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BARCELONA. 



Barcelona, the generals of Louis, king of Aquitania. Having 

 opposed a heroic resistance for seventeen months to 

 the continual assaults of the besiegers, it yielded to the 

 French arms after its walls were demolished, and one 

 half of its inhabitants destroyed by famine or the sword. 

 In the year 985 it was taken by the Moors, who 

 burned the city, and carried into slavery almost all the 

 inhabitants ; but it afterwards fell into the possession 

 of Count Borel. The rebellion of the Catalonians in 

 1465 against Don Juan, king of Arragon, was fos- 

 tered in the capital of the province. The king be- 

 sieged it in vain in 1462 ; but on the 17th October 

 1472, after a siege of six months, it yielded to the su- 

 perior force which he brought against it. The revolt 

 of the Catalonians in 1640, exposed Barcelona to new 

 dangers. It maintained its independence for twelve 

 years against the arms of Philip IV. ; but it was at 

 last taken by Don Juan of Austria in 1652, after a 

 blockade and siege of ten months. In 1689 it oppo- 

 sed an ineffectual resistance to Charles II. : In 1697, 

 fifty days after the trenches were opened, it was ta- 

 ken by the French under the Duke of Vendome, 

 though the bravery of the inhabitants was seconded 

 by a garrison of 12,000 men under the Prince of 

 Darmstadt. Although the citizens had sworn alle- 

 giance to Philip V., they invited the English and 

 Dutch to deliver them from his yoke. The city 

 yielded to the allied arms, and Charles, afterwards 

 emperor, was proclaimed king. In 1704, Philip, aided 

 by the French, besieged Barcelona in person, and took 

 the fortress of Montjouy ; but the English fleet com- 

 pelled him to raise the siege on the 12th of May. In 

 consequence of the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Cata- 

 lonia and the neighbouring provinces resumed their 

 allegiance to Philip V. ; but Barcelona refused to join 

 in the universal submission, and in 1714 sustained one 

 of the most memorable sieges that history has to re- 

 cord. Feats of heroism, worthy of the best ages of 

 Rome, and efforts of individual courage, which have 

 perhaps never been surpassed, but by the modern in- 

 habitants of Zaragosa, distinguished that dark and 

 bloody night in which the streets and houses of Bar- 

 celona were filled with the mangled bodies of its war- 

 riors. May the same spirit again animate their chil- 

 dren, who are at this moment armed for a more ardu- 

 ous struggle, and in a more glorious cause ! 



The city of Barcelona is defended on one side by 

 the shallowness of the sea, and on the other by nu- 

 merous bastions, the approaches to which are guard- 

 ed by many advanced works. Its chief defence, 

 however, is the citadel, which was erected in 1715 at 

 the north-east point, to overawe the inhabitants, and 

 the fort of Montjouy on the top of a mountain at the 

 south-east point. The ramparts, called the sea wall 

 and the land wall, embrace about three-fourths of the 

 town, and form a superb terrace, from which there is 

 a delightful view of the town and the surrounding 

 country. At the end of the land wall is the espla- 

 nade, a large open piece of ground turfed and plant- 

 ed with trees, and extending from the new gate to the 

 citadel. A handsome walk through it, about 444 yards 

 long, was finished in 1801. 



Though some of the streets of Barcelona arc suffi- 

 ciently spacious, yet, in general, they are narrow and 

 crooked. The town abounds in squares, which are 



small and irregular. The largest of them is very Barcelona, 

 spacious and elegant, decorated on one side by the ' 

 governor's palace, on the opposite side by the ex- 

 change, on the other by the sea gate and the custom- 

 house, and on the north by a row of good houses. 

 The architecture of the houses is, in general, pleasing 

 and simple ; they are about four or five stories high, 

 having large windows with balconies. Most of the 

 houses which have been built within the last thirty 

 yi:u s, have their fronts adorned with paintings in fresco. 

 The public buildings of Barcelona are remark- 

 able, both on account of their external beauty, and 

 the curiosities which they contain. The cathedral 

 church, about 160 feet long, and 62 broad, has a 

 magnificent appearance. Twelve large Gothic pil- 

 lars separate the nave and aisles, and are formed by 

 clusters of columns of various sizes. A large octa- 

 gon dome of Gothic architecture, with eight gal- 

 leries, stands in the middle of the space between the 

 choir and the great door. The sanctuary, which 

 stands over the subterranean chapel, containing the 

 relics of St Eulalia, is formed by ten pillars, form- 

 ing a semicircle, which contains the great altar, 

 in the Gothic style, and of exquisite workmanship. 

 The convent of La Merci has a large church, with a 

 Doric portal, and a fine front composed of two sto- 

 ries of Corinthian and Ionic architecture. The 

 cloister, which is sixty feet square, is most superbly 

 executed. The portico, of sixteen arcades, which 

 surrounds it, is supported by twenty Doric columns 

 of marble. Above the portico is a spacious gallery, 

 which has, on the outside, thirty-two arcades, on 

 Ionic columns of marble, ornamented with a ballus- 

 trade of grey marble. The convent of St Francisco 

 has a large and handsome Gothic church, and a clois- 

 ter, adorned with paintings. The convent of the 

 Dominicans, and the chapel of St Raymond, are 

 scarcely deserving of notice. The chapel of our 

 Lady of the Rosary, has two cloisters, one of which 

 has its walls covered with paintings, put up by the 

 Inquisition, in 1745, to preserve the memory of the 

 numerous victims of that bloody tribunal. Bodies 

 writhing in the midst of flames ; devils running oft 

 with bodies ; and inscriptions containing the de- 

 signation and punishment of the culprits, attrac'. the 

 notice of strangers. Above one of the doors of the 

 cloister is a large inscription, stating, that the monu- 

 ments of the punishment of those who were condemn- 

 ed were formerly deposited there ; but that the ra- 

 vages of time and of war had destroyed these pre- 

 cious relics, and induced the inquisition to perpetuate 

 their remembrance upon canvass. The parish church 

 of St Mary of the Sea, built in the fifteenth century, 

 is the finest in Barcelona. The principal altar is a 

 rich assemblage of white, black, and mixed marble. 

 The Hotel-de-ville contains a variety of excellent pie- 

 ces of sculpture. The hotel of the Deputation, 

 where the States of Catalonia assembled, is reckoned 

 one of the handsomest edifices in the city, and con- 

 tains the archives and charters of the crown of Ar- 

 ragon. The palace of the Counts of Barcelona and 

 the Kings of Arragon, distinguished by the noble 

 simplicity of its architecture, serves for the prisons of 

 the inquisition, and the academy of medicine. The go- 

 vernor's palace was built, in 1444, as a market for 



