Provincial capital
Barcelona is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain after Madrid. With a population of 1.7 million within city limits, its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the province of Barcelona and is home to around 5.7 million people, making it the fifth most populous urban area of the European Union after Paris, the Ruhr area, Madrid, and Milan. It is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range.
According to tradition, Barcelona was founded by either the Phoenicians or the Carthaginians, who had trading posts along the Catalonian coast. In the Middle Ages, Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. After joining with the Kingdom of Aragon to form the composite monarchy of the Crown of Aragon, Barcelona, which continued to be the capital of the Principality of Catalonia, became the most important city in the Crown of Aragon and its main economic and administrative centre, only to be overtaken by Valencia, wrested from Moorish control by the Catalans, shortly before the dynastic union between the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1516. Barcelona became the centre of Catalan separatism, briefly becoming part of France during the 17th century Reapers' War and again from 1812 to 1814 under Napoleon.
Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Festivities in Barcelona: 22–25 oct (Ocasión. El Salón del Vehículo Garantizado)See places to stay for those dates
760 places to stay in Barcelona
See places to stay6105 restaurants in Barcelona
See where to eat8 experiences in Barcelona
See experiencesEverything you need for your visit or your day-to-day
Tap a row to see it on the map and how far away it is.
Moxy Barcelona· Hotel
Parks, beaches and places to stay that OpenStreetMap marks as dog-friendly. Many places allow dogs without it being marked: ask when you book.
Data from OpenStreetMap (ODbL), extract from October 2026: we count what is mapped within the municipal boundary. "No data" means OpenStreetMap doesn't have it, not that it doesn't exist. Completed with Overture Maps (CDLA-Permissive-2.0): the pharmacies, health centres, petrol stations, banks, cash machines, food shops and schools that OpenStreetMap was missing. Town hall contact details: General Database of Local Entities (Spanish Ministry of Finance); tourist offices: each region's open registry, where it publishes one. Connectivity: Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation, % of homes covered in June 2025.
Municipal information, services, procedures and grants.
Keep exploring