under Roman control, and served as a base

for further conquests. While Barcelona was settled by the Romans during this period under the name of Barcino,{{cite book|author=A. E. J Morris|title=History of Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=whBEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA78|date=2 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-88514-6|page=78}} it was considerably less important than the major centres of Tarraco (capital of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis) and Caesaraugusta, respectively known today as Tarragona and Saragossa (Zaragoza in Spanish).

The name Barcino was formalised around the end of the reign of Caesar Augustus (AD 14). It was a shortened version of the name which had been official until then,

Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino (also Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino)Incr. ap. Gruter, p. 426, nos. 5, 6. and Colonia Faventia.{{cite book|author=Pliny (the Elder.)|title=The Natural History of Pliny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVMMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA167|year=1893|publisher=H. G. Bohn|page=167|isbn=9780598910738}} As a colonia, it was established to distribute land among retired soldiers. The Roman geographer Pomponius Mela refers to Barcino as one of a number of small settlements near Tarraco, a town wealthy in maritime resources.{{cite book|author=Pomponius Mela|title=Pomponius Mela's Description of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AplSod8IDcC&pg=PA93|year=1998|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-08452-6|page=93}} However, Barcino's strategic position on a branch of the Via Augusta allowed its commercial and economic development,{{cite book|author1=Cèsar Carreras Monfort|author2=Josep Guitart i Duran|title=Barcino I: marques i terrisseries d'àmfores al pla de Barcelona|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=skV87Cxz9xsC&pg=PA77|year=2009|publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans|isbn=978-84-92583-45-4|page=77}}Rufo Festo Aviano, Or. Mar. 520: Et Barcilonum aoena sedes ditium.) and it enjoyed immunity from imperial taxation.{{cite book|author=Nicola Mackie|title=Local Administration in Roman Spain, A.D. 14-212|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ODtmAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Barcino%22+%22taxation%22|year=1983|publisher=British Archaeological Reports|isbn=978-0-86054-220-9|page=123}}{{cite book|author=Sir William Smith|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography: Abacaenum-Hytanis|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionarygreek16smitgoog|year=1854|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionarygreek16smitgoog/page/n298 379]}}

At the time of Caesar Augustus, Barcino had the form of a castrum, with the usual central forum and perpendicular main streets: the Cardus Maximus (today Carrer de la Llibreteria) and the Decumanus Maximus (today Carrer del Bisbe) intersecting at the top (25 m) of the Tàber hill (Mons Taber), site of the Iberian Barkeno.{{cite book|author=Lluís Cortada i Colomer|title=Estructures territorials, urbanisme i arquitectura poliorcètics a la Catalunya preindustrial: De l'antiguitat al segle XVII|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Xm-L_JDVVAC&pg=PA59|year=1998|publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans|isbn=978-84-7283-438-5|page=59}}{{cite book|author=Arantza Blanco Ganuza|title=Spain: a Phaidon cultural guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsifAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Mons%20Taber%22|date=2 March 1985|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=978-0-13-824145-2|page=107}} The perimeter walls were 1.5 km long, enclosing an area of 12 ha.

File:Columnas Templo de Augusto Barcelona.jpg

By the 2nd century, the city had the form of an oppidum{{cite book|author=Robert Hughes|title=Barcelona|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgKonzUWye8C&pg=PA65|date=7 December 2011|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-76461-4|pages=65–}}{{cite book|author1=Michael Raeburn|author2=Arts Council of Great Britain|title=Homage to Barcelona: The City and Its Art, 1888-1936 : Hayward Gallery, London, 14 November 1985-23 February 1986|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eiLrAAAAMAAJ&q=%22oppidum%22|year=1985|publisher=Arts Council of Great Britain|isbn=978-0-7287-0478-7|page=112}}{{cite book|author=Johannes Assmann|title=De coloniis oppidisque romanis: quibus imperatoria nomina vel cognomina imposita sunt ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sq1DAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA52|year=1905|publisher=Typis Julii Beltzii|page=52}} and a population of 3500–5000.{{cite book|author1=Josep María Camarasa|author2=Unesco. Programme on Man and the Biosphere|title=Encyclopedia of the Biosphere: Mediterranean woodlands|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iw87AQAAIAAJ|date=16 December 1999|publisher=Gale Group|isbn=978-0-7876-4511-3|page=191|quote=Initially it was a simple military camp (a castrum) but by the second century A.D. it was a town of 4,000-5,000 inhabitants.}} The main economic activity was cultivation of the surrounding land, and its wine was exported widely.{{cite book|author=Silvia Orvietani Busch|title=Medieval Mediterranean Ports: The Catalan and Tuscan Coasts, 1100-1235|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BAtfHIxcHZ4C&pg=PA118|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-12069-6|page=118|year=2001}} The archeological remains from the period (sculptures, mosaics, and amphorae) indicate a relatively prosperous population, although the city lacked the major public buildings (theatre, amphitheatre, circus) found in more important Roman centres such as Tarraco. The forum's most impressive building was the temple dedicated to Caesar Augustus, probably constructed at the start of the 1st century.{{cite book|author1=Kurt A. Raaflaub|author2=Mark Toher|title=Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-UTjncU9zFgC&pg=PA314|year=1993|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-08447-6|page=314}} It was quite large for a city the size of Barcino, measuring 35 m by 17.5 m, and built on a podium surrounded by Corinthian columns.{{cite book|author1=Josep Puig i Cadafalch|author2=Antoni de Falguera|author3=José Goday y Casals|title=L'arquitectura romana a Catalunya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Furoxioe_dkC&pg=PA94|year=1934|publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans|pages=94–99|id=GGKEY:SUSYS955SFU}}

The first raids by the Germanic tribes started around 250, and the fortifications of the city were substantially improved in the later years of the 3rd century under Claudius II.{{cite book|author1=Kimberly Diane Bowes|author2=Michael Kulikowski|title=Hispania in Late Antiquity: Current Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HClpAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Claudius%20II%22|year=2005|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-14391-3|page=319}}{{cite book|author=Alberto Balil|title=Las murallas bajoimperiales de Barcino|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFQaAAAAIAAJ&q=Romano|year=1961|publisher=Consejo superior de investigaciones científicas, Instituto español de arqueología "Rodrigo Caro"|page=124}} The new double wall was at least two metres high, up to eight metres in some parts, and was punctuated by seventy-eight towers measuring up to eighteen metres high. The new fortifications were the strongest in the Roman province of the Tarraconensis, and would increase the importance of Barcino compared to Tarraco.

