9 Fun Facts About Barcelona

Did you know that the player to whom the fans gave all the credit for the win was Lionel Messi and he is from Argentina? The nickname of the team is 'blaugrana’, based on the blue and maroon colors that the football team wears for all its games. The same colors are worn by all the teams that represent FC Barcelona in other games like basketball, handball and hockey.

Drivers in Barcelona are considered among the worst in the world, with accidents occurring in the city every nineteen seconds! This can go up to ten accidents every second on weekends, which makes it safer to walk than to drive.

A majority of Barcelonans therefore prefer to be pedestrians and at any given time most roads are thronged with people on foot. Barcelona is said to have large portions of the city devoted exclusively to pedestrians, the total area of 130 hectares which is equivalent to about 260 football fields. So if you are in Barcelona you might want to start loving to walk!

Antoni Gaudi is considered one of the great architects who vastly influenced buildings in the city. His La Sagrada Familia, a Roman Catholic Church was begun in 1882 and is still under construction many years after his death. He chose to take the donkey of a woman selling sand as a model for the main entrance to this church. Some of the most popular hotels in Barcelona are located near the Sagrada Familia.

The sea side in Barcelona was completely run over by industries and there existed no beach for the use of the city’s populace. This was changed in 1992 when the city was chosen to host the Olympic Games. The authorities shifted the industries and converted the sea side area into one for leisure, with lots of restaurants, bars and of course, new beaches!

There is a dispute about the founding of Barcelona. There is one camp which claims that Hercules founded the city about 400 years before the building of Rome. The other side believes that Barcelona was built by Hamilcar Barca, the father of Hannibal. The name Barcelona comes from the Barca family of Carthage who ruled the area in the 3rd century before Christ.

Saint Georges Day is the national feast day in the region and on this day it is a tradition to present your near and dear ones with roses and books. This was the inspiration for the UNESCO to declare April 23rd as the International Day of Books.

Las Ramblas is a 2 kilometer long boulevard where it is customary to walk and take in the sights of the street artists, enjoy a cup of coffee or buy flowers. This street is busy throughout the day and night and is a famous meeting point for tourists.

The Barri Gotic is the centre of old Barcelona and some of the buildings go back even to the Roman era. Medieval architecture is quite common here and the attraction of these buildings brings in over a million tourists to Barcelona every week. Easy to explore by foot, book your stay in one of the hotels located in the Gothic Quarter.

Walk down the Portal de l'Àngel if you want to walk down the most walked down street in Spain and you will be one among approximately 3500 others who throng the street every hour! So that is a quick glimpse at breathtaking Barcelona. Definitely worth visiting and discovering even more secrets for yourself!