BARCELONA, a maritime province of north-eastern Spain, formed in 1833 out of districts belonging to the then province, and earlier principality, of Catalonia. Pop. (1930) 1,800,638; area 2,971sq.m. The axis of the province is the valley of the Llobregat, about which its small regions are more or less symmet rically arranged. From the Sierra del Cadi to Berga, the Ber gada is a region of mountain pastures, and also of industry and agriculture in the high valleys, which combine fertility with some degree of mineral wealth. Berga (pop. 193o, 6,423), with lignite mines and cement manufactures for which the Llobregat supplies water-power by canal, stands in front of the mountains, overlook ing towards the south a monotonous zone of small plateaux and of truncated conical hills. The development of flat surfaces in this zone, which keeps the rainfall relatively low, is reflected in the regional names : Plana de Vick, the great stock-raising area in the east of the province, crossed by the river Ter, and Pld de Bages, in the west, the northern limit of viticulture in Barcelona. Between these regions is the Llusanes, while they are flanked in echelon by the mountainous Guillerias, famous in the annals of banditry, which stretches into the neighbouring province of Gerona, and by the arid Segarra in the west, which, with its stunted woods, is an inlier of the Segre depression. Variety of line and delicacy of tint mark the topography of the saline area to which the salt hills of Cardona, exploited since Roman times, belong. The importance of this area has been very greatly increased by the discovery in 1912 of extensive potash deposits (sylvine and carnallite). On the south the surface of the zone, which descends gradually from 75o metres at Berga, rises again more rapidly towards a mountain chain of which the culminating points are the Montsery (1,779 metres) and the Montserrat (1,236 metres). The scarped southern face of this chain forms the northern wall of the undulating lowlands of the Panades and Valles, and is cut by the gorge of the Llobregat, followed by the railway. Martorell, standing where the river Noya joins the Llo bregat, commands the exit from the Panades towards the south east, but Villafranca, in the centre of the lowland, is the principal town of this region of vineyards and of winter pastures, which communicates with the sea also at Villanueva, the port of export for its wines. The Valles, the granary of the province, whence the name of the capital Granollers, on the Besos, is also important industrially. In front of these lowlands extends the Catalan coastal chain, cut in segments by the Tordera, Besos and Llobre gat, and ending in the south-west in the cliffs of the Garraf coast. By these cliffs the continuity of the low coastal zone is broken; the plain of Mataro and Arenys del Mar, with alluvia derived from the granitic section of the coastal chain between the Tor dera and the Besos, and the plain of Barcelona, to Castelldefels in the west of the Llobregat delta, are separated from the small western plain of Villanueva.
The predominance of light soils suitable for viticulture brings Barcelona into the second position among Spanish provinces in acreage devoted to the vine (29o,000ac., replanted with American vines, 1924) and the yield per acre is exceptionally high. Variety is the characteristic of the products of the soil, which include the orange and peach, ripened in the warm coastal valleys, the carob and almond, and the vegetables, cereals and fruits grown on the extraordinarily fertile and intensively cultivated alluvial flats. But the cities are dependent on other provinces for their supply of meat and wheat. The economic conditions are not very favour able to stock, but the province is one of the chief swine-raising provinces of Spain (131,166; 1924). Over 5o,000ac. are irrigated, and the Acequia Condal, drawing from the Besos, may be one of the oldest irrigation works in Spain; the standard of farming is very high in the minutely-subdivided and high-rented irrigated area. The wide extension of industry and the importance of the transit trade, both facilitated by the excellence of the means of communication, including the rural roads, give the province its chief character and are mainly responsible for the density of population, second only to that of Biscay. The rate of illiteracy, including the capital, is 24.8%, the eighth lowest in Spain.