Significant vestiges of Roman Barcino can be seen in the underground displays of the Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA), which also maintains other heritage sites from Roman times in Barcelona, such as the Roman Sepulchral way, or the Roman walls.

The first Christian communities in the Tarraconense were founded during the 3rd century, and the diocese of Tarraco was already established by 259, when the bishop Saint Fructuosus (Fructuós) and the deacons Augurius and Eulogius were burned alive on the orders of the governor Aemilianus, under an edict issued by the emperor Valerian.{{cite book|author1=Alban Butler|author2=Paul Burns|title=Butler's Lives of the Saints|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z6gVpEhXFhUC&pg=PA149|year=1995|publisher=Burns & Oates|isbn=978-0-8146-2377-0|page=149}} The Christian community in Barcino appears to have been established in the latter half of the 3rd century.

The persecution of the Christians under Diocletian at the start of the 4th century would lead to at least one martyr dying in the region of Barcino: Saint Cucuphas ({{langx|ca|Sant Cugat}}). Apparently of African origin, Cucuphas had evangelised in several areas of the Tarraconense, including Barcino, Egara (modern Terrassa) and Iluro (modern Mataró), before being killed at Castrum Octavium (modern Sant Cugat del Vallès, just over the Collserola ridge from Barcino/Barcelona). Saint Eulalia ({{langx|ca|Santa Eulàlia}}) is also often considered as a martyr from Barcino.{{cite book|title=Iberian Fathers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X5hkltq6rrMC&pg=PA3|date=1 February 1999|publisher=CUA Press|isbn=978-0-8132-0099-6|page=3}}

The Edict of Milan in 313 granted a greater freedom of religion to Christians in the Roman Empire and put an end to widespread persecution. The first recorded

bishop of Barcino was Prætextatus (Pretextat) (d. 360), who attended the Council of Sardica in 343.{{cite book|author1=Mercè Vallejo|author2=David Escamilla|title=La Barcelona del viento|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EsIi3uQxwiAC&pg=PA148|date=1 January 2007|publisher=Ediciones Robinbook|isbn=978-84-96924-26-0|page=148}} He was succeeded by Saint Pacian ({{langx|ca|Sant Pacià}}, c. 310–390) and Lampius (Lampi) who died in the year 400.{{cite book|author=Antoni Pladevall|title=Història de l'Església a Catalunya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8gRAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Pretextat%22%20%22Paci%C3%A0%22%20%22Lampi%22|date=1 January 2007|publisher=Editorial Claret|isbn=978-84-9846-002-5|page=289}}{{cite book|author1=Ramon Corts i Blay|author2=Joan Galtés i Pujol|author3=Albert Manent|title=Diccionari d'història eclesiàstica de Catalunya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=68LYAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Pretextat%22%20%22Paci%C3%A0%22%20%22Lampi%22|date=1 January 1998|publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya|isbn=978-84-393-4613-5|pages=199, 206}} Pacian is particularly known for his works De baptismo ("On Baptism") and Libellus exhortatorius ad poenitentium, about the penitential system.{{cite book|author=Julio Caro Baroja|title=El Carnaval: análisis histórico-cultural|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkRLAAAAYAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Taurus Ediciones, S.A.-Grupo Santillana|isbn=978-84-306-3502-3|page=169}} The first major Christian church in Barcino, the Basílica de la Santa Creu, was constructed around the end of the 4th century at the site where the medieval Barcelona Cathedral now stands; its baptistry was found in the underground and can be accessed through the nearby Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA).{{cite book|author=Anna Maria Adroer i Tasis|title=A Pau Verrié|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5ITN9DPAasC&pg=PA50|year=2005|publisher=L'Abadia de Montserrat|isbn=978-84-8415-748-9|page=50}}

At the start of the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire suffered ever more serious attacks at the hands of various Germanic peoples,{{cite book|author=Jean S. Forward|title=Endangered Peoples of Europe: Struggles to Survive and Thrive|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8p3P1u_xmEEC&pg=PA33|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-31006-5|page=33}} notably the Goths and the Vandals. Alaric's stepbrother and successor Ataulf led the Visigoths into southern Gaul, and after a defeat at the hands of the Roman forces at Narbona (modern Narbonne)

in 414, moved across the Pyrenees into the Tarraconensis. Ataulf established his court at Barcino, where he was murdered by one of his own troops in 415.{{cite book|author=Joan Mervyn Hussey|title=The Cambridge Medieval History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zus8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA403|year=1966|publisher=CUP Archive|page=403|id=GGKEY:W8456N5J140}}

The death of Ataulf, who had imprisoned then married Galla Placidia, daughter of the emperor Theodosius I,{{cite book|author=Barbara Hanawalt|title=The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History|url=https://archive.org/details/middleagesillust00hana|url-access=registration|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-510359-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/middleagesillust00hana/page/22 22]}} changed the relations between the Visigoths and the Romans. Under Wallia (415–419), the Visigoths became fœderati, allies charged with the control of the other Germanic tribes who had invaded Hispania. Wallia was notably successful in this task (Wallia's campaign in Spain),{{cite book|author1=Daniel Coit Gilman|author2=Harry Thurston Peck|author3=Frank Moore Colby|title=The New international encyclopaedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xj4rAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA75|year=1906|publisher=Dodd, Mead and company|page=75}} and the emperor Honorius extended the area of Visigoth control to include Aquitania and Gallia Narbonensis. Wallia established his capital at Tolosa (modern Toulouse) in 417.{{cite book|author1=Heinrich Joseph Wetzer|author2=Benedikt Welte|author3=Isidore Goschler|title=Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la théologie catholique: rédigé par les plus savants professeurs et docteurs en théologie de l'Allemagne catholique moderne ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=545p6_r99lQC&pg=PA459|year=1860|publisher=Gaume frères et J. Duprey|page=459}}

