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ABOUT BARCELONA

Geography

The Mediterranean Sea nudges the coast of the city of Barcelona, while the Collserola ridge (part of the Serralada Litoral) borders the west of the city, with pine and oak woodland, fields and meadows, as well as wetland vegetation.
The Catalan capital, 166 kilometres from the French border and 120 kilometres south of the Pyrenees, is on a plain bordered by two rivers: the Llobregat in the south and the Besòs in the north.
Barcelona, in the area closest to the Serralada Litoral, is dotted with small hills (Monterols, Putget, Carmel, Rovira and Peira), and was once full of streams and small marshes. The promontory of Montjuïc is also by the coast, rising to a height of 191.7 metres.
Barcelona has a surface area of 100.4 square kilometres, forming part of the Barcelonès County, along with Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Badalona and Sant Adrià to the north, and Hospitalet de Llobregat along the southern border of the city.
The climate in Barcelona is typically Mediterranean. Summers are hot and humid, winters mild, and most of the rainfall is in spring and autumn. The average annual temperature for 2005, according to the Observatori de Can Bruixa, was 17.6 degrees Celsius.

Politics

Barcelona in the world
Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, is the second largest city of Spain in terms of population, only exceeded by Madrid.
Barcelona City Council is the local public administration that represents, governs and administers the city's interests.
Spain is a member of the European Union, and Barcelona, as part of the Spanish State, is governed by the legal frameworks established by the Spanish Constitution, the Catalan Statute of Autonomy and European Union laws. A constitution is the fundamental set of principles and precedents for democratic government. It arises, among other reasons, out of the will to establish and consolidate a social, democratic State based on written laws to respect the fundamental rights of its citizens and establish an advanced democratic society.
 

Catalonia and the Spanish State
Spain is a parliamentary monarchy, organised into autonomous communities. The Generalitat is the autonomous political institution of Catalonia, with the Parliament, the President of the Generalitat, and the Executive Council, the Govern de Catalonia.
The political autonomy of Catalonia within the Spanish State is a long-standing tradition. Its earliest antecedents date back to the Middle Ages in the form of the mediaeval institution which ruled the Principality of Catalonia, the Diputació General de Catalunya. The first modern Generalitat was installed during the period of the second Spanish Republic, in 1931, and restored as a result of the transition to democracy.

Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy is the fundamental institutional law of the region, defining the rights and duties of the citizens of Catalonia, its political institutions, their powers, and their relations with the Spanish State, as well as the finances of the Generalitat. The electorate voted in favour of this law in a referendum on 18 June 2006. The new text replaced the Sau Statute, which dated from 1979.

Currency

The euro (€) is the official currency of thirteen of the 27 member states of the European Union. Spain is one of these, therefore the official currency in Barcelona, since 1 January 2001, has been the euro.
One euro is equivalent to 100 cents, and was fixed at an equivalence of 1 euro to 166,386 pesetas. Euro notes are identical in all the participating countries, with seven denominations: 5 euros (grey); 10 euros (red); 20 euros (blue); 50 euros (orange); 100 euros (green); 200 euros (yellow), and 500 euros (lilac).
 
The theme of the design on the notes is European architecture over the centuries, considered a common theme for the countries using the monetary system.

The architectural design on the 5 euro note is from the Classical era, the 10 euro note from the Romanesque period, that on the 20 euro note is in Gothic style, the design on the 50 euro note from the Renaissance, that on the 100 euro note Baroque or Rococo, the 200 euro design is from the age of iron and glass, and that on the 500 euro note inspired by modern 20th Century architecture.

There are coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents, and 1 and 2-euro coins. A characteristic of all the coins in circulation is that they have one side with a common design for all the European countries and the other side with different designs from each country.

Language

Catalan is the official language of Catalonia, according to the Statute of Catalonia and the Spanish Constitution, together with Castilian, the official language of Spain.
 
People have the right to use both official languages, and citizens of Catalonia have the right and the obligation to know them.
The two languages exist in a bilingual situation in Barcelona, similar to situations in other parts of the world. Catalan and Castilian are the languages understood, written, read and spoken by the majority of the population of Barcelona.

The city is open to the co-existence of, and dialogue between, different languages. The importance of tourism, and the fact that Barcelona overflows with many different cultures, means that other languages, such as English, French, Italian, German and different Arabic and Asian languages, are all heard on the streets in the city.
 
In the majority of shops, museums, cultural and social centres and venues in the city, the languages most commonly used for signs, notices and information are the two official languages and English, a fact which enriches the socio-cultural fabric and the everyday life of Barceloneans.