The capital and the most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,621,537 in 2009. It is the sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Ruhr area, Madrid and Milan, with a population of 4,200,000. About 5 million people live in the Barcelona metropolitan area. The main part of a union of adjacent cities and municipalities named Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) with a population of 3,186,461 in an area of 636 km² (density 5.010 hab/km²). It is located on the Mediterranean coast (41°23′N 2°11′E) between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs and is bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola ridge (512 m/1,680 ft). Barcelona is recognised as a global city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education and tourism. This is a major economic centre with one of Europe's principal Mediterranean ports, and Barcelona International Airport is the second largest in Spain (handles about 30 million passengers per year). Barcelona was the 12th-most-visited city in the world and 4th most visited in the Europe (after London, Paris, Rome) also the most popular tourist attraction in Spain (about 5 million tourists every year).According to lifestyle magazine Monocle, Barcelona occupies 15th place in the world on ranking World's most livable cities. According to Innovation Analysts 2thinknow, Barcelona occupies 13th place in the world on ranking Innovation Cities globally. Founded as a Roman city, Barcelona became the capital of the Counts of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, it became one of the most important cities of the Crown of Aragon. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination and has a rich cultural heritage. Particularly renowned are architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner that have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The city is well known in recent times for the 1992 Summer Olympics. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean are located in Barcelona. As the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona houses the seat of the Catalan government, known as the Generalitat de Catalunya; of particular note are the executive branch, the parliament, and the Supreme Court of Catalonia. The city is also the capital of the Province of Barcelona and the Barcelonès comarca.

Names
The name Barcelona comes from the ancient Iberian Phoenician Barkeno, attested in an ancient coin inscription in Iberian script as , in Greek sources as Varkinòn, Βαρκινþν; and in Latin as Barcino, Barcelo and Barceno.
During the Middle Ages, the city was variously known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelona, and Barchenona.
Some sources say that the city could have been named after the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, who was supposed to have founded the city in the 3rd century BC.

History
The foundation of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules 400 years before the building of Rome thus the name Βαρκινþν; . The second legend attributes the foundation of the city directly to the historical Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BC.

About 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum (Roman military camp) centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill near the contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. Mela mentions it among the small towns of the district, probably as it was eclipsed by its neighbour Tarraco (modern Tarragona); but it may be gathered from later writers that it gradually grew in wealth and consequence, favoured as it was with a beautiful situation and an excellent harbour. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens. The city minted its own coins; some from the era of Galba survive.

Some important Roman ruins are exposed under the Plaça del Rei, entrance by the city museum (Museu d'Història de la Ciutat), and the typically Roman grid-planning is still visible today in the layout of the historical centre, the Barri Gòtic ("Gothic Quarter"). Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as basilica La Seu is said to have been founded in 343. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early fifth centurybecoming for a few years the capital of the whole Hispania. Afterwards by the Arabs in the early eighth century, reconquered in 801 by Charlemagne's son Louis who made Barcelona the seat of Carolingian "Spanish Marches" (Marca Hispanica), a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona.

The Counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include all of Catalonia. In 1137, Aragon and the County of Barcelona merged by dynastic union by the marriage of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronilla of Aragon and their titles were finally borne by only one person when their son Alfonso II of Aragon ascended to the throne in 1162. His territories were later to be known as the Crown of Aragon which conquered many overseas possessions, ruling the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories in Naples and Sicily and as far as Athens in the thirteenth century. The forging of a dynastic link between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline.

The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 united the two royal lines. The centre of political power became Madrid and the colonisation of the Americas reduced the financial importance (at least in relative terms) of Mediterranean trade. Barcelona was always the stronghold of Catalan separatism and was the center of the Catalan Revolt (1640–52) against Philip IV of Spain. The great plague of 1650-1654 had halved the city's population. The Napoleonic wars left the province ravaged, but the postwar period saw the start of industrialization.
The resistance of Barcelona to Franco's coup d'état was to have lasting effects after the defeat of the Republican government. The autonomous institutions of Catalonia were abolished and the use of the Catalan language in public life was suppressed. Barcelona remained the second largest city in Spain, at the heart of a region which was relatively industrialised and prosperous, despite the devastation of the civil war. The result was a large-scale immigration from poorer regions of Spain (particularly Andalucia, Murcia and Galicia), which in turn led to rapid urbanisation. Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games in 1992, which helped revitalize the city.

