Barcelona is a city in northeastern Spain, capital of Catalonia, of the province and the region of Barcelona. Located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, about 120 km south of the Pyrenees mountain chain and the French border, on a plain bounded by the sea to the east, the Sierra de Collserola west, the river Llobregat to the south and Besos River to the north. Having been the capital of the County of Barcelona, it is often mentioned with the name of Barcelona.

With a population of 1,621,537 inhabitants (INE 2009), is the second most populous Spanish city after Madrid, and the tenth of the European Union. Barcelona Metropolitan Area, composed of thirty-six municipalities, has a population of 3,218,071 inhabitants and an area of 636 km ². The Barcelona metropolitan area is the delimitation officially defined as urban core, however, this would fall under the Urban Region of Barcelona, which would extend throughout the catchment area of the city, with 4,992,193 (INE 2009) people with a population density of 1,542 inhabitants per km.

The city has staged various global events that have helped shape the city and give it international renown. The most important have been the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and the International Exhibition of 1929 and the summer Olympics 1992. It is also home to the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean.

Located on the Mediterranean coast, Barcelona is built on a slight incline platform formed between the deltas of the rivers Llobregat river, southwest, and the Besos, northeast, southeast and bounded by the coastline, and the northwest by the Collserola (with the top of Tibidabo 516.2 m highest point), which parallels the coastline, encasing the town in a very defined scope.

The part of Barcelona to the mountains nearest coastline is dotted with small peaks some of which are urbanized, and other crowned parks, such as: Caramel (265.6 meters), Monterols (127.3 meters), the Putxet ( 182.7 meters), the Rovira (206.8 meters) and the Peira Turó (138 meters). But the top most famous of Barcelona, just above the coastline and the separated Llobregat Delta town is the mountain of Montjuic (184.8 meters). Finally mention the promontory of only 16.9 m which sits the historic city core, Mount Taber.

The first traces of population in the area of the city date back to late Neolithic (2000-1500 BC). However, the first prominent settlers do not appear until the centuries VII - VI BC, Laietans, an Iberian people. According to tradition, during the Second Punic War, the Carthaginians took the city re-founded by Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal. According to the same traditions, the name derives from the lineage Barcelona Hannibal Barca though, however, no evidence of the Carthaginian presence in the plain of Barcelona. After the defeat of that town by the increasing domination by Romans, who caught the territory to 218 a. C. and renamed the city as IVLIA COLOGNE AVGVSTA Faventia PATERNA BARCINO between 15 a. C. and 10 a. C.. The Ptolemy world map appears with the name Barcino. Barcino took the form of castrum or military fortification in its early stages although trade was shifting the importance of the city, in the second century was fortified by order of Roman emperor Claudius and as early as the third century had a population of between 4,000 and 8,000 inhabitants.

The Visigoths, following his arrival in the V century, made it for a few years in the capital of the Hispanic territories, handing over power until after Toledo. In the eighth century was conquered by Al-Hurr, but retaken by Louis the Pious Christian territory of the Carolingian Empire in 801, incorporating the Marca Hispanica. Muslim attacks did not cease, and Mansur 985 troops destroyed almost the entire city. Borrell II began the reconstruction period giving way to thriving county. During this period the city stood out among the Catalan lands and the entire dominion of the Crown of Aragon, and was left where many troops and resources to the company taking new possessions. The city flourished and would become a major western Mediterranean in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Several monarchs of the Crown of Aragon ruled from Barcelona. The city stood on a commercial level, but below that of Genoa and Venice, which dominated trade in the Mediterranean and between Europe and Asia.

Barcelona has a total of 1.62809 million inhabitants, of whom 774 890 are men and 853,200 women, according to the statistics department of the City of Barcelona, made with 2008 census data. In 2007 there were 1,603,178 inhabitants.