Welcome toBarcelona

Antoni Gaudí's unfinished basilica, under construction since 1882, still rising over Barcelona with soaring stone forests of columns and light-drenched stained glass.

Antoni Gaudí's fairy-tale public park above Barcelona, its mosaic terraces, undulating benches and gingerbread-house pavilions born from a failed luxury housing estate.

Antoni Gaudí's 1906 remodel of a townhouse on Passeig de Gràcia, its bone-like balconies and scaled, dragon-back roof making it the most photographed façade in Barcelona.

Barcelona's grandest food market, a steel-and-glass hall just off La Rambla trading since the 13th century, packed with fruit stalls, seafood counters and tapas bars.

A standing-room-only counter near the Born market where fresh seafood tapas arrive in a rapid, chef's-choice flow, no menu required, since Josep "Pep" Manubens opened it in 1977.

A tiny, bottle-lined Poble Sec bar with standing room only, run by the same family since 1914, famous for elaborate montaditos built to order from a vast pantry of tinned and cured delicacies.

A Gothic Quarter workshop hand-stitching espadrilles since 1941, its traditional rope-soled sandals worn by everyone from local farmers to Hollywood stars and European royalty.

A Born district wine shop founded in 1932, expanded since 1993 by the current owners into one of Europe's leading specialist cellars, stocking more than 10,000 wines and spirits.

Barcelona's grandest boulevard, a wide 19th-century avenue lined with Modernist mansions, luxury flagship stores and Gaudí landmarks, the closest thing the city has to a fashion high street.