Geography
Barcelona is located on the northeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula, facing the Mediterranean Sea, on a plateau approximately 5 km (3 mi) wide limited by the mountain range of Collserola, the Llobregat river to the south-west and the Besòs river to the north. This plateau has 170 km2 (66 sq mi), of which 101 km² (38.9 sq mi) are occupied by the city itself. It is 160 km (100 mi) south of the Pyrenees and the Catalonian border with France.
Collserola, part of the coastal mountain range, shelters the city to the north-west. Its highest point, the peak of Tibidabo, 512 m (1,680 ft) high, offers striking views over the city and is topped by the 288.4 m (946.2 ft) Torre de Collserola, a telecommunications tower that is visible from most of the city. Barcelona is peppered with small hills, most of them urbanized and that gave their name to the neighbourhoods built upon them, such as Carmel (267 m), Putxet (181 m) and Rovira (261 m). The escarpment of Montjuïc (173 m), situated to the southeast, overlooks the harbour and is topped by Montjuïc castle, a fortress built in the 17–18th centuries to control the city as a replacement for the Ciutadella. Today, the fortress is a museum and Montjuïc is home to several sporting and cultural venues, as well as Barcelona's biggest park and gardens.

The city borders are the municipalities of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adrià de Besòs to the north; L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Esplugues de Llobregat to the south; the Mediterranean Sea to the east; and Montcada i Reixac and Sant Cugat del Vallès to the west.

Climate
Barcelona has a Mediterranean climate, with mild, humid winters and warm, dry summers. Barcelona is located on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, so Atlantic west winds often arrive in Barcelona with low humidity, producing no rain. The proximity of the Atlantic, its latitude, and the relief, are the reasons why the summers are not as dry as in most other Mediterranean Basin locations. Lows (not surface lows but high-atmospheric "cold invasions") can easily affect the area of Barcelona (and Catalonia), causing storms, particularly in August. Some years, the beginning of June is still cool and rainy, like April and May. Together with August, September, October and November these months are the wettest of the year. The driest are February, March, June and July. As in many parts of Catalonia, the annual weather pattern varies greatly from year to year.

Its average annual temperature is 15.6 °C (60 °F): 20 °C (68 °F) during the day and 11 °C (52 °F) at night. In the coldest month - January, the typically temperature ranges from 7 to 15 °C (45 to 59 °F) during the day, -2 to 9 °C (28 to 48 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is 13 °C (55 °F). In the warmest month - August, the typically temperature ranges from 25 to 31 °C (77 to 88 °F) during the day, about 20 °C (68 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is 25 °C (77 °F). Generally - season, with the summer temperatures lasting about 6 months (from May to October). Two months (April and Norember) are transitional, sometimes there are temperature above 20 °C (68 °F). December, January and February are characterized by early-autumn/spring temperatures - resembles daytime temperatures in the April from Central Europe. Sunshine hours is till 2,524 per year, from 138 (average 4.5 hours of sunshine / day) in December to 310 (average 10 hours of sunshine / day) in July. Average relative humidity is 69% in July to 75% in October.
The highest temperature recorded in the city centre is 38.6 °C (101.5 °F). The coldest temperature recorded was −6.7 °C (19.9 °F) on 11 February 1956 and −5 °C (23 °F) on 12 January 1985. However, in the 19th century −9.6 °C (14.7 °F) was recorded in January 1896. At the Fabra Observatory, situated on the Tibidabo hill, 412 m (1,351.71 ft) above the sea level, the record summer temperature is 39.8 °C (104 °F)  on 7 July 1982, and the lowest temperature ever registered, −10 °C (14 °F) on 11 February 1956.

Snowfalls are not common, seldom causing any disruption to traffic, but frost is common on the outskirts of the city. Nonetheless, the city has experienced its share of heavy snowfalls, as for example at Christmas 1962, when a true blizzard affected the city, with 50 cm (19.69 in) of snow falling within the city and at least 1 metre on the hills. But, according to old news sources, the greatest snowfall took place in 1887, with over 50 cm (19.69 in). The third heaviest snowfall was in December 1933, with 30 cm (11.81 in) on Montjuïc hill. The most recent ones took place on 8 March 2010, 6 January 2009, 27 January 2006, 28 February 2005, 29 February 2004, 18 February 2003, 14 December 2001 and the 21st November 1999 (the only snowfall so early in winter at least 3 centuries).
Thunderstorms, which occasionally reach severe limits, are common from mid August until November. The most recent major summer storm was on the 31 July 2002, when over 200 mm (7.87 in) of rain were recorded at some observatories.
Though Barcelona is normally not a windy city, it is affected by sea breezes from May/June to September and winds from the west and north-west in winter. Eastern gales sometimes cause floods on the coastline. East and north-east winds can exceed 100 km/h (62.14 mph). In winter Barcelona is sometimes affected by the tramontana or mistral winds, like other places in the Northwestern Mediterranean Basin.
Barcelona is generally a sunny city, however, some days of fog and spells of cloudy days are not rare. Sea fog is frequent in early spring, when the first warm African air masses come in over the cold sea water. Cloudy days are most frequent from April to October/November. Climate

