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 Gaudν is the
most famous of those who have left their mark on
Barcelona in this way: his Sagrada Famνlia 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 Mirσ and Antoni Tΰpies,
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
