Q: CAN you tell me something about the history of Barcelona and Catalonia? - K Young, Peterlee.

A: BARCELONA is the second city of Spain after Madrid and the capital of the Catalonia region, which has a distinct language and identity. Many Catalans have a strong sense of separatism.

It is known that Barcelona was established by the Carthaginians (from what is now Tunisia) in the 3rd Century BC. Roman walls can still be seen in the old part of Barcelona, but the Roman town of Tarraco (Tarragona), about 50 miles to the south, was of much greater importance.

With the collapse of the Roman Empire, around 450 AD, Barcelona passed to the Barbarian Visigoths, a ruling people from central Europe. The Visigoths called Barcelona Barcino. In the 8th Century most of Spain including Barshilunah as it was called, fell to the Moors of North Africa, who brought Muslim culture to the region. The city was eventually captured by the Franks under Charlemagne in 801 and it was considered part of the Spanish March - a border region of Charlemagne's Frankish Kingdom. The Spanish March area became independent under the leadership of the powerful counts of Barcelona in the 9th to 10th Centuries and they eventually captured all of Catalonia from the Moors. In the 1100s Catalonia became part of Aragon after Count Raymond Berengar IV married the heiress of Aragon. Subsequent kings of Aragon were based at Barcelona and were also Counts of Barcelona. Barcelona continued expanding as a Mediterranean trade port during the Medieval period and much of its wealth was based on the export of textiles.

It was during this period that Barcelona's magnificent Gothic cathedral was started. The rise in Barcelona's fortunes came to an end at the start of the 15th Century when Barcelona and Catalonia suffered economic decline. The most recent periods of independence were 1932-39 when Barcelona was the capital of a Catalan autonomous government and from 1937-1939 when Barcelona was the seat of a rival government to Franco. Today, Catalonian separatism is expressed in a number of cultural ways, but none more so than the strong preservation of the Catalan language.

A FOLLOWING last week's question from Colin Watson about Freeborough Hill, Vic Wood of Yearby, near Redcar, provided me with some interesting information about the name Freeborough.

The first part of the name comes from Friga, the Queen of the Norse Gods, while borough comes from the Norse word 'beorge' meaning hill. What makes the name so interesting is that Roseberry Topping, Cleveland's other prominent landmark is named after Friga's husband, the Norse God Odin (or Woden). Roseberry Topping was called Othenesberg in the 12th Century and this name developed from the earlier name Odin's Beorge, meaning Odin's Hill, a name that would eventually become Ouseberry. The other part of Roseberry Topping's name derives from the Danish word Toppen meaning hill.

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