Catalonia is a historical European nation, currently administered as an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory lies on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight regions, which are in turn divided into 42 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populated municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.
The lands of what today is known as Catalonia, in Spain, were first settled during the Middle Palaeolithic era. Like the rest of the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula, the area was occupied by the Iberians and several Greek colonies were established on the coast before the Roman conquest. It was the first area of Hispania conquered by the Romans. It then came under Visigothic rule after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire. In 718, the area was occupied by the Umayyad Caliphate and became a part of Muslim ruled al-Andalus. The Frankish Empire conquered the area from the Muslims, ending with the conquest of Barcelona in 801, as part of the creation of a larger buffer zone of Christian counties against Islamic rule historiographically known as the Marca Hispanica. In the 10th century the County of Barcelona became progressively independent from Frankish rule.
Modernisme, also known as Catalan modernism and Catalan art nouveau, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan culture, one of the most predominant cultures within Spain. Nowadays, it is considered a movement based on the cultural revindication of a Catalan identity. Its main form of expression was Modernista architecture, but it also encompassed many other arts, such as painting and sculpture, and especially the design and the decorative arts, which were particularly important, especially in their role as support to architecture. Modernisme was also a literary movement.
The Catalan Countries are those territories where the Catalan language is spoken. They include the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencian Community, and parts of Aragon and Murcia (Carche), as well as the Principality of Andorra, the department of Pyrénées-Orientales in France, and the city of Alghero in Sardinia (Italy). It is often used as a sociololinguistic term to describe the cultural-linguistic area where Catalan is spoken. In the context of Catalan nationalism, the term is sometimes used in a more restricted way to refer to just Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The Catalan Countries do not correspond to any present or past political or administrative unit, though most of the area belonged to the Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages. Parts of Valencia (Spanish) and Catalonia (Occitan) are not Catalan-speaking.
Lluís Domènech i Montaner was a Catalan architect who was very much involved in and influential for the Catalan Modernisme català, the Art Nouveau/Jugendstil movement. He was also a Catalan politician.
Alexandre Deulofeu i Torres was a Catalan politician and philosopher of history. He wrote about what he called the Mathematics of History, a cyclical theory on the evolution of civilizations.
The Principality of Catalonia was a medieval and early modern state in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. During most of its history it was in dynastic union with the Kingdom of Aragon, constituting together the Crown of Aragon. Between the 13th and the 18th centuries, it was bordered by the Kingdom of Aragon to the west, the Kingdom of Valencia to the south, the Kingdom of France and the feudal lordship of Andorra to the north and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The term Principality of Catalonia was official until the 1830s, when the Spanish government implemented the centralized provincial division, but remained in popular and informal contexts. Today, the term Principat (Principality) is used primarily to refer to the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain, as distinct from the other Catalan Countries, and usually including the historical region of Roussillon in Southern France.
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme. The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929. The Palau Nacional, which has housed the Museu d'Art de Catalunya since 1934, was declared a national museum in 1990 under the Museums Law passed by the Catalan Government. That same year, a thorough renovation process was launched to refurbish the site, based on plans drawn up by the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann, who were later joined in the undertaking by Josep Benedito. The Oval Hall was reopened for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, and the various collections were installed and opened over the period from 1995 to 2004. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya was officially inaugurated on 16 December 2004. It is one of the largest museums in Spain.
Cornudella de Montsant is a municipality in the comarca of the Priorat in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the north-west of the comarca below the Montsant range and the Prades Mountains. The Siurana reservoir is on the territory of the municipality and supplies its drinking water.
Anti-Catalanism is the collective name given to various historical trends in France, Italy, and Spain that have been hostile to Catalan culture and traditions.
Barcelona'sculture stems from the city's 2000 years of history. Barcelona has historically been a cultural center of reference in the world. To a greater extent than the rest of Catalonia, where Catalonia's native language Catalan is more dominant, Barcelona is a bilingual city: Catalan and Spanish are both official and widely spoken. Since the arrival of democracy, the Catalan culture has experienced a rebirth, both by recovering works from the past and by stimulating the creation of new works. Barcelona is an international hub of highly active and diverse cultural life with theatres, concert halls, cinemas, museums, and high-value architectural heritage.
Santa Maria de Montserrat is an abbey of the Order of Saint Benedict located on the mountain of Montserrat in Monistrol de Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain. It is notable for enshrining the image of the Virgin of Montserrat. The monastery was founded in 1025 and rebuilt between the 19th and 20th centuries. With a community of around 70 monks, the abbey is still in use to this day.
The Roca dels Moros or Caves of El Cogul is a rock shelter containing paintings of prehistoric Levantine rock art and Iberian schematic art. The site is in El Cogul, in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. Since 1998 the paintings have been protected as part of the Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inscriptions in Northeastern Iberian script and in Latin alphabet indicate that the place was used as a sanctuary into Iberian and Roman times.
Sant Llorenç de Morunys is a Benedictine monastery in Sant Llorenç de Morunys Province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. It was declared a ‘Historic and Artistic Monument‘ in 1976.
Lluís Juste de Nin was a Spanish illustrator, cartoonist and fashion designer. He worked as creative director for the Spanish fashion label Armand Basi. His work was first published in the 1960s. His cartoons were used in the publications of the political opposition to Francisco Franco. In these publications, Juste de Nin signed his work, "El Zurdo". For many years, he was engaged in creating illustrations for articles by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán in Mundo Obrero.
The architecture of Barcelona has undergone a parallel evolution alongside Catalan and Spanish architecture, reflecting the diverse trends found in the history of Western architecture. Throughout its historical development, Barcelona has been influenced by numerous cultures and civilizations, each contributing their artistic concepts and leaving a lasting legacy. The city's architectural heritage can be traced back to its earliest inhabitants, the Iberian settlers, followed by the Romans, Visigoths, and a brief Islamic period. In the Middle Ages, Catalan art, language, and culture flourished, with the Romanesque and Gothic periods particularly fostering artistic growth in the region.
The Catalan Republic was a state proclaimed in 1931 by Francesc Macià as the "Catalan Republic within the Iberian Federation", in the context of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. It was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, and superseded three days later, on 17 April, by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Catalan institution of self-government within the Spanish Republic.
Francoism in Catalonia was established within Francoist Spain between 1939 and 1975, following the Spanish Civil War and post-war Francoist repression. Francisco Franco's regime replaced Revolutionary Catalonia after the Catalonia Offensive at the end of the war. The dictatorship in Catalonia complemented the suppression of democratic freedoms with the repression of Catalan culture. Its totalitarian character and its unifying objectives meant the imposition of a single culture and a single language, Castillian. The regime was specifically anti-Catalan, but this did not stop the development of a Catalan Francoism that was forged during the war and fed by victory.
La Veu de Catalunya was a Catalan newspaper founded by Enric Prat de la Riba that was published in Barcelona from 1 January 1899 to 8 January 1937, with two editions daily.
Cartoixa d'Escaladei, or Chapterhouse of Scala Dei, was a monastery of the Carthusian order in the southern Catalonia. It was founded in the 12th century, was an important centre for art in the 17th century and started the planting of vines in the region that became later known as Priorat due to the vineyards of the monks.