Barcino would remain an important, if provincial, centre of the Visigoth kingdom, notably because of its excellent defensive walls. After the death of Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé against the Franks in 507, his successor Gesalec (507–513) moved the capital from Tolosa to Barcino.{{cite book|author=Mr Frank Riess|title=Narbonne and its Territory in Late Antiquity: From the Visigoths to the Arabs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FKiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT185|date=28 December 2013|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4724-0827-3|page=185}} However, he was defeated by Ibbas, an Ostrogothic general, outside of the city in 512.* {{cite book|date=2008 |first=Jonathan J. |language=en |last=Arnold |location=Ann Arbor |title=Theoderic, the Goths, and the Restoration of the Roman Empire |isbn=978-0-549-81802-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_I7Hk-bqPTIC |page=248}} Amalaric (511–531) ruled from Narbona, but was murdered by his troops in Barcino,{{cite book|author=Ferran Soldevila|title=Història de Catalunya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b44fRo7VnkwC&pg=PA26|year=1963|publisher=Editorial Alpha|page=26|isbn=9788472250123|id=GGKEY:WN6PGFTYDS4}} from where his successor Theudis ruled until 548. Barcino returned to its role as a provincial centre with the establishment of the Visigoth capital in Toledo by Leovigildus in 573.{{cite book|author1=Ramón de Abadal y Vinyals|author2=Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón|title=Del reino de Tolosa al reino de Toledo: discurso leído el día 27 de noviembre de 1960 en el acto de su recepción pública por el Excmo. Sr. D. Ramón de Abadal y de Vinyals y contestación por el Excmo. Sr. Director de la Real Academia D. Francisco J. Sánchez Cantón|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5V--FUOhBaoC&pg=PA66|year=1960|publisher=Real Academia de la Historia|page=66|id=GGKEY:EPB74UWLR2C}}

The Visigoths formed only a minority of the population of the city, occupying the positions of authority. The first rulers were Arians until the adoption of Catholic Christianity as the state religion in 589, but the practice of Catholicism by the city population was tolerated. The religious centre moved from the Basílica de la Santa Cruz, which had been converted into an Arian church, to the Església dels Sants Just i Pastor (Church of Saint Justus and Pastor). Christian Councils were held in 540 under bishop {{ill|Nebridius (bishop of Barcelona)|ca|Nebridi (bisbe de Barcelona)|lt=Nebridi}} and in 599 in the reconsecrated Basilica under bishop Ugnas,{{cite book|author1=William Smith|author2=Henry Wace|title=A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines: Being a Continuation of 'The Dictionary of the Bible'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e3DYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1058|year=1887|publisher=Little, Brown & Company|page=1058}} whose name does not appear as a signatory of the unique document known as De fisco Barcinonensi. This letter to the treasurers of the city, traditionally associated with the council of 592,{{cite book|author1=Margarita Diaz-Andreu|author2=Simon Keay|title=The Archaeology of Iberia: The Dynamics of Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4hEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA225|date=2 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-79907-8|page=225}} describes the provincial tax system administered from Barcelona.{{cite book|author=Rachel L. Stocking|title=Bishops, Councils, and Consensus in the Visigothic Kingdom, 589-633|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTo2Rhp1onsC&pg=PA106|year=2000|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-11133-7|page=106}} It is the most informative historical source on the Visigothic system of taxation.{{cite book|author=Chris Wickham|title=Framing the Early Middle Ages:Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q04qPNZasbIC&pg=PA97|date=22 September 2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-153261-0|page=97}}

The language spoken at the time was undoubtedly Vulgar Latin,{{cite book|author=Dominic Keown|title=A Companion to Catalan Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNyocuVg5m0C&pg=PA119|year=2011|publisher=Tamesis Books|isbn=978-1-85566-227-8|page=119}}{{cite book|author=Saul Mercado|title=Linguistic Citizenship: Language Policy, Social Cohesion, and Immigration in Barcelona, Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9a_Ybp2NJdQC&pg=PA101|year=2008|isbn=978-1-109-10062-4|pages=101–102}} including by the Visigoth rulers who were rapidly Latinised. Over time, the spelling of the Latin Barcino (declined as Barcinone, Barcinonem, Barcinonam, Barcinona) gradually came to include an intercalated "h" to represent the evolving pronunciation, and the use of the different Latin cases declined.

The Jewish population of Barcino/Barchinona dates from the mid-4th century at the latest.{{cite book|author1=Marjorie Trusted |author1-link=Holly Trusted |author2=Hispanic Society of America|title=The arts of Spain: Iberia and Latin America 1450-1700|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nGgxAQAAIAAJ&q=Ervigio+jews|date=October 2007|publisher=V&A Publications/The Hispanic Society of America|isbn=978-1-85177-523-1|page=110}} While the Jewish religion had been tolerated by the Romans, Jews suffered varying degrees of discrimination and persecution under the Visigoths. In his general law code of 654, the Visigothic king Recceswinth outlawed many essential Jewish practices, including circumcision of males, dietary laws (kashrut), marriage laws and ceremonies, and the celebration of Passover.{{cite book|author=John Edwards|title=The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs 1474-1520|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aIPz-a0v2oMC|year=2000|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-0-631-22143-2|page=72}}

With the death of Recceswinth in 672, Wamba (672–680) was elected as his successor. His reign was spent mostly in warfare; those he fought against included the general Flavius Paulus who, together with Randsind, duke of Tarragona, Hilderic, count of Nîmes, and Argebald, bishop of Narbonne, had incited all of Septimania and part of Tarraconensis to rebellion.{{cite book|author=John Bagnell Bury|title=The Cambridge Medieval History|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgemediev00broogoog|year=1913|publisher=Macmillan|page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgemediev00broogoog/page/n209 179]}} The Jews opposed Wamba in the expectation that he would perpetuate his predecessor's anti-Jewish policies, and had an important political and military role in this revolt. The Jewish population of Barchinona was considerable enough to prompt Wamba to issue limited expulsion orders against them.

