Barcelona is located on the Mediterranean Sea, on the Costa del Maresme, with the Costa Brava to the north and the Costa del Garraf to the south, and has an important port. The city is located 160 kilometers from the Pyrenees. In 1450 the University of Barcelona was founded and in 1990 the University of Pompeu Fabra, two leading universities in Spain. Barcelona hosted several events such as the 1888 and 1929 World Fairs, the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 2004 Fórum (Universal Cultural Event). A large part of the city, the Eixample district, was planned in the 19th century with a grid-shaped street pattern. The inhabitants call the city 'Barna', not to be confused with 'Barça', which refers to the football club FC Barcelona.

There are several theories about the origin of Barcelona. According to one of them, the city was founded by Hercules 400 years before the foundation of Rome. In the 3rd century BC. the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barkas, father of Hannibal, is said to have expanded the city and named it Barcino after himself. According to another legend, Hannibal himself founded the city. The first traces of civilization around Barcelona date from the period of 2000-1500 BC. The first people to inhabit the place were the Laietans, an Iberian people, in the 7th century BC. During the Second Punic War the city was conquered by the Carthaginians, and in 218 BC. by the Romans. They gave the city the name Julia Augusta Paterna Faventia Barcino or Barcino for short. Barcino was used as a military fortress. In the 3rd century AD. the city had about 6000 inhabitants and functioned as one of the many settlements in the Roman route from Rome to Gades (Cádiz). The city was in "Hispania Tarraconensis", a Roman province that covered most of Spain and was administered from Tarraco, later Tarragona.

Barcelona is located on the Mediterranean Sea, in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. The city is located on a plateau bordered by the Serra de Collserola mountain range,[9] the rivers Llobregat to the south and Besòs to the north and the Mediterranean Sea. The city is located 160 kilometers south of the Pyrenees. The Serra de Collserola forms a kind of fence around the city, the highest point in that chain is the hill Tibidabo, 512 meters high. At the top of that hill is a telecommunication mast, called "Collseroltoren". The city itself is built on a number of hills such as the Carmel (267 meters), Monterols (121 meters), Putxet (181 meters), Rovira (261 meters) and Peira (133 meters). The hill Montjuïc (173 meters high) is located in the southeast, on the sea, and overlooks the city, so to speak. Historically this hill was used as a fortress.[10] Nowadays you will find museums and restaurants, the stadium and the swimming pool of the 1992 Summer Olympics. There is also a cemetery. Along the coast you will find sandy beaches that were built in the run-up to the Olympic Games. The cardinal points on the city map of Barcelona are often rotated almost a quarter turn: on these maps the coast runs horizontally, parallel to the bottom of the map, while in reality the coast runs from north-northeast to south-southwest. This is in line with the course of the coastline in most of Catalonia. Barcelonans themselves do not use the cardinal directions, but geographical references when they talk about the direction: "sea" and "Tibidabo" for east-southeast and west-northwest, and "Llobregat" and "Besòs" for south-southwest and north-northeast. For example, the "wind directions" are indicated on the district map in the metro stations.