So, you’ve read in your guide book about holding onto your wallet on Las Ramblas and that Barcelona has an old Gothic neighborhood and Jewish quarter. You’ve read here about some history of Parc Guell and a few places to go for some classic dishes. But what don’t you know about Barcelona? This is a city rich with history and culture and I’m willing to bet there are still a few things you didn’t know about Barcelona. I'm going to share the top ten things I think you didn’t know that you didn’t know. We'll break it up into two posts because I don't want to totally blow your mind. Here are the first five...
1) Antoni Gaudi was not the first architect to work on Sagrada Familia. True he is famous for its design and it was the sole focus of his work for the last 15 years of his life, but he wasn’t the first choice. Architect Francesc del Villar was actually the first one who was commissioned to design the church on that site. A year into the project he resigned and Gaudi took over and completely revamped the design. I wonder if del Villar tried to tell people “That arch on the North West corner was totally my idea, but they never give me credit for it.”
2) Surely if you’ve researched Barcelona, you’ve read that it is part of the autonomous community of Catalonia and that the official language is Catalan. I don’t think people fully understand though until they meet Catalan people, how very autonomous they are/want to be. It’s good to be aware that Catalan people do not consider themselves Spanish- they are Catalan, and don’t you forget it. Of course some are more intense about it than others but to avoid the risk of offending anyone, you might want to ask someone if they are Catalan or Spanish before referring to them as either or.
3) You have Barcelona to thank for World Book Day. La Diada de San Jordi is one of the biggest, most widely celebrated feast days in Barcelona. Taking place on April 23, it is a celebration of love and literacy. The Barcelona celebration of St. George includes the tradition of men giving their sweethearts a rose and women giving theirs a book. On this day there are booths selling every type of rose and book you can imagine all throughout the city. Originally the rose was the main component, but book sellers tried to capitalize on the fact that Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare both died on April 23 and incorporating books to the holiday caught on. Barcelona’s tradition was actually the catalyst for UNESCO declaring April 23rd World Book Day as of 1995.
4) The founding father of Barcelona was the Catalan Count Guifré el Pelós, which translates to Wilfred the Hairy. I think this is the subconscious reason so many of the men here leave their shirts unbuttoned down to their bellybutton, proudly displaying their hairy chests.
5) If you’re up on the international football scene, you know that FC Barcelona is a top notch team. But you may not know that, with the seating capacity for 100,000 people, FC is the biggest privately owned stadium in the world. You can get nosebleed seats for €30-40, so definitely try to get to a game if you visit during the season. It’s worth it just to hear a stadium full of people singing the Barcelona victory song in unison after a goooooaaaaaallll.
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