The rebellion of Paulus was promptly quelled and punished, and Wamba regained possession of Barcelona, Gerona, and Narbonne, which were among the chief centres of disaffection. Wamba was a political realist, however, and his understanding of the vital Jewish place in the economic structure of the provinces allowed him to reach a reconciliation with them.{{cite book|author=Bernard S. Bachrach|title=Early Medieval Jewish Policy in Western Europe|url=https://archive.org/details/earlyme_bac_1977_00_0074|url-access=registration|date=July 1977|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-5698-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/earlyme_bac_1977_00_0074/page/18 18]}} In 680, Wamba was dethroned as a result of a conspiracy headed by Erwig, one of the nobles, with the assistance of the Metropolitan of Toledo. Besides persecuting the partisans of Wamba, Erwig made new laws against the Jews, subjecting the converts to minute regulations assuring their religious faith.{{cite book|author=Jane S. Gerber|title=Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_qmpcSlB8wYC&pg=PA14|date=31 January 1994|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-02-911574-9|page=14}} These laws, although severe, were less so than those of Receswinth.

Moorish forces arrived in the Iberian peninsula in 711, ostensibly to assist Achila II in the civil war which opposed him against Roderic.{{cite book|author=E. Michael Gerli|title=Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euVJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA842|date=30 December 2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-77162-0|page=842}}{{cite book|author1=Philip Grierson|author2=Mark Blackburn|title=Medieval European Coinage: Volume 1, The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th Centuries)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WpQiZ8BX2q8C&pg=PA43|date=2 July 2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-03177-6|page=43}} The Arabs saw in the civil war an opportunity to invade the Iberian peninsula,{{cite book|author1=Paul Fouracre|author2=Rosamond McKitterick|title=The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 1, C.500-c.700|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JcmwuoTsKO0C&pg=PA368|date=8 December 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-36291-7|page=368}} and won the victory at the Battle of Guadalete, owing to the treachery of a part of the Visigothic army,{{cite book|author=Joseph F. O'Callaghan|title=A History of Medieval Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yA3p6v3UxyIC&pg=PA53|date=31 August 1983|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0-8014-9264-5|page=53}} which had been persuaded to change sides by the partisans of Achila.Bury 1913, p. 185

The throne of Achila was usurped in 713 in favour of Ardo,{{cite book|author=Céline Martin|title=La géographie du pouvoir dans l'Espagne visigothique|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9LJjMyQ6NIC&pg=PA97|year=2003|publisher=Presses Univ. Septentrion|isbn=978-2-85939-815-6|page=97}} and from 716 to 718, the new governor of Al-Andalus, Al-Hurr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi,{{cite book|author=David James|title=Early Islamic Spain: The History of Ibn Al-Qutiyah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6d9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA59|date=25 February 2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-02531-2|page=59}} suppressed Christian resistance in virtually all of Visigothic Hispania, and quickly expanded the territory under Moorish control as far as the Pyrenees.{{cite book|author=Rom Landau|title=Islam and the Arabs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VdBSAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA124|date=16 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-53671-9|page=124}} After the conquest and devastation of Tarraco in 717, Barchinona surrendered peacefully and was hence spared from major destruction. The vestigial Visigothic kingdom ruled by Ardo (713–720) in Septimania{{cite book|author=Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar Ibn al-Qūṭīyah|title=Early Islamic Spain: The History of Ibn Al-Qūṭīya : a Study of the Unique Arabic Manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a Translation, Notes, and Comments|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CrA2CaUZGAC&pg=PA54|year=2009|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-47552-5|page=54}} was conquered by the invading Arabs in 720.{{cite book|author=Roger Collins|title=Charlemagne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05IVoPSfb48C&pg=PA29|year=1998|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-8218-3|page=29}}{{cite book|author=Bernard F. Reilly|title=The Medieval Spains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NdJjn1HpSy4C&pg=PA53|date=3 June 1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39741-4|page=53}}

Muslim rule in Barshiluna{{cite book|author=Colin Smith|title=Christians and Moors in Spain: Arabic sources (711-1501)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vnXAAAAMAAJ&q=Barshiluna|year=1988|publisher=Aris & Phillips|page=201|isbn=9780856684500}}{{cite book|author=Antonio Arjona Castro|title=Anales de Córdoba musulmana, 711-1008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PX5pAAAAMAAJ&q=%22asesinada%20en%20medina%20Barshiluna%22|year=1982|publisher=Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Córdoba|page=239|isbn=978-84-7231-656-0 }} (also transliterated as Medina Barshaluna,{{cite book|author=Richard Dübell|title=Der letzte Paladin: Historischer Roman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rtehW4Ru90UC&pg=PT205|date=14 March 2013|publisher=Lübbe Digital|isbn=978-3-8387-2420-1|page=205}} Madinat Barshaluna, Bargiluna and Barxiluna{{cite book|author1=Joan de Déu Prats|author2=Prats Matute, Joan de Déu|title=Llegendes de Barcelona|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrT6OOhVslsC&pg=PA25|date=23 March 2007|publisher=L'Abadia de Montserrat|isbn=978-84-8415-887-5|page=25}}) lasted roughly 85 years. While the cathedral was converted into a mosque and taxes levied on non-Muslims, religious freedom and civil government was largely respected. The local Walī was mostly concerned with military matters; the count and the local bishop generally had day-to-day control of the local population.

Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, captured Barcelona in 801{{cite book|author-link=David Levering Lewis|author=David Levering Lewis|title=God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zxuar_ISdcUC&pg=PA312|date=12 January 2009|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-06790-3|page=312}} after a siege of several months.{{cite book|author=Jim Bradbury|title=The Medieval Siege|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKFRvUiLEQYC&pg=PA34|year=1992|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=978-0-85115-357-5|page=34}} It was to be the most southerly gain of territory from the Moors as he was pushed back from Tortosa,{{cite book|author=Joseph F. O'Callaghan|title=A History of Medieval Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVMJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA106|date=15 April 2013|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-6871-1|page=106}} and the rivers Llobregat and Cardener marked the boundaries of the Carolingian possessions.{{cite book|author1=Natalie Fryde|author1-link=Natalie Fryde|author2=Dirk Reitz|title=Walls, Ramparts, and Lines of Demarcation: Selected Studies from Antiquity to Modern Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X9_moud2DyQC&pg=PA69|year=2009|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-8258-9478-8|page=69}} The border regions were organised into the Spanish Marches (Marca Hispanica), administered by a number of counts appointed by the King, until Charles the Bald formally converted the territory into the hereditary County of Barcelona in 865.{{cite book|author=Barton Sholod|title=Charlemagne in Spain: The Cultural Legacy of Roncesvalles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RF5RMtPJBiMC&pg=PA44|year=1966|publisher=Librairie Droz|isbn=978-2-600-03478-4|page=44}}{{cite book|author=Edgar Allison Peers|title=Catalonia Infelix|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-sAAAAAMAAJ|year=1938|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=4}}{{cite book|author=Henry Brougham Baron Brougham and Vaux|title=Principles of government. Monarchical government|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iIEqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA611|year=1843|publisher=Society and Chapman & Hall|page=611}}

