Americans for Catalonia

05/30/2026

Carrer de Petritxol is only 130 meters long and 3 meters wide. You could walk it in under a minute. But almost nothing in Barcelona packs more history into a smaller space.

The street goes back to the 14th century, when it was known as Carreró dels Orfebres, meaning Goldsmith's Alley. It runs from Portaferrissa down to Plaça del Pi, deep in the Gothic Quarter, and for hundreds of years it was the kind of shortcut that locals used to slip through the neighborhood.

At number 5 is Sala Parés, the oldest art gallery in Barcelona. It formally became a gallery in 1877, and in 1901 a young Pablo Picasso held his first commercial gallery exhibition here. The show didn't make him famous overnight. But the gallery is still there, still showing art.

The granges (old-style milk bars) are what most people come for today. Granja Dulcinea at number 2 has been serving thick hot chocolate for generations. Salvador Dalí was a regular. The recipe hasn't changed.
In 1959, Petritxol became the first street in all of Barcelona to be fully pedestrianized. No cars, no sidewalks. Just people, chocolate, and art.

05/29/2026

This is the Font Màgica (Magic Fountain) of Montjuïc, one of the most visited spots in Barcelona. But the ground it stands on carries a story most visitors never hear.

Before the fountain, this exact spot held the Four Columns — four stone pillars built in 1919 to represent the four red stripes of the Catalan flag. They were a symbol of Catalan identity, and that made them a target.

In 1928, Spain's military dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera had them torn down. He wanted no trace of Catalan symbolism on display during the upcoming 1929 World's Fair.

To fill the empty space, engineer Carles Buïgas proposed building a monumental illuminated fountain. Many thought the plan was too ambitious. With just under a year until the Fair opened, over 3,000 workers were hired to make it happen. They did.

The fountain debuted on May 19, 1929 — the day before the Exposition opened. It can produce around 7 billion combinations of water, light, and color. Music was added in the 1980s. The Spanish Civil War left it badly damaged and silent until 1955.

The Four Columns were rebuilt in 2010, just a few meters from where they originally stood.

05/29/2026

EuroQCS-Spain aims to mark a step toward technological sovereignty for Europe

05/27/2026

Until 1992, Barcelona had almost no beach. That sounds impossible for a city on the Mediterranean, but it's true.

For most of the 20th century, the Barceloneta waterfront was a working industrial zone: factories, warehouses, cargo docks, and a railway line that physically separated the city from the sea. Ordinary residents had no access to the water. There was simply nowhere to go.

When Barcelona won the right to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, the city used the opportunity to tear all of it down. The most striking result was the creation of roughly two miles of new beachfront, using sand imported from Egypt. The Passeig Marítim promenade was built from scratch. The Olympic Port opened. And Barceloneta, a neighborhood of fishermen that had existed since the 18th century, was reconnected to the sea for the first time in living memory.

The sail-shaped building you see today is the W Hotel, known locally as Hotel Vela. Designed by architect Ricardo Bofill, it stands on 7 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea during the construction of the new harbor entrance, and opened in 2009. Residents of Barceloneta protested that its height "stole the horizon" from the neighborhood.

In 1973, none of this existed. The beach, the promenade, the hotel. All of it was built in a single generation.

05/25/2026

BARCELONA ARE UWCL CHAMPIONS FOR THE FOURTH TIME 🔥

A 4-0 MASTERCLASS TO REMEMBER ⚡

05/25/2026

𝐇𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝟐𝟑𝟒 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.

Before drawing a single line for Hospital de Sant Pau, architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner spent years researching hospitals across Europe and beyond.

He studied ventilation, natural light, hygiene, and how hospital design affected recovery.

And he came to a radical conclusion for the time:

People heal better in beautiful places.

So instead of designing one giant building, he created an entire “city for healing” in the middle of Barcelona.

Separate pavilions surrounded by gardens.
Large windows filled with sunlight.
High ceilings for fresh air circulation.
Colorful mosaics, stained glass, sculptures, and decorative details everywhere.

At a time when most hospitals felt cold and overcrowded,

Sant Pau looked almost like a palace.

The complex officially opened in 1930 and operated as a real hospital for nearly 80 years.

In 1997, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site — while patients were still being treated there.

Today, the historic wards remain almost exactly as they were.

Same ceilings.
Same tiles.
Same rooms.

Just no patients anymore.

📍 Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, Barcelona

05/23/2026

Café Zurich has been the unofficial meeting point of Barcelona since 1862, when it opened as a tiny drinks kiosk called "La Catalana" next to the city's first suburban railway station.

A Catalan man named Serra, who had spent years working in the Swiss city of Zurich, later bought the place and renamed it after the city he loved. In 1920, the Valldeperas family took over and never left — four generations later, they still run it today.

The terrace has witnessed some of the city's wildest moments. During the Spanish Civil War, Republican forces used its walls as a literal barricade and fired from behind them. In 1981, the men who were planning a robbery of the nearby Banco Central met here to plot the heist — while the police, unknowingly, were also meeting here to plan how to stop it.

In 1998, the original building was torn down to make way for the El Triangle shopping center. The Valldeperas family refused to move. Café Zurich was rebuilt on the exact same corner, same size, same terrace — and reopened as the anchor of the new building.

Every Barça title. Every Diada. Every generation of barcelonins asking the same question: "Quedamos en el Zurich?" (Shall we meet at the Zurich?)

05/21/2026

🚨 Pep Guardiola on leaving FC Barcelona in 2012:

“Many people thought I left because we stopped winning… but it was far more than that.”

“Coaching Barça is not just about football — it takes over your entire life. For four years, every game felt like a final, every decision was analyzed, every mistake became front-page news.”

“The rivalry with Real Madrid under José Mourinho pushed the intensity to another level. The pressure never disappeared, on or off the pitch. Mentally, it drained me.”

“And inside the dressing room, I could feel things changing too. I adored those players and I adored this club… but a manager has to recognize when his voice no longer carries the same power.”

“I never wanted to stay too long and ruin what we created. That’s why I told the club honestly: my batteries were empty.”

“I didn’t leave because I stopped loving Barcelona… I left because I had given the club absolutely everything.” ❤️💙

05/21/2026