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Festes de Santa Eulàlia
The depths of winter are interrupted
by festivities in honour of Eulàlia, the
young Barcelona girl who suffered a
beastly martyrdom by the Romans for
refusing to renounce her Christianity.
She’s a revered patron of the city and her
saint’s day falls on
February 12
, around
which are held several days’ worth of
celebrations with a focus on children
and families. Events take place in Plaça
de Sant Jaume in the Barri Gòtic, where
you’ll be able to see the saint in parade
with other
gegants
(giants), as well as
the usual fire-running, dancing, concerts
and firework displays throughout the
neighbourhood. It’s also an appropriate
time to visit La Seu, Barcelona’s old-town
cathedral, whose crypt (open to view)
contains the saint’s venerated remains in
a marble sarcophagus.
Barcelona Grec Festival
Since the 1970s, the summer’s foremost
arts and music festival
has centred
its performances on Montjuïc’s open-air
Greek theatre. Cut into the hillside on
the site of an old quarry, this is a dramatic
location for cutting-edge Shakespearean
productions or events by Catalan avant-
garde performance artists like La Fura del
Baus, while music ranges from the likes of
Phillip Glass toTaj Mahal, and African rap
to Spanish singer-songwriters. There are
also concerts, plays and dance productions
at the CCCB and city theatres – in total,
around fifty different events held over a
six-week period from the end of June.
The city council’s cultural information
office at Palau de la Virreina on the
Ramblas is the best stop for information
and tickets.
A gegant on parade
Teatre Grec