Catalonia was 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.
Olot is the capital city of the comarca of Garrotxa, in the Province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. The city is known for its natural landscape, including four volcanoes scattered around the city center. The municipality is part of the Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa Natural Park. Olot is also well known for its cultural activity, with historical art movements like Olot school or factories of religious imagery, which contributed to the location in the city of the main Design and Arts & Crafts school of the province of Girona, the Escola d'Art i Superior de Disseny d'Olot.
The Generalitat de Catalunya, or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government as an autonomous community of Spain. It is formed by the Parliament of Catalonia, the Presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Executive Council of Catalonia. It is ruled according to the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.
Josep Trueta i Raspall was a Catalan surgeon and researcher from Spain.
Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira is a Spanish politician. He was the Vice-president of the Catalan Government from 2006 to 2010. From 1996 to 2008 he was the leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia . ERC campaigns for Catalonia's independence from Spain and, secondarily, extend it to other Catalan Countries, the whole Catalan linguistic domain.
Josep Bargalló i Valls is a Spanish teacher and politician from Catalonia and the current Minister of Education of Catalonia.
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.
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.
Marina Geli i Fàbrega was the health minister of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 2003 to 2010. She is considered one of the most prominent members of the Catalanist wing of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia.
Josep Carner i Puigoriol, was a Spanish poet, journalist, playwright and translator. He was also known as the Prince of Catalan Poets. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.
El Masnou is a municipality in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the coast between Montgat and Premià de Mar, to the north-east of the city of Barcelona, in the comarca (county) of el Maresme. The town is both a tourist centre and a dormitory town in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.
Amer is a municipality in the comarca of la Selva in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
The Catalan language originated from Vulgar Latin in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. It diverged from the other Romance languages in the 9th century. At that time, Catalan spread quickly throughout the Iberian peninsula when the Catalan counts conquered Muslim territory. By the 11th century, the Catalan language was present in several feudal documents. Catalan was present throughout the Mediterranean by the 15th century. At that time, the city of Valencia was thriving.
Antoni Comín i Oliveres is a Catalan intellectual and politician from Spain. He is currently the executive vice-president of the Council for the Republic and has been an MEP since July 2019. He is the fourth child of the politician and intellectual Alfonso Carlos Comín i Ros and Maria Lluïsa Oliveres i Sanvicens, whose other children are Maria, Pere and Betona. He is the partner of the stage designer Sergi Corbera, and they have a daughter called Laia.
Maria Mercè Roca i Perich is a Catalan writer and politician from Spain. She was deputy to the Parliament of Catalonia for Republican Left of Catalonia, and currently serves as a councillor at the City Council of Girona for the same party.
Josep Maria de Sagarra i de Castellarnau was a Catalan-language writer from Barcelona, Catalonia.
Joan Triadu i Font was a Catalan literary critic, academic and writer. A cultural and resistant anti-Francoist activist, he was involved in many important Catalan cultural projects in the twentieth century, including the magazines Serra d'Or and Ariel, the newspaper Avui and the association Òmnium Cultural. He was a pioneer in the teaching of Catalan language courses after the Spanish Civil War. As an educationalist, he was the general director of the Cultural Institute of the Centre of Catholic Influence, an institution that created the Thau Barcelona School in 1963 and the Thau Sant Cugat School in 1996. Joan Triadú Year, which marked the centenary of his birth, was celebrated in 2021.
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.
José Antonio González i Casanova was a Spanish lawyer, politician, constitutional law academic, and writer, known for being one of the drafters of the Constitution of Spain in 1978.
