Barcelona

Barcelona's drive for self-improvement and self-promotion seems to know no bounds. The commercial port continues to expand, and is now dominated by a futuristic World Trade Center set in the central harbour, while the airport is given a new runway and the city anxiously awaits the arrival of a high-speed train (AVE) line. There's a pride in the city which is expressed in a remarkable cultural energy, seen most perfectly in the glorious modernista (Art Nouveau) architecture that studs the city's streets and avenues. Antoni Gaudí is the most famous of those who have left their mark on Barcelona in this way: his Sagrada Família church is rightly revered, but just as fascinating are the (literally) fantastic houses and apartment buildings that he and his contemporaries designed. In art , too, the city boasts a stupendous legacy, from important Romanesque and Gothic works to major galleries containing the life's work of the Catalan artists Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies, and - perhaps the greatest draw of all - a representative collection of the work of Pablo Picasso.

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