Facts about Barcelona
Barcelona: One of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and most likely in the world. Millions of tourists visit the city every year to discover the most wonderful corners of the city.
Being such a crowded city one tends to think that there are hardly any secrets about the city, and you could not be more wrong. Today we decided to sum up the 10 interesting facts about Barcelona that you didn’t know. Ready?
Interesting facts about Barcelona
Las Ramblas:
It’s probably the best known street in the whole city, but did you know that’s not a real street? Las Ramblas is made of five streets: Rambla de Canalets, Ramblas dels Estudis, Rambla de Sant Josep, Rambla del Caputxins and Rambla del Mar.
Columbus:
The statue of the discoverer Columbus is located at the end of the famous Ramblas. We can see that he’s pointing to one direction with his finger. In theory he’s pointing to America, but in reality he’s pointing to Mallorca, which basically means that he’s pointing to the opposite direction.
Portal de l’Àngel:
This street very close to Plaça Catalunya (Catalunya Square) is the main shopping street of the city, and it also holds the record as the most crowded street in Spain with between 3.000 and 3.500 pedestrians crossing the street every hour.
Statue Of Liberty:
You might be wondering why are we mentioning this icon of New York City. As you might know it was a creation of a French architect and Paris has a second copy. What many people don’t know is that there’s a third copy of the statue in Barcelona. This one is smaller than the other two and it-s black. This copy can be found in the Arús Library (Biblioteca Arús).
Underground:
The city of Barcelona has a great metro system. What many people don’t know is that there are about 12 abandoned stations in the whole network. Some of them can be visited for some special events (Halloween and other events like that), and they are usually used as sets for movies, series or adverts.
Geese:
These animal has a connection with the city. You must be wondering why, right? If you visit the Cathedral of Barcelona you will discover that 13 geese live there. The reason? They represent Eulalia (patroness of the city) and they represent the 13 years she lived.
Culés:
Barcelona is also very well known because of the football team Barcelona F.C. that leave the world in awe with their playing style. As you might know the fans of the team are called culés. The origin of the word is very interesting. During the early 1900’s the team played in a very small field located in an industrial area. Due to the reduced space the fans had to sit on top of the walls surrounding the field. When people would cross the street would call them “culers” meaning that they could see their asses (culers comes from culo which means ass in Spanish). The word developed and the fans of the team are nowadays called “Culés”.
The harbour:
Barcelona port is the biggest harbour of the Mediterranean Sea, and also the ninth biggest in Europe.
Museums:
The city offers us a great deal of museums, but do you know which one is the most visited museum of the city? The Fc Barcelona museum. Every year around 1.5 million people visit the museum of the team. It seems that Barcelona doesn’t do only well on the field.
Antoni Gaudí:
The city of Barcelona could not be possible without the worldwide acclaimed architect. What many people don’t know is that he died because he was hit by a streetcar. He was heavily injured but nobody recognised him and it took him time to get treatment in the hospital, which in the end led to his dead at 73 years old.
As you can see Barcelona still keeps many secrets to be discovered, Learn more in our tours.