A city with so much to offer: art, museums, modernism, romanesque & gothic architecture, beaches, leisure activities, shows... Discover the life and soul of the capital of the Mediterranean. Hop onboard the tourist bus. Stopping at 27 of the most interesting sights.

Just decades ago, few tourists would have considered visiting the northern Spanish city of Barcelona. However, this once rather rundown industrial centre that seemed to have little to offer has undergone a seismic change that culminated in the hosting of the Olympic Games in 1992, an event which completely transformed Barcelona. As well as a string of purpose built sporting developments springing up all over the city - with the epicentre on the slopes of Montjuïc - Barcelona benefited from major investments that saw the face of the city dramatically change.

Barcelona has become something of a Mecca for the world's top architects who have flocked here to conjure up an array of modern structures and avant-garde designs. Many have drawn their inspiration from the seminal work of Barcelona's most famous son, the modernist architect Antoni Gaudi, whose unique style can still be savoured around the city in a number of key buildings. His masterpiece is the unfinished Sagrada Familia cathedral, but his work even can be seen in the lampposts and fountains of Plaça Reial. Fortunately the rush of new construction has not completely dwarfed the older buildings as the old and new architectural styles harmoniously combine. Barcelona is the kind of city where an avant-garde glass and steel new office block can rest happily within striking distance of a gothic cathedral, a city where the old port has been rejuvenated without losing any of its charm.

The city is also solidifying its position as a major regional economic power, tucked as it is, strategically close to the French border and with a wide Mediterranean coastline. Its key industries include manufacture, textiles, electronics and tourism. Today the focus is on Barcelona developing as part of the new Europe, a theme emphasised by the Euromed Conference in the late 1990s, which looked at ways of developing the Spanish-French border region. Another sign of this intent are the ambitious plans to build a high speed rail track from Barcelona to link up with the French TGV network and on to the rest of Europe.

1 The Sagrada familia (Church of the Holy Family)
1882, Antoni Gaudí Address: Pl. Gaudí Tel: 93-207.30.31

This church is located in the Eixample district, hemmed in by the thoroughfares of Provença, Sardenya, Mallorca and Marina. The first stone was laid in 1882. Antoni Gaudí worked on the building for more than forty years. In the latter years of his life, however, he refused all other work and moved to the office and workshop inside the church itself, until the first belfry on the Nativity façade was covered (1925). He left a general plan and some in-depth studies of the new structure and the geometric forms for the naves, the columns, the windows, the archways and the roofs, which he based on forms found in nature.

2 The Milà house: La Pedrera
1906-1912, Antoni Gaudí Address: Passeig de Gràcia, 92 Tel: 93-484.59.90

The well-known Pedrera building was Gaudí's last housing project, and is widely held to be the perfect culmination of all his previous work on apartment blocks in the Eixample district. The Pedrera building has belonged to the Caixa d'Estalvis de Catalunya since December 1986 and is on the UNESCO's World Heritage list.

3 The Batlló house
1904-1906, Antoni Gaudí Address: Pg. De Gràcia, 43 Tel: 93-488.06.66

This is one of the most charismatic examples of Modernist art in the Eixample district. The architect Antoni Gaudí personally designed the whole building, from the astonishing façade to the interior decoration, including the furnishings. The front of the building is covered in mosaic tiles and the roofing is made of ceramic tiles.

4 Parc Güell
1900-1904, Antoni Gaudí Address: Olot, s/n Tel: 93-424.38.09

This is the largest of Gaudí's works in Barcelona. It covers an area of 20 hectares, which was originally to have been an English-style garden city, hence its originally being called a park. For this project, Gaudí was helped by the architect Josep Maria Jujol. Parc Güell also contains examples of town-planning of unusual force; the two pavilions, joined by a stone wall, which stand at either side of the main entrance on carrer Olot, and the stairway at the entrance to the park, the hypostyle hall with its 96 columns which support the great square with the sinuous bench along the edge, providing us with a platform which looks out over Barcelona, and the infrastructure of viaducts, containment walls, walkways and other singular elements

5 Palau Güell
1886-1890, Antoni Gaudí Address: Nou de la Rambla, 3-5 Tel: 93-317.39.74

Built as Count Güell's house in Barcelona. The austere façade gives no inkling of the profuse creativity and originality with which Gaudí strewed his patron's home. The interior of the palace is extraordinarily rich.

6 The Teresianes Order school
1888-1890, Antoni Gaudí Address: Ganduxer, 85-105 Tel: 93-212.33.54

This building, designed especially as a school, is surrounded by an austere and rational environment not normally found in Gaudí's work

7 The Calvet house
1898-1900, Antoni Gaudí Address: Casp, 48 Tel: 93-412.40.12

Although it does not look like one of Gaudí's works at first sight, a quick look at the entrance hall reveals unusual details. It has an interior façade and a creative entrance hall. The textile shop which Gaudí designed on the ground floor is now a restaurant.

8 The Bellesguard tower
1900-1904, Antoni Gaudí Address: Bellesguard, 16

A house built close to the Collserola range of hills, where King Martin the Humane lived.

9 The Güell pavillions
1886-1889, Antoni Gaudí Address: Avda. de Pedralbes, 7

Two pavilions, with a long fence led into the old holiday home belonging to the financier Eusebi Güell, the great patron and sponsor of Antoni Gaudí. This prosaic commission gave rise to a surprising project which was to be full of surprises.

10 The Vicenç house
1883-1888, Antoni Gaudí Address: Carolines, 18

The use of colour in the tiles on the façades on this strange building, of clearly Oriental design, so different from its surroundings in the Gràcia district, is remarkable. It marks the start of the Modernist era. It is obvious from the design that the was commissioned by a tile manufacturer.