Barcelona is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within city limits, its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the province of Barcelona and is home to around 5.3 million people, making it the fifth most populous urban area of the European Union after Paris, the Ruhr area, Madrid and Milan. It is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range.
Catalan is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian. It has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero, and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".
The University of Barcelona is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities in Spain and has also been ranked 1st in the country in most of the 2024 rankings.
The Technical University of Catalonia, currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest polytechnic university in Catalonia, Spain.
The recorded history of the lands of what today is known as Catalonia begins with the development of the Iberian peoples while 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 northern half of 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.
The Catalan independence movement is a social and political movement which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain.
Catalans are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autonomous community in Spain and the inhabitants of the Roussillon historical region in southern France, today the Pyrénées Orientales department, also called Northern Catalonia and Pays Catalan in French.
There are 89 universities in Spain, most of which are supported by state funding. 39 Spanish universities are private, of which 7 are affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Xavier Vendrell i Segura is a Spanish entrepreneur. He presides over the Colombo-Catalan Chamber of Commerce and is chief executive officer of Barcelona Export Group and Biomek Group. He is a social democrat politician, and spent more than twenty years dedicated to politics on the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party. After politics he focused on business.
The Catalonia Offensive was part of the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist Army started the offensive on 23 December 1938 and rapidly conquered Republican-held Catalonia with Barcelona. Barcelona was captured on 26 January 1939. The Republican government headed for the French border. Thousands of people fleeing the Nationalists also crossed the frontier in the following month, to be placed in internment camps. Franco closed the border with France by 10 February 1939.
Juan David García Bacca was a Spanish-Venezuelan philosopher and university professor. He was born in Pamplona on June 26, 1901, and died on August 5, 1992, in Quito, Ecuador. Bacca began his education under the Claretians and was ordained as a priest in 1925. He continued his studies at the University of Munich, the University of Zurich, and the University of Paris. However, during the 1930s, he left the Church and pursued philosophy at the University of Barcelona. In 1936 after criticizing Francisco Franco, Bacca was forced to live in exile. He first traveled to Ecuador where he taught at the Central University of Ecuador (1939-1942). While in Ecuador he became close friends with a writer named Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco. He then went to Mexico where he taught at UNAM from 1942 to 1946. He eventually established himself in Venezuela in 1946 and was granted citizenship in 1952. Bacca was a professor at the Central University of Venezuela until his retirement in 1971. He was recognized for his life's work and was awarded the National Prize for Literature in 1978.
The University of Lleida is a university based in Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. It was the first university founded in Catalonia and in the ancient Crown of Aragon. It was founded in 1300, using the name of Estudi General de Lleida.
Anna Pujol Puigvehí. Historian, professor and archaeologist. Bachelor of Arts from the University of Barcelona (1970), with the thesis “The Indiketes as the literary and archaeological sources”, Dr. summa cum laude in History from the Autonomous University of Barcelona with the doctoral thesis on the “Pre-Roman Population of the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Genesis and development of Iberian culture in the Girona and south of France lands” (1981). She has taught at the Autonomous University of Barcelona for over 15 years, and has been Associate professor of Archaeology and Ancient History of the UOC. She won a Chair of Professor of History of Secondary Schools in 1981.
The University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), is a Catalan university with premises in Vic, Manresa and Granollers. It is a privately managed institution, under public supervision through its proprietor, the Balmes University Foundation, whose chair is the Mayor of Vic. UVic-UCC is a higher education and research centre. The UVic-UCC is a member of the Vives University Network.
Manuel Codorniu y Ferreras was a Spanish military physician, educator and publisher who served in the Senate (1841–1843) and in the Constituent Cortes (1854–1856) of his native country.
Joan Comorera i Soler was a Spanish Communist politician, journalist and writer from Catalonia who spent several years in Argentina before returning to Spain in 1931 at the start of the Second Spanish Republic. He was a Catalan nationalist, and was elected chairman of the Socialist Union of Catalonia in 1933. In 1936 he became Secretary General of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC), in alliance with the Spanish Communist Party. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) he built up his party into a major political force during the struggles among the supporters of the Republic between Socialists, Stalinists, Trotskyists and Anarcho-syndicalists. After the Republicans were defeated by the right-wing forces led by Francisco Franco he went into exile, living in Mexico and then in France. In 1949 he was expelled from the Communist party for his Catalan nationalism, and survived an assassination attempt. In 1951 he moved back to Catalonia using a false name. He was arrested in 1954 and died in prison four years later.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Lleida in Catalonia, Spain.
Ida Rodríguez Prampolini was a Mexican academic, art historian and cultural preservationist, who was heavily involved in the creation of organizations and institutions to preserve the artistic traditions of Mexico. To that end, she founded two art schools, eleven museums, twelve municipal archives, and over fifty houses of culture. She published over 400 articles and critiques of Mexican art and was honored with numerous awards over the course of her career. She was a member of the Mexican Academy of Arts, Mexican Academy of History and the Belgian International Union of Academies as well as a recipient of the National University Prize, which recognizes excellence in teaching and academic research, in 1991. In 2001, she was honored with the National Prize for Arts and Sciences in the category of History, Social Sciences and Philosophy and in 2002, she was awarded the Calasanz Medal from the Universidad Cristóbal Colón.
The Exploradores de España was a Spanish Scout association founded by Cavalry captain Teodoro Iradier y Herrero in 1912 and inspired by the boy scouts of Robert Baden-Powell, whose objective was physical, moral, civic and patriotic education. In its early years it had a rapid growth and expansion. The association was a founding member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922, which it belonged to until 1938.
The Royal Barcelona Board of Trade or Chamber of Commerce was the leading institution for regulating, representing and promoting Catalan commercial and industrial activity in the 18th and 19th century with jurisdiction over the whole Principality of Catalonia. It was created in Barcelona in 1758 and replaced in 1847 by the Provincial Board of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce.
