Walks around the Scientific World of Barcelona

  • Xavier Duran &
  • Merce Piqueras
Ajuntament de Barcelona: 2003. 362 pp. €19. http://www.bcn.es/publicacions

The Spanish city of Barcelona dates back to the third century BC. It expanded greatly under Roman occupation from 27 BC to AD 14 but remained largely unaffected by the Moorish invasion that left its mark on so much of the southern Iberian peninsula. Barcelona's strategic location on the Mediterranean trade routes helped it to develop into an important industrial and commercial centre. Traditional guide books emphasize the city's beautiful architecture, much of it designed by Antoni Gaudí, along with the wealth of museums, the artistic tradition, the famous football team and the hosting of the 1992 Olympic Games. Knowledgeable travellers will probably associate the painters Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí with the city, but few would make any connection with science, despite the prominence given to this field by today's media.

Barcelona's city council commissioned this beautifully produced guidebook to fill the gap between its artistic heritage and the less well known scientific and technological tradition. The citizens have a significant appreciation of scientists, and not just those associated with their city. Street names remind us of Pasteur, Archimedes, Descartes and Fleming, for example, and the hall in the Industrial School has walls covered with engravings commemorating scientists from all over the world and from many different disciplines. There is even a monument to the city's direct role in determining the standard metre. The French definition of this distance was one ten-millionth of a quadrant of the Earth on the longitudinal line passing through Paris; as part of this project, Jean Delambre and Pierre Méchain were assigned the task of measuring precisely the distance between Dunkirk and Barcelona.

This guidebook is divided into two major parts: the first describes the scientific and technological history of the city, and the second comprises suggested itineraries through the various geographical areas. There are also four excellent maps, as well as a multitude of colour illustrations.The book is so wide-ranging that it provides something for everyone. Outdoor types can use it as a guide when they view remnants of the old Roman aqueduct and a short stretch of canal that carried water to the city for several hundred years. A stroll along Notariat Street leads to the house occupied by the Nobel-prizewinning neurologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal during his tenure at the University of Barcelona. Botanical gardens of all sizes abound.

For the more traditional traveller there are museums dedicated to geology, ethnography, medical instrumentation, pharmacology and many varied types of technological applications. And when all this science begins to be a bit much, there is the Picasso Museum and the Museum of Catalan Art, both of which are highly praised by the ubiquitous Michelin Green Guide. Here one can enjoy not only the visual pleasures on display but also an entertaining discussion in this book about the relationship between the arts and science.

We have never been to Barcelona, but reviewing Walks Around the Scientific World of Barcelona has led us to consider making the trip from North Yorkshire to this marvellous city. The one caveat is that the book's excellent production quality has led to it being a somewhat weighty tome, difficult for those of us no longer in the bloom of youth to carry on our sightseeing tours.