Barcelona

by Judy Thomson

Overview

Insight City Guide Barcelona is your comprehensive guide book to one of the world’s most-visited cities. Full-color photos throughout combine with the authoritative text to help you explore this high-spirited city in Catalonia, northeast Spain.
Our “Best Of Barcelona” section highlights top attractions and activities not to miss, while features cover a whole range of subjects, from the people themselves and the rich architectural heritage, to the legacy left by Picasso and Miró, and the numerous markets bursting with fresh produce, crafts and antiques. Ten Places chapters cover the entire city, from La Rambla, the city’s spine, to the Old Town and the Waterfront, the latter currently a hub of redevelopment. Evocative accounts of the city’s Gothic Quarter (Barri Gòtic), the small hill of Montjuïc and the Catalonian hinterland and coastline combine with lively descriptions of the city’s most populated district, the Eixample, and the culturally-rich district of El Raval, all illustrated with full-color photographs. Full-color maps throughout help you get your bearings, while the travel tips cover all the practical information you’ll need, such as how to get around and which fiestas to look out for, as well as selective listings giving our local author’s suggestions for where to stay and eat.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780050553
Publisher:	APA Publications Services
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Series:	City Guide Series
Edition description:	Seventh Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Judy Thomson is a writer and translator living just off La Rambla, Barcelona’s most famous thoroughfare.

Read an Excerpt

Barcelona is the largest and most exciting port city in the Mediterranean. It basks in a
nest of hills in the northeast corner of Spain, with its back to Madrid and its eyes on the sea that gave it, in parts, a glorious past. Formal, mercantile, medieval - the city's past reverberates in the dark canyons of the old town and in the vast dockyards that today form the maritime museum. Add to this a creativity of spirit that was responsible for some of the finest Romanesque art in the world as well as the great 19th-century modernista buildings of Gaudí and others, and you arrive at a dazzling mix of old and new, a place that never lacks the courage of its convictions. Reticence and shyness are strangers here.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
The Best of Barcelona
The Barcelonans

HISTORY
The Making of Modern Barcelona
Decisive Dates

FEATURES
Architecture
Art and Inspiration
Designer City
A Passion for Food
Wine
Furious Fiestas
Modernisme
Retail Therapy
Markets
Beside the Seaside
The Home of Catalan Art
Antoni Gaudí’s Masterpiece
Park Güell
Montserrat

PLACES
Orientation
Plaça de Catalunya and La Rambla
Barri Gòtic
La Ribera, Born and Parc de la Ciutadella
El Raval
The Waterfront
Poble Nou, 22@ and Diagonal Mar
Montjuïc
The Eixample
Above the Diagonal
Around Barcelona

TRAVEL TIPS

TRANSPORTATION
ACCOMMODATIONS
SHOPPING
ACTIVITIES
A–Z: PRACTICAL INFORMATION
LANGUAGE
FURTHER READING

Barcelona Street Atlas
Street Index
General Index