The first Carolingian Counts of Barcelona were little more than royal administrators,{{cite book|author=Charles W. Previte-Orton|title=The Later Roman Empire to the Twelfth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RXU5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA464|year=1975|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-09976-9|page=464}} but the position steadily gained in power and independence from the central rule with the weakening of the Carolingian kings.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Barcelona (Spanish city) |volume= 03 | pages = 391–393; see page 392, third para, line nine |quote= From 874 the counts of Barcelona ruled as independent monarchs. }} At the same time, several of the counties of the Spanish Marches came to be ruled by the same individual. The last Count of Barcelona to be appointed by the Carolingian authorities was Wilfred the Hairy ({{langx|ca|Guifré el Pelós}}) at the Assembly of Troyes in 878:{{cite book|author1=André Vauchez|author2=Michael Lapidge|title=Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ejQOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Counts%20of%20Barcelona%22%20%22Troyes%22|year=2000|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Incorporated|page=254|isbn=9781579582821}}

Wilfred, who was already Count of Cerdanya and Urgell,{{cite book|author=Brian A. Catlos|title=The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050-1300|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EoDuA8fv9rEC&pg=PA14|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-45360-8|page=14}} also received the counties of Girona and Besalú. At his death in 897, Wilfred's possessions were divided between his sons Wilfred II Borrel, Sunyer and Miró the Younger, marking the beginning of a hereditary regime.{{cite book|author=Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)|title=The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WdXQnaME1gMC&pg=PA185|year=1993|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|isbn=978-0-8109-6433-4|page=185}} Wilfred II Borrell was the last of the Counts of Barcelona to pledge fidelity to the Carolingian court, although the renunciation of any claim of feudal overlordship by the French king was not confirmed until 1258 with the Treaty of Corbeil.{{cite book|author=Havilland Le Mesurier Chepmell|title=A Short Course of History|url=https://archive.org/details/ashortcoursehis02chepgoog|year=1857|page=[https://archive.org/details/ashortcoursehis02chepgoog/page/n421 399]}}{{cite book|author=C. Petit-Dutaillis|title=The Feudal Monarchy in France and England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXr5AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA324|date=5 November 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-20350-3|page=324}}

The preeminence of the Counts of Barcelona among the nobility of the former Spanish Marches was in part due to their ability to expand their territory by conquests from the Moorish walís.{{cite book|author=James Minahan|title=Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: A-C|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLKKVXgEpkoC&pg=PA165|date=1 January 2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32109-2|page=165}} They also repopulated their inland realms, whose population had plummeted after two centuries of war. The city of Barcelona, easily defensible and with excellent fortifications, prospered with the increasing power of its overlords,{{cite book|author=Aryeh Graboïs|title=The illustrated encyclopedia of medieval civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbEYAAAAYAAJ&q=%22C.%20prospered%22|date=1 October 1980|publisher=Octopus|isbn=978-0-7064-0856-0|page=179}} while the other Marcher counties had more limited prospects.

File:Muralla Raval.JPG

Alfonso II of Aragon and I of Barcelona inherited the Crown of Aragon in 1162{{cite book|author1=Jaume Aurell|author2=Jaume Aurell i Cardona|title=Authoring the Past: History, Autobiography, and Politics in Medieval Catalonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O1MpOVllYoUC&pg=PA4|date=11 April 2012|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-03232-0|page=4}} thanks to the marriage in 1137 of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, with Petronila of Aragon,{{cite book|author1=Richard Kenneth Emmerson|author2=Sandra Clayton-Emmerson|title=Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DqhHVb2zp7oC&pg=PA553|year=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-97385-4|page=553}} future Queen of Aragon, but the administrations of Aragon and Catalonia remained mostly separate.{{cite book|author=Henry John Chaytor|title=A history of Aragon and Catalonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQtXAAAAMAAJ&q=%20%22separate%20administrations%22|year=1933|publisher=Methuen & co., ltd.|page=278|isbn=9780404014797 }}{{cite book|author=Gary McDonogh|title=Iberian Worlds|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rmSYoANVCDkC&pg=PT62|date=28 September 2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-93696-9|page=62}} The city of Barcelona was by far the largest settlement in the Principality of Catalonia, at least four times larger than Girona, and a vital source of royal income.{{cite book|author=Stephen P. Bensch|title=Barcelona and Its Rulers, 1096-1291|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3IcngEACAAJ|date=4 July 2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52589-3|page=41|quote=For its very survival the city came to depend upon its economic influence throughout Catalonia and the Mediterranean. Because of its growing size and wealth, the city became critical to the monarchy as both an administrative center and a source of income.}} The royal court passed much of its time moving from town to town and residing in each of them long enough to ensure the continued loyalty of the local nobility,{{cite book|author=Donald J. Kagay|title=War, Government, and Society in the Medieval Crown of Aragon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5fj307UAcMC&pg=PA101|date=January 2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-5904-4|page=101}} and steadily developed into a representative body known as the Courts of Catalonia.{{cite book|author=J. N. Hillgarth|title=The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1516: Precarious Balance. 1250-1410|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAxpAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Cortes%20had%20begun%22|year=1976|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-822530-0|page=278}}

The economy of Barcelona during this period was increasingly directed towards trade. In 1258 James I of Aragon allowed the merchant guilds of Barcelona to draw ordinances regulating maritime trade in the city's port,{{cite book|author=Gerard J. Mangone|title=United States Admiralty Law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CmCzy3IoDQIC&pg=PA10|year=1997|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=90-411-0417-8|page=10}} and in 1266, he permitted the city to appoint representatives known as consuls to all the major Mediterranean ports of the period.{{cite book|author=Joseph F. O'Callaghan|title=A History of Medieval Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVMJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA484|date=15 April 2013|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-6871-1|page=484}}

The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 united the two royal lines. Madrid became the center of political power while the colonisation of the Americas reduced the financial importance (in relative terms) of Mediterranean trade.{{cite book|author=Norman John Greville Pounds|title=An Historical Geography of Europe, 1500-1840|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalgeogra0000poun|url-access=registration|year=1979|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-22379-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalgeogra0000poun/page/282 282]}}

