PHOTO: Barcelona’s Boqueria Market is a visual treasure of Catalan life.

Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, is most often positioned by agents as part of a broader Spanish itinerary or as a distinct destination unto itself. However, the new high-speed link to Paris is allowing for the possibility to position Barcelona as part of a two-city short break with Paris. Also, Southwestern France shares many cultural chords with Catalonia and would combine well on a regional itinerary especially now that there is a high-speed link to Paris that calls at Nimes along the way.

Hosting the 1992 Olympics helped Barcelona emerge from a long period of despondency into a hip city enjoyed by culturally sophisticated travelers. The Olympics channeled investments in infrastructure and left an Olympic Port in Poblenou popular with artists in what had been a blighted neighborhood. The diversity of modern Barcelona is on display on its most famous street, Las Ramblas, running right through the center of the city.

To sell the city effectively, it is important to understand that, while the Barcelona and Catalonia in general are Spanish, they also have separate identities based on the singularity of Catalan culture. Today, Barcelona is by far the most popular destination in Spain. In 2012, a full 46.6 percent of Americans traveling in Spain traveled in Catalonia, mostly to Barcelona. The runners up were Madrid at 23.2 percent and Andalucía at 13.7 percent. In January, Catalonia became one of Virtuosso’s Preferred Destinations, reflecting the interest that sophisticated travelers have for the region. During 2012 tourist arrivals from the U.S. to the province grew by 9.3 percent to reach 800,000 visitors.

In 2011, the Catalan Tourist Board opened an office in New York to promote the destination in North America. Catalan Tourism recently launched a Facebook page, “Catalunya Experience,” as what it calls a virtual tourist office. It features a function called “Ask the office” that takes queries. You can follow the “Catalunya Experience” (www.facebook.com/catalunyaexperience) by “liking” them on Facebook.

Catalan Identity

PHOTO: Like no other cathedral in the world — Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia.

Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter is one of Europe’s finest “Old Cities.” In it, you can trace the cultural origins of the city through medieval structures built over the original Roman town. The maze of medieval streets periodically open onto fine piazzas that are usually dotted with al fresco restaurants and street musicians.

There are many great names in Catalan history, including George Orwell, Joan Miro and Salvadore Dali, but no one shaped the identity of Barcelona more than Antoni Gaudi. In 1883, when Gaudi began building the signature structure of Barcelona, the Cathedral of La Sagrada Familia, he was seeking forms that seemed to rise out of the architectural vocabulary of nature itself. Though the moving lines and strange shapes of his buildings have been labeled baroque and claimed even by surrealists, Gaudi saw his work as an attempt to build as nature built. More than 2 million people visit the soaring cathedral every year.

Dali once said that Gaudi turned stone into flesh, and it’s true that his buildings feel more like organisms than buildings. Several of Gaudi’s buildings were made UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1984. The cathedral’s central Tower of Jesus will measure 550 feet when it is finally finished in 2026.

A Garden City

When we think of Islamic Spain, we usually think of Andalucia, but Barcelona’s connection can be seen in the dozens of gardens sprinkled throughout the city. In the Koran, paradise is described as a place of gardens with flowing fountains, a place like Barcelona. The Park Güell, another of Gaudi’s creations, was designed for his lifelong patron Eusebi Güell. The park is a classic Gaudi landscape highlighted by the 86 columns of the Sala Hispóstila. Parks were a feature of Barcelona long before Gaudi arrived on the scene. A maze is at the center of the Horta Labyrinth park where numerous gardens, statues and pavilions were created at the end of the 18th century by a Catalan aristocrat.

Designed in 1870 by Josep Fontsere, the idea behind Ciutadella Park was to transform the facilities at the site of the military citadel built by Philip V at the end of the War of Spanish Succession into public gardens to house the first Universal Exposition. About half of the park is home to the city zoo. Visitors wander down lakeside paths and to the Cascada, a triumphal fountain built in 1881, complete with a pair of crab statues that salute the goddess Venus and the gleaming Quadriga de l’Aurora. It’s also worth noting that Barcelona is a beach city with almost three miles of very swimmable strand in four beach areas easily reached by public transport from the city center: 1) Barceloneta Beach; 2) Icària Beach; 3) Marbella (a nude beach); and 4) Sitges Beaches.

Museums of Barcelona

Barcelona has nearly 60 museums and the most popular is in the Sagrada Familia. Another Gaudi-oriented museum is La Pedrera, an apartment building with a great waving exterior that is another of his most famous works. La Pedrera features everything from Renaissance drawings to modern paintings. The Fundació Joan Miró and the Picasso Museum feature fine collections of both modern masters. The Catalan Museum of History is a good recommendation for the client who plans to explore the province.

Barcelona’s Spanish Village, El Poble Espanyol (www.poble-espanyol.com), is a walled village that offers examples of Spain’s regional architectural styles. It also has 12 restaurants, 40 craftshops, cafés and tapas bars, a flamenco club and a club with a cabaret show. Built in 1929 as a temporary arts pavilion for the Barcelona World’s Fair, it continues on today, welcoming more than 1.5 million people per year as the fourth most visited site in Barcelona.

Touring Catalonia

PHOTO: Gaudi looked closely at trees as models for his architecture as in Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia.

Catalonia is home to more than 2,000 Romanesque churches, castles and monasteries. Romanesque Art, which surfaced around 1,000 A.D, marks a period when Roman and Carolingian art and architecture merged into one sensibility. Barcelona, the jumping off point for the routes, is home to the Catalan Museum of Art Montjuïc. The beauties of Romanesque architecture reach their zenith on both sides of the Pyrenees both in Catalonia and also to the north in such French provinces as the Midi Pyrenees, especially in Toulouse. The Catalan Department of Tourism identified six specific routes that guide visitors through the province’s rich art and architectural heritage. From the French town of Nimes, on the Barcelona-Paris high speed route, travelers can easily connect to Nice, Aix-en-Provence, Montpelier and the South of France.

The wilds of Catalonia are also prominent attractions for skiers and hikers alike. A 3.5-hour jaunt from Barcelona, the five-star La Pleta Hotel & Spa (www.lapleta.com) offers skiing in the Pyrenees in winter and jeep explorations on mountain trails in summer. This 70-room Small Luxury Hotels of the World member is located in the Val d’Aran, Baqueira, and has a reputation for fine Catalan cuisine. Baqueira offers nearly 5,000 acres of prime skiing domain and 58 miles of marked runs for skiers and snowboarders. In the summer, the mountains remain a haven of activity with over 185 miles of marked hiking trails, bike trails, fly-fishing, horseback riding and white-water rafting. For more information, see www.tourspain.es; www.spain.info.