When work began on the church, in 1882, the architects, the bricklayers and the labour-ers worked in a very traditional way. When Gaudí took over the direction he was aware

that the works were complex and dif-ficult and tried to take advantage of all the modern techniques available.

And so, among other resources, he had railway tracks laid with small wagons to transport the materials, brought in cranes to lift the weights and had the workshops located on the site to make the work easier. To-day, 130 years later, the building of the church follows Gaudí’s origi-nal idea and, just as he himself did, the best techniques are applied to make the building work safer, more comfortable and faster. It is some time now since the old wagons gave way to powerful cranes, the old manual tools have been replaced by precise electric machines and the ma-terials have been improved to ensure excellent quality in the building process and the final result. It is said that the La Sagrada Familia will be completed by 2026 or 2028.

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Montjuïc is translated as ‘Jew Mountain’ in medieval Catalan, or is perhaps related to the Latin phrase Mons Jovicus (‘hill of Jove’). Loca-tion of the same name is also found in the city of Girona. When written in a Spanish rather than Catalan context it is generally spelled Montjuich. The Magic Fountain of Montjuïc (Catalan: Font màgica de Montjuïc, Spanish: Fuente mágica de Montjuic) is a fountain located at the head of Avenida Maria Cristina in the Montjuïc neigh-

borhood of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The fountain is situated below the Palau Nacional on the Montjuïc hill and near the Plaça d’Espanya. The fountain, like most of the surrounding devel-opments, was constructed for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.

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RAMBLAS

Las Ramblas is a street in central Barcelona, popular with tourists and locals alike. A tree-lined pedestrian

mall, it stretches for 1.2 kilometers between Barri Gòtic and El Raval, connecting Plaça de Catalun-

ya in the centre with the Christopher Columbus Monument at Port Vell.

The course of Las Ramblas was originally a sewage-filled stream-bed, usually dry but an important drain for the heavy rainwater flowing from the Collserola hills during spring and autumn. It separated the walled city on its north-east bank from the settlements of El Raval on its south-west.

Torre Mapfre

Torre Mapfre is a skyscraper in the Port Olímpic (Olympic Port), the maritime neighborhood of the Old City of Barcelona in Spain. It is named after its owner, Mapfre, an insurance company.

This tower holds the title for highest helipad in Spain at 505 feet above ground. Unlike its twin, Hotel Arts Barcelona this tower is a mixed use tower.

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The Hotel Arts is a 44-storey, 483 room luxury hotel on the seafront of Barcelona, in Spain.

Contrary to popular belief, it was not built to service the 1992 Summer Olympics, though its construction was part of the big changes underwent by the city to prepare the Games. It remains one of the city's leading hotels, listed as one of the Top 10 Celebrity Spotting Hotels in GAYOT.com. It is operated by Ritz-Carlton.

History of Barcelona

The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two dif-ferent legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. The sec-ond legend attributes the foundation of the city directly to the historical Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family in the 3rd century BC.

In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum (Roman military camp) centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill near the contem-porary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Au-gusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. Pomponius Mela mentions it among the small towns of the district, probably as it was eclipsed by its neighbour Tarraco (modern Tarragona), but it may be gathered from later writers that it gradually grew in wealth and con-sequence, favoured as it was with a beau-tiful situation and an excellent harbour. It enjoyed immunity from imperial bur-dens. The city minted its own coins; some from the era of Galba survive.