Today, El Barcelonés is the most popular small region of Catalonia and the one that receives the most tourists annually. But do you know what El Barcelonés is about?
In today’s article, from Our Guide in BCN we explain everything about El Barcelonés county and we will give you a short introduction to how Spain is distributed territorially.
Want to know more? Here we go!
How is Spain organized territorially?
Spain territorially is divided mainly into municipalities, provinces and autonomous communities. Municipalities are grouped to form provinces and a group of provinces (or sometimes just one province) form autonomous communities.
In the case of Catalonia, in addition, we find small geografhical regions, that we will call counties, which are a grouping of municipalities. That is why we find the following order:
- Municipalities
- Counties
- Provinces
- Autonomous Community.
In Spain, we currently have 17 autonomous communities, for example we find Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia, Community of Madrid, Galicia, and others.
Two of the 17 autonomous communities are groupings of islands, also called archipelagos, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.
We also have Ceuta and Melilla which are two autonomous cities located in North Africa.
What is the capital of Spain?
In 1561, King Philip II decided to establish the Villa de Madrid as the capital of the country, not so much because it was an important city at that time, but because it was an equidistant point from everywhere in Spain.
It should also be borne in mind that each province has a capital that generally has the same name as the province. In the case of Madrid for example, we have that the Autonomous Community of Madrid only has Madrid as its province and that the capital of that province is the city of Madrid.
How is Catalonia divided?
In the case of the region of Catalonia, a division of 4 provinces is made as an administrative division of the State and 41 counties as a division of the administration of Catalonia.
The 4 provinces of Catalonia are all known for everybody in Spain and are Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. But do you know the different small regions or counties that make them up? Regularly we will explain here about all the diferent counties of Catalonia. Today, we will tell you a little more about the Barcelonés from Our Guide in Barcelona.
El Barcelonés
The Barcelonés is a county that is part of the province of Barcelona. It is the county that contains the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona, which gives its name to this small region, is the most populated of the entire autonomous community and the one that has the highest population density in Spain.
It is composed of 5 different municipalities, which are: Barcelona, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Badalona, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and San Adrián del Besós.
Previously, the municipalities of Esplugues de Llobregat and San Justo Desvern were also part, but they became part of the Baix Llobregat county in 1990.
What is the history of the Barcelonés?
The Barcelonés has been inhabited since the times of the Iberians and came to be occupied by the Carthaginians in the Ancient Age. During the Middle Ages the population grew abruptly and the county of Barcelona acquired much more weight in Catalonia, until the city of Barcelona became the capital.
Today, its population is increasing day by day and the number of people visiting Barcelona grows every year (except in the pandemic), thanks to its charm.