File:Wyngaerde Barcelona 1563.jpg, commissioned by Philip II (1563)]]

The dynastic unification of the Spanish kingdoms and the riches of the New World were not without political repercussions for Europe, leading ultimately to the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714. The Catalan institutions sided with the Habsburgs against the Bourbon Philip V, which led to the abolition of the separate status of the Principality of Catalonia{{cite book|author=John Michael Francis|title=Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History : a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMNoS-g1h8cC&pg=PA726|year=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-421-9|page=726}}{{cite book|author=Dolores Luna Guinot|title=From Al-Andalus to Monte Sacro|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CoQPAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA262|date=5 March 2014|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4907-1158-4|page=262}} with the last of the Nueva Planta decrees in 1716,{{cite book|author=José del Valle|title=A Political History of Spanish|date=29 August 2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ZgxAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT33|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-27644-4|page=33}} and to the diminution of the political influence of the city of Barcelona in Spain.{{cite book|author=Stephen Jacobson|title=Catalonia's Advocates: Lawyers, Society, and Politics in Barcelona, 1759-1900: Lawyers, Society, and Politics in Barcelona, 1759-1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=huxnWnFqRe8C&pg=PA9|date=1 September 2009|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-9917-5|pages=9–10}}

File:El Bornet de Barcelona, anònim, segle XVIII, Museu d’Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona.jpg

However, from the end of the 18th century, the position of Barcelona as a Mediterranean port and the proximity of lignite deposits in the Berguedà became important factors in the Industrial Revolution.{{cite book|author1=Jean-Benoit Nadeau|author2=Julie Barlow|title=The Story of Spanish|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofspanish0000nade|url-access=registration|date=7 May 2013|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1-250-02316-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/storyofspanish0000nade/page/190 190]}} Catalonia as a whole, and Barcelona in particular, became important industrial centres, with an increase in wealth (if not political power).Raeburn Britain 1985, p. 142

During the 18th century, a fortress was built at Montjuïc overlooking the harbour. On 16 March 1794, even though France and Spain were at war, the French astronomer Pierre François André Méchain was given leave to enter the fortress to make observations that were to be used to measure the distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona, two cities lying on approximately the same longitude as each other and also the longitude through Paris. Using this measurement and the latitudes of the two cities they could calculate the distance between the North Pole and the Equator in classical French units of length and hence produce the first prototype metre which was defined as being one ten millionth of that distance.{{cite book|author=Edwin Danson|title=Weighing the World : The Quest to Measure the Earth: The Quest to Measure the Earth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNH_Y7ERFeoC&pg=PA241|date=12 November 2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-804013-2|page=240}} The definitive metre bar, manufactured from platinum, was deposited in the Archives of the French Republic by the French legislative assembly on 22 June 1799.{{cite book|title=Metric Measures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hz83AQAAIAAJ|year=1959|publisher=University of California|page=12}}{{cite journal|last=Wilkie|first=Tom|title=Time to Remeasure the Metre|journal=New Scientist|date=October 27, 1983|volume=100|issue=1381|page=260|publisher=Reed Business Information|issn=0262-4079}}

In 1812, Barcelona was annexed by Napoleonic France and incorporated into the First French Empire as part of the department Montserrat{{cite book|author=Charles William Chadwick Oman|title=A history of the Peninsular War: Oct. 1811 - Aug. 31, 1812, Valencia, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Madrid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3UOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Montserrat%20|year=1980|publisher=AMS Press|isbn=978-0-404-16965-7|page=97}} (later Bouches-de-l'Èbre–Montserrat), where it remained for a few years until Napoleon's defeat.{{cite book|author=George Semler|title=Visible Cities Barcelona: A City Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-I7sjHLNXVoC&q=%22department%20of%20Montserrat%22|date=1 February 2004|publisher=Somerset, Limited|isbn=978-963-206-323-2|page=19}} In 1888, Barcelona hosted the Exposición Universal de Barcelona,{{cite book|author=Daniele Conversi|title=The Basques, the Catalans, and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilisation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wwSve0Mb0ocC&pg=PA20|year=2000|publisher=University of Nevada Press|isbn=978-0-87417-362-8|page=20}} which led to a great extension of its urbanised area from Parc de la Ciutadella to Barceloneta. In 1897, the city absorbed six surrounding municipalities and the new district of the Eixample (literally "the extension") was laid out.{{cite book|author=Joan Ramon Resina|title=Barcelona's Vocation of Modernity: Rise and Decline of an Urban Image|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TKfo_pR02U0C&pg=PA21|year=2008|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-5832-1|page=21}}

The annexed towns included Sants, Les Corts, Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, Gràcia, Sant Andreu de Palomar and Sant Martí de Provençals. Horta was annexed in 1904 and Sarrià in 1924.{{cite book|author1=Joan Busquets|author2=Harvard University. Graduate School of Design|title=Barcelona: the urban evolution of a compact city|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yztUAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Nicolodi|isbn=978-88-8447-204-5|page=189|quote=Finally, all the municipalities in the Plain were annexed to Barcelona in 1897 except Horta, in 1904, and Sarria, even later.}}{{cite book|author=Tim Marshall|title=Transforming Barcelona: The Renewal of a European Metropolis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFWBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|date=31 July 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-44251-5|page=5}} The relative prosperity of the city restored its role as a cultural centre, as is witnessed by the architecture of Antoni Gaudí still visible around Barcelona.{{cite book|author=Jeffrey E. Cole|title=Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M9fDifnkMJMC&pg=PA65|date=25 May 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-303-3|pages=65–66}}

Image:BarcelonaExpositionPanorama.1929.ws.jpg

During the last week of July 1909, ever since referred to as Tragic Week, the Spanish army clashed with the working classes of Barcelona and other cities of Catalonia. When Prime Minister Antonio Maura mobilised reservists to fight in the Spanish colony of Morocco, the working classes, backed by the anarchists, socialists and republicans, rioted in the streets of Barcelona, resulting in the deaths of over 100 citizens.{{cite book|author=Enrique Sanabria|title=Republicanism and Anticlerical Nationalism in Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWLIAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA168|date=31 March 2009|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-62008-7|page=168}}

