Barcelona

a Mediterranean port of Spain. It is situated on a harbor at the mouth of two rivers about one hundred miles from the French frontier. Barcelona was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Catalonia. It is still the seat of the Spanish province of that name. The city consists of a new part and an old. By 1845 the walls that surrounded the old city had been leveled, and the space given over for new buildings. The site of the old citadel was converted into a botanic garden. The streets within the old walls are crooked and narrow. The new city is laid out on the rectangular plan. It is well paved and is provided with electric lights and electric street railways. A mole has been built to protect the harbor. The University of Barcelona, founded in 1430, now occupies buildings in the new city. Barcelona was at one time a rival of Genoa and of Venice. It is still the commercial center of eastern Spain. The city corresponds in Spain, to Marseilles, in France. Barcelona is the most important manufacturing city of Spain. It is the center of Spanish paper making. Esparto is the material chiefly used. There are manufactures also of cotton, silk, and woolen fabrics. Stoneware, soap, chemicals, cannon, firearms, leather, glass, and machinery swell the volume of manufactured products. Barcelona ranks next to Madrid in size. Population of Barcelona in 1900, 533,000.