Parks
Barcelona contains 68 municipal parks, divided into 12 historic parks, 5 thematic (botanical) parks, 45 urban parks and 6 forest parks. They range from vest-pocket parks to large recreation areas. The urban parks alone cover 10% of the city (549.7 ha/1,358.3 acres). The total park surface grows about 10 ha (25 acres) per year, with a proportion of 18.1 square metres (195 sq ft) of park area per inhabitant.
Of Barcelona's parks, Montjuïc is the largest, with 203 ha located on the mountain of the same name. It is followed by Ciutadella Park (situated in the place of the old military citadel and which houses the Parliament building, the zoo and several museums; 31 ha/76.6 acres including the zoo), the Guinardó Park (19 ha/47.0 acres), Park Güell (designed by Antoni Gaudí; 17.2 ha/42.5 acres), Oreneta Castle Park (also 17.2 ha/42.5 acres), Diagonal Mar Park (13.3 ha/32.9 acres, inaugurated in 2002), Nou Barris Central Park (13.2 ha/32.6 acres), Can Dragó Sports Park and Poblenou Park (both 11.9 ha/29.4 acres) and the Labyrinth Park (9.10 ha/22.5 acres), named after the garden maze it contains. A part of the Collserolla Park is also within the city limits.

Beaches
Barcelona has seven beaches, totalling 4.5 km (2.8 mi) of coastline. Sant Sebastià and Barceloneta beaches, both 1,100 m (3,610 ft) in length, are the largest, oldest and the most frequented beaches in Barcelona. The Olympic port separates them from the other city beaches: Nova Icària, Bogatell, Mar Bella, Nova Mar Bella and Llevant. These beaches (ranging from 400 to 640 m/1,300 to 2,100 ft) were opened as a result of the city restructuring to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, when a great number of industrial buildings were demolished. At present, the beach sand is replenished from quarries given that storms regularly remove large quantities of material. The 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures left the city a large concrete bathing zone on the eastmost part of the city's coastline.

Other
The area around the Plaça Catalunya makes up the city's historical centre and, alongside the upper half of Avinguda Diagonal, is the main commercial area of the city. Barcelona has several commercial complexes, like L'Illa in the higher part of the Diagonal avenue and Diagonal Mar in the lowest, La Maquinista, Glòries in the place of the same name and the Maremagnum by the port.

Barcelona has several skyscrapers, the tallest being the Hotel Arts and its twin the Torre Mapfre, both 154 m (505 ft) high, followed by the newest, Torre Agbar 144 m (472 ft). Barcelona is conveniently situated at just 125 km from the ski resorts of the Pyrenées. The skyline of the city is decorated in winter by the summit (1,712 m (5,616.80 ft) high) of the Montseny mountain, normally covered by snow.
Demographics
Demographic evolution, 1900–2007, according to the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Estadística
According to Barcelona's City Council, Barcelona's population as of 1 June 2006 was 1,673,075 people, while the population of the urban area was 4,185,000. It is the central nucleus of the Barcelona metropolitan area, which relies on a population of 4,992,193.
The population density of Barcelona was 15,779 inhabitants per square kilometer (40,867/sq mi), with Eixample being the most populated district. 62% of the inhabitants were born in Catalonia, with a 23.5% coming from the rest of Spain. Of the 13.9% from other countries, a proportion which has more than tripled since 2001 when it was 3.9%, the majority come from (in order) Ecuador, Peru, Morocco, Colombia, Argentina, Pakistan and China.
As the national language, Spanish is understood almost universally in Barcelona. 95% of the population understand Catalonia's native Catalan language, while 74.6% can speak it, 75% can read it, and 47.1% can write it, thanks to the linguistic immersion educational system. While most of the population state they are Roman Catholic (208 churches), there are also a number of other groups, including Evangelical (71 locations, mostly professed by Roma), Jehovah's Witnesses (21 Kingdom Halls) and Buddhists (13 locations), and a number of Muslims due to immigration.
In 1900, Barcelona had a population of 533,000 people, which grew steadily but slowly until 1950, when it started absorbing a high number of people from other less-industrialized parts of Spain. Barcelona's population peaked in 1979 with 1,906,998 people, and fell throughout the 1980s and 1990s as more people sought a higher quality of life in outlying cities in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. After bottoming out in 2000 with 1,496,266 people, the city's population began to rise again as younger people started to return, causing a great increase in housing prices.