A second major international exhibition was organised in 1929,{{cite book|author1=Francisco Javier Monclús|author2=Francisco Javier Monclús Fraga|title=Exposiciones internacionales y urbanismo: el proyecto Expo Zaragoza 2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2d6KJ2VnfAkC&pg=PA48|year=2006|publisher=Univ. Politèc. de Catalunya|isbn=978-84-8301-893-4|page=48}} leading to the urbanisation of the area around Plaça Espanya and providing the impetus for the construction of the metro, inaugurated in 1924.{{cite book|author=Giulia Viggiani|title=Geotechnical Aspects of Underground Construction in Soft Ground|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rKmC3bMEVxIC&pg=PA198|date=5 September 2012|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-0-415-68367-8|page=198}}

In 1932, Barcelona became the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia within the Second Spanish Republic, thus being the seat of the Generalitat (the Catalan institution of self-government). The city had prepared to host the People's Olympics during the summer of 1936, building the Olympic Stadium and developing the Montjuïc area, but the insurrection of the army in July 1936 plunged Spain into civil war.{{cite book|author=Antony Beevor|title=The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939|url=https://archive.org/details/battleforspainsp00anto|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-303765-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/battleforspainsp00anto/page/157 157]}} Some of the athletes who had arrived for the Games reputedly stayed to form the first of the Republican International Brigades,{{cite book|author=Antony Beevor|title=The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939|url=https://archive.org/details/battleforspainsp00anto|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-303765-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/battleforspainsp00anto/page/157 157]}}{{cite book|author1=Bill Mallon|author2=Jeroen Heijmans|title=Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mM0XzW03AcC&pg=PA296|date=11 August 2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7522-7|page=296}}{{cite book|author=Stephen G. Jones|title=Sport, Politics and the Working Class: Organised Labour and Sport in Inter-war Britain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSHpAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA185|year=1992|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-3680-4|page=185}} made famous by the writers Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia), and others.{{cite book|author1=Maureen Ihrie|author2=Salvador Oropesa|title=World Literature in Spanish: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPDFHE_5besC&pg=PA208|date=20 October 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-08083-8|page=208}}{{cite book|author=Peter Monteath|title=The Spanish Civil War in Literature, Film, and Art: An International Bibliography of Secondary Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XszxexAXmF4C&pg=PA12|date=1 January 1994|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-29262-0|page=12}}

The city, and Catalonia in general, were resolutely Republican. Many enterprises and public services were "collectivised" by the CNT and UGT unions.{{cite book|author=Hugh Thomas|title=The Spanish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4c4F7KM9UE8C&q=%22proletarian%22%20%22collectivized%22|date=28 March 2013|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-7181-9293-8|page=290}}{{cite book|author=Burnett Bolloten|title=The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-VarDLHA3_YC&pg=PA557|date=January 1991|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-1906-7|page=557}} As the power of the Republican government and the Generalitat diminished, much of the city was under the effective control of anarchist groups.{{cite book|author=Robert J. Alexander|title=The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=axe1Tf4Lu6gC&pg=PA942|date=1 January 1999|publisher=Janus Publishing Company Lim|isbn=978-1-85756-412-9|page=942}} The anarchists lost control of the city to their own allies, the Stalinists and official government troops, after the street fighting of the Barcelona May Days.{{cite book|author=Michael Eaude|title=Triumph at Midnight of the Century: A Critical Biography of Arturo Barea - Explaining the Roots of the Spanish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w9guzvpi_dgC&pg=PA85|date=25 February 2011|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-84519-469-7|pages=84–85}}{{cite book|author=Helen Graham|title=The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DawJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT101|date=24 March 2005|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-162229-8|page=101}} File:Barcelona bombing (1938).jpg

Barcelona was repeatedly bombed by air raids. The most severe lasted three days beginning on 16 March 1938, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. Under the command of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Italian aircraft stationed on Majorca bombed the city 13 times, dropping 44 tons of bombs aimed at civilians. These attacks were requested by General Franco as retribution against the Catalan population. More than 1,000 people died, including many children, and over 2,000 were injured.{{cite book|author=Francisco J. Romero Salvadó|title=Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5e7wRi-HGcC&pg=PA74|date=14 March 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8009-2|page=74}} The medieval Cathedral of Barcelona was bombed as well,{{cite book|author=Olivia Muñoz-Rojas|title=Ashes and Granite: Destruction and Reconstruction in the Spanish Civil War and Its Aftermath|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBbmdkD5EO0C&pg=PA136|year=2011|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-84519-436-9|pages=136–137}} though it did not suffer major damage, and some parts of the Barri Gòtic (the Cathedral neighbourhood), including several blocks in front of the cathedral, were damaged.{{cite book|author=Michael Eaude|title=Catalonia: A Cultural History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UB6E20HMKSoC&pg=PA183|date=6 December 2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-804392-8|page=183}}

The city finally fell into Nationalist hands on 26 January 1939.{{cite book|author=John Gooch|title=Airpower: Theory and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xU_5AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA78|date=5 November 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-20846-2|page=78}}{{cite book|author=Michael Seidman|title=The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the Spanish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jSO-dC5ac_EC&pg=PA77|date=24 February 2011|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-24963-2|page=77}}

The resistance of Barcelona to Franco's coup d'état was to have lasting effects after the defeat of the Republican government. The autonomous institutions of Catalonia were abolished{{cite book|author=Montserrat Guibernau|title=Catalan Nationalism: Francoism, Transition and Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H0p-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA30|date=31 July 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-35326-2|page=30}} and the use of the Catalan language in public life was suppressed and effectively forbidden, although its use was not formally criminalised as often claimed.{{cite book|author=Michael Seidman|title=The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the Spanish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jSO-dC5ac_EC&pg=PA243|date=24 February 2011|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-24963-2|page=243}} Barcelona remained the second largest city in Spain, at the heart of a region which was relatively industrialised and prosperous, despite the devastation of the civil war.{{cite book|title=The World and Its Peoples: Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5J2gAAAAMAAJ&q=%22modern%20and%20prosperous%22|year=1969|publisher=Greystone Press|page=154}}

