Barcelona History, Culture, and Arts Concentration

We call the Middle Ages that because they are a time of flux between the powerful Roman Empire and the relatively stable kingdoms that emerged in the 13th century that look not too different from today's map.  In Spain, as elsewhere in Europe, the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire were marked by change-- migration, religious wars (including the crusades), civil wars, invasion and conquest.   Just a note on language--  historians use the  terms Medieval Period and Middle Ages interchangably; they replace the outdated language of the Dark Ages, and they align with Global Language  of Prehistory, Classical Antiquity, Medieval Period, [Renaissance, in some places] Early Modernism, Modernism and Contemporary Period.   The Medieval Period is the middle epoch of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and ...

As I wrote last time, the Romans began their invasion of the Iberian Penisula, which the Romans knew as Hispania, in 218 BCE* . The Iberian Peninsula served Spain as a training ground for their many imperial actions, including those against the Carthaginians , the Iberians , the Lusitanians , the Gallaecians, and other Celts. By 117ce , the Romans had conquered more and more of the areas of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East until they essentially ruled huge territories all the way around the Mediterranean Sea.  * ( BCE= b efore the c ommon e ra; 218 bce equals 2044 years ago. In dates bce, smaller numbers = more recent.  In C ommon Era dates, larger numbers are more recent. Some sources use AD rather than CE, to designate anno domini, because in the USA we use a Gregorian Calendar that resets at zero for the time of Jesus. If this leaves you confused this source might be helpful.  )   Roman territory at it's greatest extent.  Rome managed this influenc...

Buenos Tardes (well, it was late afternoon when I wrote, but didn't proofread til this mornin'.) Welcome to my second post about the history and culture of Spain. Today I'll finish out the long period of human prehistory, that is, the time when humans did not yet write.   I think this will prove the hardest era to tie meaningfully to our time in Spain, nonetheless I wanted to take the time to highlight the Neolithic Revolution for reasons that will become clear a few posts from now, as well as give some context to the leap in human society and culture from the hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic, whose history I outlined yesterday, to the high-tech Romans, whose marks we'll actually see in Barcelona. Left, Female Figure from Willendorf, Austria,   30,000 years old, limestone, 4",  probably the most famous paleolithic figurine, middle,  female figurine from Gava Mines , Neolithic, made of aluminum alloy, from ~5500 years ago, 6", from Gava, about 30 minutes ...

Regions of Spain Spain is the fourth-largest and seventh most populous European country, and shares the Iberian Penisula with much smaller Portugal in the east, and tiny Andorra in the north, and Gibraltar in the south. Overall, Spain is very mountainous, with an average elevation of 2100 feet. By comparison, NC has an overall elevation of 700 feet. As a peninsula (perhaps obviously) Spain has vast Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines; 360 miles of which are in Catalonia.  Map from Wikipedia. That's where we will be: in Catalonia (Spanish name: Cataluña, Catalan name: Catalunya), the northeasternmost of the 17  autonomous communities of Spain. Barcelona is the capital of the community. To the North lie the Pyranees Mountains and French border, to the east, the Mediteranean Sea, to the West, the autonomous community of Aragon and to the south, that of Valencia.  Spain has a varied climate; in both Barcelona and Celrà we will be in a Mediterranean zone, characterized by mi...