BARCELONA, the most important manufacturing city in Spain, in the province of the same name; pop. about 625,000. The province of Barcelona has an area of 2,968 square miles, pop. about 1,195,000. The streets of the old town, forming the N. W. division, are crooked, narrow, and ill paved. Those of the new are much more spacious and regular. There is a large suburb E. of the town where the seafaring portion of the popu lation chiefly reside. Barcelona is the see of a bishop. It has a university, and colleges and schools, the finest theater in Spain, a magnificent cathedral, which, begun in 1298, is not yet completed, and many other beautiful public and private buildings. Barcelona manufac tures silk, woolens, cottons, lace, hats, firearms, etc., which form its principal exports. Next to Bilbao it is the most important port in Spain. Barcelona is a place of great antiquity, and associated with many historical events. Local tra
dition fixes the date of its foundation 400 years before the Romans; and it is said to have been refounded by Hamilcar Barca, the father of Hannibal, from whom its ancient name, Barcino, was de rived. An important city under the Ro mans, Goths, and Moors, Barcelona in 878 became an independent sovereignty, under a Christian chief of its own, whose descendants continued to govern it, and to hold the title of Count of Barcelona, until the 12th century, when its ruler adopted the title of King of Aragon, to which kingdom it was annexed. During the Middle Ages, Barcelona became a flourishing seaport, rivaled in the Medi terranean by Genoa only. In recent times Barcelona has become the center of Spanish radicalism.