Hisory of Barcelona

I`m going to write about the place that I most like: Barcelona. I really want to travel there because I think that it`s a very beautiful place and if I had the chance I would go there with one of my best friends, Melissa, because she also like this place.


Barcelona’s origins go back more than 2,500 years when Phoenicians and Carthaginians settled in the area and chose to have a commercial port. The name of Carthaginian ruler Amilcar Barca is often referred to as the origin of the name Barcino, later used by the Romans. The Carthaginians were replaced by the Romans in the 1st century B.C. who preferred Tarraco (modern day Tarragona) as their regional capital. Barcelona has several surviving monuments from this period, concentrated around the Plaça Sant Jaume and the gothic quarter. During the third century AD Barcino replaced Tarraco in importance and became the major Roman outpost in the area of Hispania Citerior; the Roman walls, still visible as part of later buildings in the Gothic quarter, were reinforced in this period to repel the frankish and german invasions. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire came the invasion of the Visigoths who occupied Barcino in 415 A.D. and renamed the city Barcinona. Three hundred years later at the beginning of the 8th century the moors conquered Barcelona during their drive from northern Africa to the south of France. Only one hundred years later, the Franks led by Louis the Pious occupied Barcelona and established a strong military presence in what became known as the Spanish Mark, the front line of a constant battle between the Christian kingdoms of the North with the Arabs. This conflict eventually evolved into what became known as the Reconquest.The Carolingian Empire established a number of Counties and the most important of these was that of Barcelona. The origins of the Catalan nation are to be found in Wilfred the Hairy, Count of Barcelona who established a hereditary system of succesion. Before his death in the year 898 he managed to unify the county of Barcelona with the rest of the Carolingian territories . In the year 988 Count Borrell II achieved independence from the Carolingian kings for the County of Barcelona and became the dominant political and military force in the region later known as Catalonia.


I hope you like my post, and the place, of course. Mari Lesjak