Discover Catalonia - Cataluña
Catalonia, in the north eastern corner of Spain, is best known to millions
of foreign package holidaymakers as the home of the famous Costa Brava with its bustling beach resorts and ruggedly beautiful coastline.
Indeed the much loved resort areas such as Lloret de Mar, Tossa de Mar and Roses have so much to offer the two-week vacationer that many overseas
visitors never find the time or inclination to discover the many other
treasures of this highly individual Spanish province.
Like the Basque Country (Pais Vasco) Catalonia has its own unique character
which sets it apart from the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. It’s
an autonomous region with its own language, Catalan, and a fierce sense
of brotherhood among the local population. A sure fire way to incur the
wrath of a Catalan is to suggest that his or her language is nothing
more than a dialect of Castilian Spanish.
In fact the language is unique although it’s Latin-based and some
of the vocabulary is similar to Spanish and French. Catalonia (known
locally as Cataluña) was one of the main hot beds of resistance
to the Franco regime in the first two decades following the Civil War
(1936-39). Book shops and public libraries were scoured for Catalan books
which were destroyed and the language was banned from schools, television,
the radio and press.
Small wonder then that both the language and culture of Catalonia were
revived with a vengeance after Franco’s death in 1975. An enduring
and very public symbol of this revival can be seen throughout the region
in the famous local sardana dance which you can see on summer evenings
in almost every Catalonian city, village and beach resort. The dance,
depicted in a famous statue on Barcelona’s Montjuic Hill, involves
joining hands and dancing in circular movements to the strains of a flute-like
instrument. It symbolises the unity of the Catalans – a people
so proud of their special identity that they dared to sing the unofficial
anthem of Catalonia in front of Franco when he visited the region’s
Palau de la Musica in 1960.
Besides the obvious allure of the Costa Brava and Costa Dorada, Catalonia
is a fascinating place to visit not least because of its 
cosmopolitan
capital, Barcelona – arguably Spain’s most sophisticated
city and without doubt one of the most exciting cities on the planet.
Major visitor attractions within easy reach of the capital include the
Port Aventura theme park at Tarragona, the Salvadar Dali museum in Figueres
(the famous surrealist painter’s birthplace) and the mountain monastery
of Montserrat 40 kilometres inland from Barcelona. The1,000 year-old
monastery is perched high amid weird and wonderful rock formations which
inspired the work of the great architect Catalonian Antoni
Gaudi.
The northern border of Catalonia consists of awesome Pyrenean Mountain
landscapes which offer some of Spain’s best walking and climbing
country along with a number of good ski resorts, largely undiscovered
by foreign visitors.
The Baqueira-Beret ski resort, in the gut-wrenchingly gorgeous Vall
d’Aran, has facilities to rival the far better known southern resort
of Sierra Nevada. It’s popular with Spanish skiers including King
Juan Carlos and his family.
Places of interest in Cataluña
Catalonia's capital, located at the Mediterranean
Sea, offers the structures of a true metropole. Among its most outstanding
sights are the Gothic Quarter and the works of architect Antoni Gaudi.
Certainly one of the most famous Spanish coasts,
stretching from the north of Barcelona over the province of Girona. It
is of great natural beauty, with steep cliffs and romantic small coves.
A beautiful historic city with the old Jewish Quarter
among its major sights.
Figueres - The birthplace of great painter Salvador Dali. Its
main attraction is of course the museum dedicated to the artist, showing
a collection of some of his finest works.
The Golden Coast, stretching from south of Costa
Brava to Tarragona, offers apart from its great beaches and beautiful
landscapes towns of outstanding beauty, such as Arenys del Mar, Sitges
(with the highly interesting museum of
Cau Ferrat) and Castelldefels.
An important city of the Roman empire, still preserving
outstanding monuments: the aquaeductus, an amphitheater and the Tomb of
the Scipios, located at the seaside. Close to Tarragona there are the
monasteries Santes Creus and Santa Maria de Poblet, both of high historic-artistic
interest.
Located inland in a mountainous area.
Most interesting is its cathedral, "Seo", built between 12th
and 15th century.
The Catalan Language
Catalan is a dynamic characteristic of Catalonia and one of its most
distinctive features - you'll hear Catalan being spoken wherever you
go in the region. It is a Romance language understood by as many as 12
million people in portions of Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, although
the majority of active Catalan speakers are in Spain. People have been
speaking Catalan since the Middle Ages, the language spread around the
Mediterranean through victory over the kingdoms of Majorca, Sicily, Sardinia,
Naples, Athens and Neopatria.
During the 14th century it was one of the
most widespread languages. Catalan went through various periods of
prohibition and even of repression, such that changes in the extent to
which the language was used in its own territory from the 18th century
on were due to politics. Under the Nationalist dictatorship of General
Franco (1939-1975), the Catalan language and culture were subjected to
unprecedented persecution.
In the 19th century, during the Renaissance period Catalan was
reborn as the language of literary culture. The Renaissance raised
awareness of the lack of unity in the use of the language and subsequently
led to the language being codified through the publication of Spelling
Rules, the Spelling Dictionary, and the Catalan Grammar. During the 20th
century, Catalan was finally restored to its official language status,
which it had lost in the 18th century. However, the Civil War and its
consequences made the use of Catalan in public forbidden and the language
retreated once again into the home.
Explore Cataluña
The following links will take you to the different regions: