City guide · Spain

Barcelona

Barcelona packs 1,686,208 people into 101.4 km², and that density is legible in the street plan. The Barri Gòtic still follows the Roman grid; everything above it is the Eixample, Ildefons Cerdà's nineteenth-century extension of octagonal blocks with their corners cut away for visibility, which is why so many junctions here open out into small squares. The Gaudí and Domènech i Montaner buildings scattered through that grid carry UNESCO listings. The beach is newer than any of it: three kilometres of it were made when the industrial sea-front was cleared for the 1992 Olympics. The urban area beyond the municipality holds around 4,840,000 people.