Barcelona

As the host of the 1992 Olympic Games, the eyes of the world will be on Barcelona, a city which has always competed against the odds. This work offers the visitor to Barcelona a history of the Catalan capital, from Roman times, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to the modern age.

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As the host of the 1992 Olympic Games, the eyes of the world will once more be on Barcelona, a city which has always competed against the odds. Devoid of a natural port, and victim of numerous military defeats and economic disasters, she has still become the biggest metropolis on the Mediterranean seaboard, the industrial and commercial centre of Spain, and the capital of the fiercely independent Catalonia. Yet as Felipe Fernandez-Armesto reveals in this history of the city and its people, Barcelona can also boast an artistic and architectural heritage of remarkable and oft-undeclared richness. Woven into its fabric are vestiges from Roman times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the modern era - all of which bear an unmistakable tension which lies at the heart of the book.