- Barcelona had no beaches until it won the 1992 Olympics. The planning team decided to create artificial beaches as part of the investment and infrastructure projects at the time. Now Barcelona has 7 blue flagged beaches along the 5 kms of city coastline and has been voted one of the best cities with beaches in the world.
- Barcelona is home to Mare Nostrum, the largest supercomputer in southern Europe. It is housed in a former 19th century chapel and also features in a Dan Brown novel!
- Barcelona is the most visited city in the whole of Spain with over 8 million visitors per annum. It ranks as the 4th most visited cities in the whole of Europe coming just behind London, Paris and Istanbul.
- The famous Sagrada Familia building started by Antoni Gaudi has taken longer to build then the Egyptian Pyramids – over 200 years and counting! Even with modern building methods. It is one of Barcelona’s most famous landmarks and tourist attractions. No other city in the world has anything like it.
- Did you know the Eiffel Tower was originally supposed to be built in Barcelona but the authorities at the time decided it was too radical and rejected it. Gustave Eiffel then decided to have it built in Paris instead – and the rest as they say is history.
- Barcelona is one of the most green and pleasant cities in the world. It is home to 68 parks and the biggest metropolitan park in the world, the Parc de Collserola, which at 85kms sq. is 22 times bigger than Central Park in New York! Park land accounts for 10% of the area of the city and this is actually growing by 10 ha a year. This means there is now 20m sq per city inhabitant of parkland.
Bonus Fact!
Barcelona is a big city and is actually the biggest city on the Mediterranean with a population of 1.6 million and an area of 101 kms sq. It is also home to the busiest and biggest port in Europe with 3 million cruise passengers a year. You can also find the world’s second biggest football stadium, the world-famous Camp Nou – home to FC Barcelona in Barcelona. The stadium has the capacity to hold 100, 000 football fans which must create a very impressive atmosphere when Barcelona are playing at home!
So now you know lots more about Barcelona. It really is a stunningly beautiful city with incredible architecture to admire, many green parks and sandy beaches for relaxation, fabulous hotels and apartments for accommodation, world class art galleries and museums galore and of course a huge array of fabulous restaurants, bars and cafes.
If you decided to stay a bit longer and maybe spend some months in this vibrant and buzzing city, then I would recommend spending some time learning Spanish while you are here. Through the YNSITU platform, you can go to any destination, to learn any language. You can easily learn Spanish in Barcelona as they are many excellent language schools in the city. If you want to learn another language then why not make the most of the many other language courses abroad? Then the next city you visit you will be able to chat to the locals and get so much more out of your stay.
