In this article, you will find the most interesting facts about Barcelona – the second largest city in Spain after Madrid. The city is home to 1.6 million residents. Here are some fascinating facts about Barcelona that you probably didn’t know before reading this article!
interesting facts about Barcelona:
- Las Ramblas, perhaps the most famous street in Barcelona, spans a length of two kilometers. Few people know that Las Ramblas is actually composed of 5 streets, but it’s much easier to refer to them collectively as one street.
- For many tourists, Spain is synonymous with Barcelona. However, Barcelona is not the embodiment of traditional Spanish culture; it is the capital of the autonomous community of Catalonia, which is a part of Spain. Within Barcelona’s small area of 102 square kilometers, there are 1,500 noteworthy houses. If arranged in rows, this would be the most beautiful place in the world.
- Visitors to the city can relax and stroll through the most beautiful and largest park in Spain, Montjuïc, which covers an area of 200 hectares! The city’s first beach appeared 19 years ago! Before the 1992 Olympics, the Catalan capital did not have a beach! Currently, the total length of the beach exceeds 4.5 kilometers.
- Catalonia’s pride is the world-famous football club “Barcelona”. The team has achieved many victories in Champions League matches, the Spanish Cup, and numerous European championships and leagues.
- Barcelona ranks fourth among European cities most suitable for business development. Only Paris and Frankfurt managed to top it, coming in second and third respectively. London was the winner of the rating.
- Portal de l’Àngel in Ciutat Vella (Old Town) in Barcelona is not only one of the most expensive streets in Spain, but also the busiest street in Spain, with 150,000 people passing through it every day! Every year on April 23, Barcelona celebrates the day of Catalonia’s patron saint with roses and books.
- La Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day), also known as El de los Amantes (Lovers’ Day), coincides with the deaths of Cervantes and Shakespeare. Despite its many advantages, interesting facts about Barcelona also include negative aspects. For example, Barcelona is among the 20 worst cities in Europe in terms of ecological indicators.
- Drivers in the Catalan capital are considered some of the worst in the world, with accidents occurring every 19 seconds! On weekends, there are even 10 accidents every minute!
- More than 10% of the city is covered by urban parks, and their area increases by approximately 10 hectares annually, so the park area per resident reaches a remarkable 18.1 square meters.
- Barcelona is a very dangerous city for tourists; pickpocketing is widespread here. The police even created a special map to mark “high-risk zones”. The largest aquarium in Europe, capable of holding 4.5 million liters of water, is located in Barcelona next to the Christopher Columbus Monument. The aquarium opened 25 years ago in 1995.