Barcelona has boomed since the early 1990s, when preparations
for the Olympic Games wrenched it into modernity, and today it
remains well in the vanguard of other Spanish cities (with the
possible exception of Madrid) in terms of prosperity, stability and
cultural activity. It's a confident, progressive city, looking
towards the rest of Europe for its inspiration and its innovations
- the classic tourist images of Spain seem firmly out of place in
Barcelona's bustling central boulevards and stylish modern streets.
And style is what brings many visitors here, attracted by
enthusiastic newspaper and magazine articles which make much of the
outrageous architecture, user-friendly city design, agreeable
climate and frenetic nightlife. Even the medieval Gothic quarter
and its once-notorious red-light area have been swept up by the
citywide renovation programme, which is still running at full tilt.
As the new millennium starts Barcelona has continued to blossom
from provincial city to putative European capital.
It's no accident that the city's current development outstrips
most of the rest of Spain. With the return to democracy following
the death of Franco, the various Spanish regions were allowed to
consolidate their cultural identities through varying degrees of
political control over their own affairs. Catalunya
(Catalonia in English), of which Barcelona is the capital, has an
historical identity going back as far as the ninth century, when
the first independent County of Barcelona was established, and
through the long period of domination by Castile, and even during
the Franco dictatorship when a policy of cultural suppression was
pursued, it proved impossible to stifle Catalan ethnicity. In
Barcelona itself, this regionalism is complemented by a strong
socialist tradition - the city was a bastion of the Republican
cause during the Civil War, holding out against Franco until
January 1939, and remained the scene of protests and demonstrations
throughout the dictatorship.
As a result of this urge to retain its own identity, Barcelona
has long had the reputation of being at the forefront of Spanish
political activism and of radical design and architecture, but
these cultural distinctions are rapidly becoming secondary to the
city's position as one of the most dynamic and prosperous
commercial centres in the country. As the money (much of it from
the EU) continues to pour in, the economic transformation of
a city deprived under Franco, continues at a remarkable pace:
entire districts, from the harbour to the suburbs, have been
replanned and rebuilt; historic buildings and museums have been
given face-lifts; and roads and communications have been upgraded.
In part, this progress is due to the huge psychological shove that
the granting of the 1992 Olympics gave to Barcelona. When the Games
had finished, the city was left with an entirely new harbour
development containing the futuristic Olympic Village. And along
with a construction programme that touched every corner of the
city, went the indisputable knowledge that these had been
Barcelona's Olympics, and not Spain's - an important distinction to
the Catalan people, who, bolstered by the gradual integration of
immigrants from other parts of Spain, endow the city with a
character distinct from Spain's other regional capitals.
Since 1992, the developments have continued unabated; indeed
Barcelona's drive for self-improvement and self-promotion seems to
know no bounds. The commercial port continues to expand, and is now
dominated by a futuristic World Trade Center set in the central
harbour, while the airport is given a new runway and the city
anxiously awaits the arrival of a high-speed train (AVE) line.
There's a pride in the city which is expressed in a remarkable
cultural energy, seen most perfectly in the glorious
modernista (Art Nouveau) architecture that studs the
city's streets and avenues. Antoni Gaudí is the most famous of
those who have left their mark on Barcelona in this way: his
Sagrada Família church is rightly revered, but just as fascinating
are the (literally) fantastic houses and apartment buildings that
he and his contemporaries designed. In art , too, the city
boasts a stupendous legacy, from important Romanesque and Gothic
works to major galleries containing the life's work of the Catalan
artists Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies, and - perhaps the greatest
draw of all - a representative collection of the work of Pablo
Picasso.
For all its go-ahead feel, though, Barcelona does still have its
problems . A traditionally homogeneous society, accustomed
to Spanish emigration, has been changed forever by the arrival of
large numbers of immigrants from Asia, Africa and South America,
many of whom enter illegally, looking to grab a share of the city's
economic success. Partly as a consequence of this, the petty crime
rate has rocketed, and tourists must take precautions when visiting
the city, and despite the work done on the infrastructure, there is
still a lot to do. There's also a growing gap between rich and
poor, and one repercussion of the gentrification of poorer
districts is that the original dwellers are being priced out - real
estate speculation has led to a curious situation wherein the city,
in the midst of an acute housing crisis, has tens of thousands of
empty apartments which are not on the market.
There's a problem, too, in Barcelona's relationship with the
rest of Catalunya. More than half the region's inhabitants live in
the city and its surroundings, creating an uneasy imbalance that
becomes clear if you travel through the depopulated inland and
mountain areas, and which is most obvious in the political sphere -
Catalunya is conservative and regionalist, Barcelona is socialist
and nationalist. At times the city has prospered at the expense of
the rest of Catalunya, and though there are pockets of wealth and
interest - on the coast, in the ski resorts - there's a nagging
feeling that Barcelona is very much the main event. It's not a
feeling that holds firm if you do make the effort to spend time in
other parts of the region, but it is indicative of the fact that
Barcelona, boasting loudly of its European character and city
style, is in danger of forgetting its wider roots and becoming
self-absorbed and inward-looking