A Crash Course of History

This is probably the most famous landmark in the city, a massive church that has never finished. The construction has still not finished even after it started 120 years ago by Gaudi. In fact the cathedral, known as 'Sagrada Familia' or 'Temple of the Holy Family' is only expected to be completed in the year 2026. The reason is because the money raised to help the construction comes from public donation. Secondly, when the idea was conceived by Gaudi, the means and tools to realise the dream was not even there, such as the construction machinery like high cranes and required sturdy building materials. Gaudi worked on the project for over 40 years before he died. Over 2 million people visited the church every year. Why 2026? It's the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death!

Our guide, Armando, is quite an attentive guy. However he always ended up his discussion with me rather than the kids.

The kids preferred this arrangement! Although they claimed he is not the best guide we ever had, at least he is not like all the previous guides when we were in on our holiday such as Egypt or Jordan where they tended to specifically focus the briefing to the kids. It's probably because the Spanish history is a bit heavy and complicated especially as it is not something that is taught widely in school.

With Armando, we talked about the long history of Catalonia, the land of the Catalans from the 80 years rule by Muslims, to the rule by King Aragon, the civil wars, and later in general the modernisation of the city of Barcelona which resulted in the amazing transformation of the city to what it is now - a truly livable city.

Historically the Iberian Peninsular was under Muslim rule during the early days of the Arabs and Berbers invasion. Then it was back to Christians during the reconquest which later saw the fall of Granada and Cordoba. Catalonia emerged from the conflicts as a regional power. The marriage of Crown prince of Aragon (Ferdinand) and Queen Isabella of Castille which merge two kingdoms tied Catalonia to the new Spanish kingdom.

Then much later was the invasion by the French forces of Napolean. Then a republic was formed before General Franco the famous Spanish nationalist reunited the whole of Spain through civil war. Though this was with a little help from his friend from German i.e. Hilter, who sent squadrons of bombers before WW2 to flatten out a number of towns in Catalonia and Basque. That was the short brief on the history that I could remember from the tour guide.

Back to the present day, amongst those things that really changed the city was the 1888 World Expo and the more recent 1996 Olympics. In fact there are so many beautiful buildings and parks all around the city that would probably require weeks to really explore and visit.

The Olympic hills next to the city is already on its own a large complex to visit. Mix with the old forts, the buildings from the World Expo and the various Olympic sites, one could see the full view of the city and the harbour from above these hilly locations.