Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In Catalan folklore, the idea for the Catalan flag - alternating red-and-yellow bars - was
born when, during a battle, King Louis the Pious dipped four fingers into the wound of a
dying Wilfred the Hairy, and ran them across Wilfred's golden shield. Never mind that
Louis died long before Wilfred was born!
A Dramatic Redesign
Creeping industrialisation and prosperity for the business class did not work out so well
down the line. Working-class families lived in increasingly putrid and cramped conditions.
Poor nutrition, bad sanitation and disease were the norm in workers' districts, and riots, pre-
dictably, resulted. As a rule they were put down with little ceremony - the 1842 rising was
bombarded into submission from the Castell de Montjuïc.
In 1869 a plan to expand the city was begun. Ildefons Cerdà designed L'Eixample (the
Enlargement) as a grid, broken up with gardens and parks and grafted onto the old city, be-
ginning at Plaça de Catalunya. The plan was revolutionary. Until then it had been illegal to
build in the plains between Barcelona and Gràcia, the area being a military zone. As indus-
trialisation got underway this building ban also forced the concentration of factories in Bar-
celona itself (especially in Barceloneta) and surrounding towns like Gràcia, Sant Martí,
Sants and Sant Andreu (all of which were subsequently swallowed up by the burgeoning
city).
L'Eixample became the most sought-after chunk of real estate in Barcelona - but the
parks were mostly sacrificed to an insatiable demand for housing and undisguised land spec-
ulation. The flourishing bourgeoisie paid for lavish, ostentatious buildings, many of them in
the unique, Modernista style.
Justice in feudal days was a little rough by modern standards. As prescribed in a 1060
bill: 'In regard to women, let the rulers render justice by cutting off their noses, lips, ears
and breasts, and by burning them at the stake if necessary.'
A 19th-Century Renaissance
Barcelona was comparatively peaceful for most of the second half of the 19th century but
far from politically inert. The relative calm and growing wealth that came with commercial
success helped revive interest in all things Catalan.
The Renaixença (Renaissance) reflected the feeling in Barcelona of renewed self-confid-
ence. Politicians and academics increasingly studied and demanded the return of former
