Hidden Barcelona

Spreading tourism out. This is the aim of the Cosmopolis collection, which launches La Barcelona britànica i irlandesa (British and Irish Barcelona) a book that reveals the less traveled places to the tourists that come here and to the Catalans, Brits, or Irish who already live here. These are places like the old headquarters of the British Club, the Kitty’s, Barcelona's first pub; or the Fabra & Coats factory in the neighborhood of Sant Andreu. Barcelona is much more than the clichés of Gaudí, Barça, the Rambla, the Sagrada Família or the Pedrera, and that is what Cosmopolis wants to prove. The collection was created by Catalonia’s former tourism minister, Josep Huguet, who affirms that “Barcelona has the challenge of reducing the concentration of” tourism in those famous places and escaping from clichés. This book is the latest publication in the collection, which already offers four different points of views: the French, Jewish, Italian, and now also the British and Irish.

According to the author of the latter, Joan Maria Serra, the books are dedicated to “cultural tourism that does not look for the typical things such as the sun, beach and fun, but instead wants to get to know the city in depth”. Huguet emphasizes that “everything that helps to give new points of view about Barcelona is positive.” La Barcelona britànica i irlandesa takes the reader around the streets and buildings of Barcelona that have had some kind of British or Irish influence, an influence that has contributed to the history and evolution of the Catalan capital and the country in general. The book will be presented in Barcelona on June 30 at the Alibri bookstore.  

“Barcelona is very big and it is a very important city within Europe,” explains Joan Maria Serra, the author of La Barcelona britànica i irlandesa. “That means that the city has had relationships with many different countries throughout its history,” he explains, emphasizing the relationship and the influence that the Catalan capital has received from Britain and Ireland. The initiative’s founder, Josep Huguet, also emphasizes that Barcelona is very cosmopolitan. It is a city that “has been in contact with other civilizations like any other city open to the world,” commented Huguet, “but which at the same time has its own identity.”