Barcelona is Spain's most cosmopolitan city and one of the Mediterranean's busy ports. Restaurants, bars and clubs are always packed, as is the seaside in summer. You will get the impression that it is purely dedicated to hedonism, but it's a hard-working dynamic place hoping to place itself in the vanguard of 21st-century Europe with a heavy concentration of hi-tech and biomedical business.
Barcelona has been breaking ground in art, architecture and style since the late 19th century. From the marvels of Modernisme to the modern wonders of today like Picasso.