Introduction

As a city, is Barcelona particularly different from many others in Europe, especially in southern Europe? It is on the sea, and has been a port, as so many Mediterranean cities. Might we not expect a history of urban change and planning not unlike many cities in similar situations? There are after all many factors common, in very broad terms, to such a category as the “Mediterranean city” — climate, some geographical factors, certain similarities in the switchback of governmental change and war, a gradual process of modernization, particularly during the twentieth century, surges of urbanization, especially after the 1950s.