BARCELONA
the city "unic in is beauty and site", as said the immortal
author of Don Quixote", at present a great emporium of commerce,
industry and agriculture, no less
than of arts, lies between
the rivers Besôs and Llobregat, filling the wide plain between the sea
and the mountains and ascending the lower part of Mount Tibidabo; if is
the ancient "Barcino", whose foundation, says the legend, is due
to the Carthaginian warrior Amilcar Barca.
The Romans
gave the name of 'lulia Augusta" and "Pia Faventa" to the
fortress-like place build on top of the Taber hill, which they conquered
in the year 201 B. C. The Barbarians took if in A. D. 4og, and in 4I4
Ataulfo established in same the court of the Wisigoths. In 713 the town
surrendered to the Arabs who named if "Barshaluna", and in 770,
the Catalonians aided by Charles the Great gained if, but if soon fell
again in the power of the Mahomedans. In 801 it was taken by Ludovic the
Pious and made capital of the Aquitain duchy, it was called the Spanish
Mark and became the frontier and feudal possession of the Carlovingian
Empire. Almanzor overpowered and anihilated the town in 985, but it was
immediateIy and definitely conquered by Borrell II and made Principality
of Catalonia, free from the French sovereignty.
Barcelona,
capital of Catalonia first, and later head of the Catalonian- Aragonese
Monarchy, in the middle-age
Queen of the Mediterranean sea, on account of its power, culture
and commerce, promulgated the 'Consulate of the Sea", which is still
the international maritime code, assembled in Monzon the Courts of the
Kinqdom, these being the first Parliament known in Europe, even before
England's; Italy was for a large part under its Power, and its
"Almogavares" (Ancient light troops who harassed the Moors)
occupied the Acropolis of Athens.
In
these times, Barcelona relives years of splendour, its ancient monuments,
itsExhibitions, its academies, libraries and museums, its magnificent
urban development; its parks; the mildness of ifs climate during the whole
year, the multiplicity of communications leading to thousands of enchanted
places, prove Barcelona to be the unequalled city seen by Cervantes.
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