Insa - Business, Marketing & Communication School

Our Setting: Barcelona

Barcelona Information

The city of Barcelona has been and is the capital of Catalonia, without diminishing in any way the historical economic and artistic cities of Catalonia: Lérida, Gerona, Tarragona, Vic, Manresa, Tortosa, Reus... If you want to learn about the early days of Barcino, with two thousand years of history, take a tour of the archaeological excavations of the Roman city and admire the technical solution that allows you to walk under the streets and medieval monuments. If you get lost in the Gothic Quarter, you can relive the atmosphere of Barcelona's medieval past , around the cathedral, the Palau Reial and buildings that to this date still belong to Government institutions: the Town Hall of Barcelona and the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia. From there you can approach the Ribera district, where you will find the Picasso Museum and the splendid Gothic church of Santa Maria del Mar and the Ciutadella Park, with the Catalan Parliament, the Zoo and several museums.

Right next to the sea, is the Barceloneta fishing quarter of the eighteenth century, with good restaurants where you can enjoy delicious seafood specialities.
Take a walk around the Rambla, dominated by Liceu Theatre, and admire the stalls selling birds and flowers and newspaper kiosks, magazines and books. Day and night, Rambla has a unique atmosphere in the world and if you have time, you will see that the people change with the passing of time. There are all kinds of restaurants on the lower end of the Rambla and side streets.

In the nineteenth century, the city experienced a period of growth, the result of rising industrialization. The surrounding villages were joined together by Idelfons Cerdà’s model urban plan known as the Eixample, full of shops and art galleries. It is worth taking a stroll through the illuminated boulevard of Passeig de Gracia, where you will have the opportunity to admire the modernist houses of the street on the junction with Aragon street and also the "Pedrera", undulating facade house built by Gaudí, further up. Also in the Eixample is the Sagrada Familia, the vast and amazing temple of the same architect, and the Parc Guell, another of Gaudi's works which cannot be missed.

The stately neighbourhoods, such as Pedralbes, where a gothic monastery enclosed by a small wall stands, occupying the bottom of the mountain of Collserola and Tibidabo. At the peak of Tibidabo is an amusement park. You can access this via the Tram Blau, a relic of the past, and a rack railway.
In Montjuïc, the other mountain of the city, along the seashore, you can find interesting museums such as the Fundació Miró and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, surrounded by beautiful gardens. Also here are the main Olympic venues, with the old stadium and the magnificent Palau de Sant Jordi - another amusement park and the Poble Espanyol, a reproduction of typical buildings from all over Spain.

The old port has been renovated and has become a major public playgrounds, which continues beyond Barceloneta with new port facilities and the Olympic Village, dominated by two skyscrapers. Throughout the year Barcelona is a vibrant city with intense cultural, commercial and sports activities: concerts, opera, theatres, exhibitions, good restaurants, fairs, shops and art galleries. Barcelona, one of the great European cities, is worth a visit. When you get to know it, you will certainly want to return.