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 The
Phoenicians and the Greeks had settled the coast of Catalunya, but it was
not until the Carthaginians established Barcino on an earlier Celtiberian
settlement in the 3rd century BC that the modern name began to emerge. The
Romans defeated the Carthaginians in 206 BC and ruled Spain for the next
600 years during which time Roman law, language and culture took a firm
hold. The Roman citadel was located where the cathedral and city hall now
stand.
After sacking Rome in 410 AD, the Germanic Visigoths swept into Spain,
renaming the city Barcinona and making it their capital between 531 and
554 until they moved to Toledo. The Visigoth kingdom came to an end in 711
with the Moorish invasion from Africa and Catalunya was briefly overrun
until defeated beyond the Pyrenees by the Franks in 732. Charlemagne's
knights pushed in after them and installed themselves at the head of
border counties to guard the southern flank of his empire. One of these
feudal lords was Guifré el Pilós became the Count of Barcelona in 878
and founded a dynasty that lasted for almost 500 years. While the rest of
Spain remained Moorish, Barcelona and the rest of Catalunya retained its
links to the rest of Europe. Catalunya's flag of four red stripes on a
gold background represent his four bloody fingers drawn across his shield.
After Louis V refused to help repulse Moorish raiders in 988, the counts
of Barcelona declared their independence from the Franks. This is
celebrated as Catalunya's birth as a nation state and soon enlarged
through a series of marriages and military adventures. Mallorca, Ibiza and
Tarragona where taken from the Moors by Ramon Berenguer III and Provence
was taken through marriage. Ramon Berenguer IV united Catalunya with Aragon
though marriage, resulting in his son Alfonso II to become the first
Aragon-Catalan king, ruling the Mediterranean coast all the way to Nice.
However, the next king, who lost many of these gains, reversed this.
This period also saw the beginnings of democratic institutions with the
introduction of an early code of laws in the 11th century, known as the Usatges
de Barcelona. As well as ensuring complete Catalan control of the
Balearic Islands, capturing Valencia and building a second city wall
around the expanding Barcelona, Jaume I (1213-76) introduced the Consell
de Cent, a municipal council composed of leading citizens. Sicily was
taken in 1282 and in 1283 a parliament, later to become the Generalitat,
was founded. Also during this period came the Llibre del Consolat del
Mar, the foundation of European maritime law and the following century
saw Barcelona at the peak of its glory with Sardinia, Corsica, Naples, the
Roussillon and, for a short time, Athens under its control.
Though Columbus' famed
voyage took place in 1492, the Barbier-Mueller Museum makes clear that the
`pre-Columbian' era extended well beyond that date, as the subjugation of
indigenous cultures by the conquistadors lasted for decades. In 1996 the
Barbier-Mueller museum in Geneva agreed to show around 170 pieces from its
superb collection of ancient American art in Barcelona, meticulously
selected and displayed on a rotating basis. To house them, the city spent
several million pesetas renovating a medieval palace across from the
Picasso Museum. A minus is its overly theatrical lighting, a cliché of
`tribal art' presentation, but nevertheless the museum treats us to many
extraordinary pieces from Mexico, Central America, the Andes and the lower
Amazon, some of which date as far back as the second millennium BC. Among
its treasures are a large, hollow, ceramic female figure from the
pre-Mayan Olmec period, an expressive sculpture of the fire god
Hueheuteotl (Veracruz, AD500-800) and rare holdings from the little-known
Caviana and Maraj— islands at the mouth of the Amazon, stylistically
close to present-day Brazilian indigenous patterns. Gold and silver
objects from Peru and Bolivia complete this good short introduction to
pre-Columbian art.
These centuries saw the construction of such
magnificent Gothic buildings such as the cathedral and other palaces and
monuments. Barcelona acted as the focal point for the exchange of
scholarship and scientific knowledge between the European and Muslim
worlds and the arts flourished under the great patrionage. Foreign trade
saw to it that shipbuilding and conquest were established.
Ferdinand of Aragon-Catlunya (Ferrán II in Catalunya) married Isabella of
Castille, thus forming the nucleus of the Spanish state. Barcelona
was now just one of the seats of The Catholic Monarchs because in 1492
they finally captured the last Moorish stronghold, Granada. This year also
saw the discovery of America by Columbus, financed by Isabella, and upon
his return the monarchs in the Royal Palace in Barcelona received him.
The 16th century, which was a golden age for Spain as a whole, saw
Barcelona's influence decline further and eventually Madrid, a previously
insignificant city in the centre on the country was made the capital.
In 1640 a revolt against the five-year-old war with France started in
Barcelona and saw Catalunya first declared as a republic allied to France.
Forced to surrender under the 1652 siege of Barcelona, the Catalan
territories north of the Pyrenees were given to France. The following
years saw the city rebuilt, only to see it destroyed again in the wars
against France of 1680 and 1690.
In 1705, following years of interference from Madrid, Catalunya signed a
treaty with England and Genoa and went to war. This ended with the
13-month seige of Barcelona, which ended on 11th September 1714,
celebrated today as Catalunya's national day. The Generalitat was
dissolved and official use of the Catalan language was banned. To add
insult to injury an occupying force was installed in the Ciutadella
fortress, built specifically for this purpose.
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