The result was a large-scale immigration from poorer regions of Spain (particularly Andalucia, Murcia and Galicia),{{cite book|author1=Kathryn Crameri|author2=University of Oxford. European Humanities Research Centre|title=Language, the novelist and national identity in post-Franco Catalonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwRdAAAAMAAJ&q=%22prosperous%22|year=2000|publisher=Legenda [in association with] European Humanities Research Centre, University of Oxford|isbn=978-1-900755-37-5|page=35}}

which in turn led to rapid urbanisation.{{cite book|author1=Vittorio Gargiulo Morelli|author2=Luca Salvati|title=Ad Hoc Urban Sprawl in the Mediterranean City: Dispersing a Compact Tradition?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9CE9eFTet4C&pg=PA90|year=2010|publisher=Edizioni Nuova Cultura|isbn=978-88-6134-572-0|page=90}} The district of Congrés was developed for the International Eucharistic Congress in 1952,{{cite book|author=Isabel Segura|title=La modernitat a la Barcelona dels cinquanta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUc1o9VOUtEC&pg=PT66|year=2010|publisher=Ajuntament Barcelona Publicacions|isbn=978-84-9850-215-2|page=66}} while the districts of El Carmel, Nou Barris, El Verdum

and Guinardó were developed later in the same decade.{{cite book|author1=Jaume Fabre|author2=Josep Maria Huertas|title=Tots els barris de Barcelona|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRgrAQAAMAAJ&q=%22El%20Guinard%C3%B3%22|year=1976|publisher=Edicions 62|isbn=978-84-297-1242-1|page=379}} Barcelona's suburbs, such as L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Bellvitge, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Sant Adrià de Besòs, and Badalona, also saw a dramatic population increase over a single decade.{{cite book|author=Jacqueline Hall|title=Convivència in Catalonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T_DpUtZ66hoC&pg=PA36|year=2001|publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans|isbn=978-84-85557-55-4|page=36}}

The city now had an extremely dense population (1,557,863 inhabitants, 15,517 per km², in 1970), often housed in very poor quality accommodations. The massive immigration also contributed to the gradual decline of the specifically Catalan culture of Barcelona—while the use of Catalan in private was tolerated in the later years of the dictatorship, the immigrants to Barcelona spoke only Spanish. Catalan language education was unavailable, even if there had been any social pressure to learn the local language (which was far from the case in urban areas). The increase in population led to the development of the metro network, the tarmacking of the city streets, the installation of traffic lights and the construction of the first rondas, or ringroads. The provision of running water, electricity and street lighting also had to be vastly improved, if not always fast enough to keep pace with the rising population.

The death of Franco in 1975 brought on a period of democratisation throughout Spain. Pressure for change was particularly strong in Barcelona, which considered that it had been punished during nearly forty years of Francoism for its support of the Republican government.{{cite book|author=Steven Mock|title=Symbols of Defeat in the Construction of National Identity|url=https://archive.org/details/symbolsofdefeati0000mock|url-access=registration|date=29 December 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-50352-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/symbolsofdefeati0000mock/page/274 274]}} Massive, but peaceful, demonstrations on 11 September 1977 assembled over a million people in the streets of Barcelona to call for the restoration of Catalan autonomy. It was granted less than a month later.{{cite book|author=Julius W. Friend|title=Stateless Nations: Western European Regional Nationalisms and the Old Nations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SF4-ip95MoC&pg=PA97|date=19 June 2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-36179-9|page=97}}

The development of Barcelona was promoted by two specific events in 1986: Spanish accession to the European Community, and particularly Barcelona's designation as host city of the 1992 Summer Olympics and later for the 1992 Summer Paralympics.{{cite book|author1=James Parkin|author2=D. Sharma|title=Infrastructure Planning|url=https://archive.org/details/infrastructurepl0000park|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1999|publisher=Thomas Telford|isbn=978-0-7277-2747-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/infrastructurepl0000park/page/173 173]}}{{cite book|author1=Ngiste Abebe|author2=Mary Trina Bolton|author3=Maggie Pavelka|author4=Morgan Pierstorff|title=Bidding for Development: How the Olympic Bid Process Can Accelerate Transportation Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-4VAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|date=19 November 2013|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4614-8912-2|page=3}} The process of

urban regeneration has been rapid, often supported through public and private funds, and accompanied by a greatly increased international reputation of the city as a tourist destination. The increased cost of housing has led to a slight decline (−16.6%) in the population over the last two decades of the 20th century as many families move out into the suburbs. This decline has been reversed since 2001, as a new wave of immigration (particularly from Latin America and from Morocco) has gathered pace.The proportion of the population born outside of Spain rose from 3.9% in 2001 to 13.9% in 2006. {{cite web|url=http://www.bcn.es/estadistica/catala/dades/inf/guies/bcn.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2010-06-26 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220062823/http://www.bcn.es/estadistica/catala/dades/inf/guies/bcn.pdf |archivedate=2012-02-20 }}

• Timeline of Barcelona
• History of Catalonia
• History of Spain
• Museum of the History of Barcelona
• Parks and gardens of Barcelona
• Urban planning of Barcelona
• Street names in Barcelona
• Former Municipalities of Barcelona

Much of this article has been translated from the article Historia de Barcelona on Spanish Wikipedia.

{{Reflist|2}}

{{See also|Timeline of Barcelona#Bibliography}}

• {{Citation |publisher = Karl Baedeker |location = Leipsic |title = Spain and Portugal: handbook for travellers |chapter-url = https://archive.org/stream/spainportugalhan00karlrich#page/n403/mode/2up |chapter=Barcelona |date = 1908 |oclc = 1581249 |edition=3rd }}
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Barcelona (Spanish city) |volume= 03 |last= |first= |author-link= | pages = 391–393 }}

• [https://www.barcelona.cat/en/ Official website of Barcelona]
• [http://museuhistoria.bcn.cat/en Museum of the History of Barcelona]
• [http://oreneta.com/libro-verde/ Barcelona on-this-day historical almanac] based on the 1848 Libro verde de Barcelona
• [http://oreneta.com/libro-verde/timeline/ Barcelona timeline] based on the 1848 Libro verde de Barcelona
• [http://iberianature.com/barcelona/history-of-barcelona/chronology-of-barcelona/ History of Barcelona] Chronology, historical Google map of the city, historical accounts.

{{barcelona}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Barcelona}}

Barcelona

lt:Barselona#Istorija