The roof of the Batillo House built by Gaudi

Located near France, and being a major international port, Barcelona is different from the other large cities of Spain.

Above photo - The roof of the Batillo House built by Gaudi, 1904-06. As a port city for the Romans, Barcelona's early residents settled in over 2000 years ago, but outside the museums you will find little evidence of the city's Roman past. For a brief time, in the 400's, the city became a Visigoth capital under King Ataulf. By the 19th century, during the rise of Art Nouveau architecture and modern town planning, Barcelona experienced a rapid increase in population. Photo above: The Temple of the Sagrada Familia. The temple is done in the Modernisme style, a type of Art Nouveau architecture. While in the Gothic Quarter you can see buildings of the Middle Ages, it is Barcelona's Art Nouveau architecture that enhances the city's uniqueness. My visit to Barcelona was in October 2003. With only four days devoted to touring the city, we barely scratched the surface of what the city has to offer. One could easily spend two or three weeks in Barcelona and still not give the city its proper due. The Mercat de Sant Josep is an open air food market. It has a marvelous array of products carefully displayed to take advantage of their colors and textures.