Anyone who takes a tour of Barcelona or simply walks around the streets of any Catalan town will see this yellow flag with four red stripes hanging from the balconies or flying on top of the official buildings. What does this flag represent?
On my tours sometimes people ask me whether this is the Spanish flag. Is it? No, it isn’t, although the Spanish flag is also red and yellow. Other people may think it’s the soccer team flag…Neither. That one is blue and red.
This flag is the Catalan flag, locally called “Senyera”. You may also see it with the star, like in the picture, and then it’s called “Estelada.” The Estelada is the independentist Catalan Flag, since many people in Barcelona’s region favor the region’s separation from Spain. As a curiosity, the star is inspired in the Cuban flag. The Estelada was created in 1908. Now you now what this flag is!
Barcelona Curiosities
When touring Barcelona one often looks up to see the gorgeous buildings the city is dotted with. But looking down can be rewarding too, since the ground tiles of many Barcelona streets, and especially those in the Eixample district, are very pretty. They come in different shapes. The ones on Passeig de Gracia are hexagonal and were designed by Gaudi for the interior of the Casa Batllo, and later applied to his Casa Mila “La Pedrera”. Most of the other ones are square and come in different patterns. Typically the pattern is the same on the same street, or at least on the same block, but as I was walking down Diputació street earlier today I ran into a puzzle of different ones within just a few feet from each other, which is unusual. I took a few pictures and thought it’d be nice to talk you into looking down for once. In Barcelona, there’s beauty on the ground too!