Economy

Area south of the park's Diagonal Mar, with some tall buildings as the illa llum, with 88 m (288.71 ft) tall.
Barcelona has a long-standing mercantile tradition. Less well known is that the region was one of the earliest to begin industrialization in continental Europe, beginning with textile related works from the mid 1780s but really gathering momentum in the mid nineteenth century, when it became a major centre for the production of textiles and machinery. Since then, manufacturing has played a large role in its history. The traditional importance in textiles is reflected in Barcelona's repeated attempts to become a major fashion centre. In summer 2000, the city became a host for the prestigious Bread & Butter urban fashion fair until 2009 when it was announced that it would be celebrated again on Berlin. This was a hard blow for the city as the fair brought €100 m to the city in just three days. There have been many attempts to launch Barcelona as a fashion capital, notably Gaudi Home.
As in other modern cities, the manufacturing sector has long since been overtaken by the services sector, though it remains very important. The region's leading industries today are textiles, chemical, pharmaceutical, motor, electronic, printing, logistics, publishing, telecommunications and information technology services.
Drawing upon its tradition of creative art and craftsmanship, Barcelona is nowadays also known for its award-winning industrial design. It also has several congress halls, notably Fira de Barcelona (Trade Fair), that host a quickly growing number of national and international events each year, which had also meant the opening of new hotels each year. However, the economic crisis and deep cuts in business travel are affecting the Council´s positioning of the city as a convention centre. In addition to the economic downturn, the recent mafia-style killing of the director of the city's International Convention Centre and the revelation in El Periódico newspaper of Thursday 12 February 2009 that the Bombay attacks were planned from Barcelona may only worsen matters.[citation needed] El Periódico pointed out that Barcelona´s International Convention Centre and its biggest luxury hotels are all near the waterfront and thus provide a tempting target.
Barcelona has one of the highest costs of living in Spain, and occupying the 31st position in the world rank according to a report by Mercer Human Resource.

Government and administrative divisions
Barcelona is governed by a city council formed by 41 city councilors, elected for a four-year term by universal suffrage. As one of the two biggest cities in Spain, Barcelona is subject to a special law articulated through the Carta Municipal (Municipal Law). A first version of this law was passed in 1960 and amended later, but the current version was approved in March 2006. According to this law, Barcelona's city council is organized in two levels: a political one, with elected city councilors, and one executive, which administrates the programs and executes the decisions taken on the political level. This law also gives the local government a special relationship with the central government and it also gives the mayor wider prerogatives by the means of municipal executive commissions. It expands the powers of the city council in areas like telecommunications, city traffic, road safety and public safety. It also gives a special economic regime to the city's treasury and it gives the council a veto in matters that will be decided by the central government, but that will need a favourable report from the council.

The Comissió de Govern (Government Commission) is the executive branch, formed by 24 councilors, led by the Mayor, with 5 lieutenant-mayors and 17 city councilors, each in charge of an area of government, and 5 non-elected councilors. The plenary, formed by the 41 city councilors, has advisory, planning, regulatory, and fiscal executive functions. The six Commissions del Consell Municipal (City council commissions) have executive and controlling functions in the field of their jurisdiction. They are composed by a number of councilors proportional to the number of councilors each political party has in the plenary. The city council has jurisdiction in the fields of city planning, transportation, municipal taxes, public highways security through the Guardia Urbana (the municipal police), city maintenance, gardens, parks and environment, facilities (like schools, nurseries, sports centres, libraries, etc.), culture, sports, youth and social welfare. Some of these competencies are not exclusive, but shared with the Generalitat de Catalunya or the central Spanish government.
The executive branch is led by a Chief Municipal Executive Officer which answers to the Mayor. It is made up of departments which are legally part of the city council and by separate legal entities of two tipes: autonomous public departments and public enterprises.

The seat of the city council is on the Plaça Sant Jaume, opposite the seat of Generalitat de Catalunya. Since the coming of the Spanish democracy, Barcelona has been governed by the PSC, first with an absolute majority and later in coalition with ERC and ICV. Since the May 2007 elections, PSC is governing in minority only with IC, since ERC decided against a renewal of the previous coalition. The second most voted party in Barcelona is CiU, followed by PP, both currently in the opposition.
 
Districts
Since 1987, the city has been divided into 10 administrative districts (districtes in Catalan, distritos in Spanish), each one with its own council led by a city councillor. The composition of each district council depends on the number of votes each political party had in that district, so a district can be led by a councillor from a different party than the executive council.
The districts are based mostly on historical divisions. Several of the city's districts are former towns annexed by the city of Barcelona in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that still maintain their own distinct character. The official names of these districts are in the Catalan language.

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