Port Vell

Port Vell (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpɔrd ˈbeʎ], literally in English 'Old Harbor') is a waterfront harbor in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and part of the Port of Barcelona. It was built as part of an urban renewal program prior to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Before this, it was a run-down area of empty warehouses, railroad yards, and factories. 16 million people visit the complex each year.

It is now a focal point of the city and tourist attraction, containing the Maremàgnum (a mall containing shops, a multiplex cinema, bars and restaurants), IMAX Port Vell and Europe's largest aquarium containing 8000 Fish and 11 sharks contained in 22 basins filled with 6 million litres (1.5 million gallons) of sea water. A pedestrian walkway, Rambla de Mar, connects La Rambla to Port Vell. It incorporates a swing bridge, in order to allow ships to enter and exit the harbour.

Around the 4th century BC Barcelona was occupied by the Laietani. A tribe of Iberian people who inhabited the coastline between the Llobregat and Tordera rivers. Barkeno, on Montjuïc, was their main settlement. These people traded with the Greek colony in Empúries, building large grain stores for the purpose.

In the 1st century AD, the Romans founded a colony, Barcino, on Mount Tàber. The first port activity on the northern side of Montjuïc.

The city and its maritime activities began to truly flourish and expand when Barcino's city walls were built after the Barbarian invasion in 263.

During the Late Middle Ages, Barcelona found itself on the frontier between Islam to the south and Christianity to the north. This strategic location was decisive in Barcelona's growth, for the city became established as a trading point between the two worlds and, eventually, the greatest maritime power in the Mediterranean, despite not possessing a port worthy of the name. The ships that anchored between the Royal Shipyards and the city were badly exposed to the great storms that often affected this coast and which caused many shipwrecks.

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Wikipedia