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Published: August 19th 2014
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One of the many things I love about travel is being in cities with layers of history through continuous occupation. Barcelona like Rome, Athens and Jerusalem, is a place where people live literally on top of history.
Today we went to the Museum of the History of Barcelona, built on top of massive excavations of the original Roman city of Barcino, which we walked through with an excellent audio guide that explained the dyeing vats, wine presses, fish sauce factory, bath house and early church that had been excavated. It was a great tour. There was also a section on Medieval Barcelona and a special exhibition on the world in 1700. I found the latter really helpful to understanding the importance of the Spanish War of Succession and the balance of power in the 18thC.
If anyone read my blog yesterday I was quite wrong in my understanding of 1714 and I have now deleted that par. Sept 11 which is celebrated as Catalonia's National Day does mark the end of the siege of Barcelona in 1714 and the ascension of Phillip V Spain's first Bourbon king. But it wasn't really a great day for Catalonia and seems more
like an Anzac Day or a day to defend Catalonian autonomy than a day of celebration. France won the war ( against the allied powers of Austria, England, Holland and Portugal) and got their candidate on the Spanish throne but Catalonia lost its constitutional independence.
There are memorials to the matyrs of 1714 and a lot of boards explaining particular aspects of the Siege of Barcelona so I assumed the Arc de Triumf was connected to that. But actually it is not a real triumphal arch at all: It was built in 1888 to welcome participants to the Barcelona World Fair. Actually commercial rather than military victory is more Barcelona's style.
This afternoon we had another journey into history when we visited the original Barcelona synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Europe. It dates from Roman times and the cornerstone of one wall has XVIII (for Chai) envgraved. It is only two tiny rooms because the shul wasn't allowed to be larger than the smallest church and nothing much original remains. But there have been various interesting donations including a damaged Sefer Torah found in a Majorca flea market by a descendant of one of the last Jews in
Spain. There is also an interesting collection of silve Judaic donated by a Scots Presbyterian collector. Weird! We found it quite meaningful to be in this place as part of a worldwide Jewish community and to feel the sense of the Jewish people having survived. our guide, an Israeli living in Barcelona, told us the Spanish Jewish community was re established in the 20th C and there are 4 synagogues in new Barcelona. This synagogue isn't used regularly but occasionally weddings or barmitzvahs are held there. It's a lovely concept but it would only work for a very small simcha.
Later we went down to Barceloneta beach, which was pulsing with life in a dozen different languages. I'm confirmed in my opinion that you don't travel to Europe for beaches but it was lovely to trail my feet in the water and feel the sand between my toes.
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