Barcelona Trivia
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This Barcelona trivia quiz has 66 free questions with answers and covers the whole city: Roman Barcino and the counts who gave it the nickname Ciutat Comtal, Cerdà's Eixample grid, the two world's fairs that left the Arc de Triomf and Montjuïc, the Civil War bombing and the Olympics that gave the city its beaches. Gaudí gets his due, from the tram that killed him to the tower that finally made the Sagrada Família the world's tallest church, alongside La Pedrera, the Block of Discord and Park Güell. There is a full round on FC Barcelona (Gamper, Cruyff, Koeman at Wembley, the six-trophy year, Messi's debut), plus Catalan culture: castells, correfocs, Sant Jordi's books and roses, the sardana, pa amb tomàquet and cava. The early questions suit anyone planning a first visit; the back half will test a local. Every answer comes with a short explanation. Every question has been checked against a primary source, mostly Wikipedia's articles on the city, its buildings and its club, and shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 66 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Picasso painting of five women takes its title from a street in Barcelona?
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The brothel it depicts is on Barcelona's Carrer d'Avinyó, not in the French city of Avignon.
Q 02Which Pedro Almodóvar film, in which a grieving nurse travels from Madrid to Barcelona, won the foreign-language Oscar?
All About My Mother
All About My Mother. Manuela's teenage son is killed by a car while chasing an actress for her autograph, sending her to Barcelona to find his other parent, Lola.
Q 03While building the Sagrada Família, where did Gaudí live for the last months of his life?
In its workshop
In its workshop. In 1925 Gaudí moved out of his house and onto the building site, where he lived for his last months.
Q 04Which pope consecrated the Sagrada Família and proclaimed it a basilica in 2010?
Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI. A later pope, Leo XIV, blessed the completed central Tower of Jesus Christ on 10 June 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.
Q 05During which war were many of Gaudí's Sagrada Família plans destroyed?
The Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War. In July 1936, at the war's outbreak, the crypt was set alight and Gaudí's original plans were partly destroyed.
Q 06With its 172.5 m central tower completed in 2026, the Sagrada Família holds which world record?
Tallest church
Tallest church. It overtook Germany's Ulm Minster on 30 October 2025, when part of the unfinished central tower was lifted into place.
Q 07Gaudí was struck by what on his daily walk to church in June 1926?
A number 30 tram
A number 30 tram. Taken for a beggar, the unconscious Gaudí got no immediate help, and he died three days later.
Q 08Gaudí's mosaic technique using broken ceramic pieces is called what?
Trencadís
Trencadís, Catalan for 'broken up', uses shards of tile and broken china; Gaudí began breaking tiles because whole ones couldn't cover curved surfaces.
Q 09Because of its rough-hewn façade, Casa Milà is popularly known by what nickname?
La Pedrera
La Pedrera, 'the stone quarry', began as a mocking nickname from citizens who disapproved of Gaudí's unconventional building.
Q 10Casa Batlló sits on a row of rival Modernista buildings on the Passeig de Gràcia known as what?
The Block of Discord
The Block of Discord puns on the local word for both a city block and an apple, recalling the golden apple of discord as rival architects' styles clash.
Q 11Which industrialist, later made a count, commissioned Gaudí to build him a city palace and a hillside garden estate?
Eusebi Güell
Eusebi Güell planned his park as a luxury estate of 60 plots, but only two houses were built and it became a public park.
Q 12Which Gaudí building, built 1883-85 in Gràcia in an orientalist style, is considered his first major project?
Casa Vicens
Gaudí covered Casa Vicens in tiles of the yellow marigolds he found growing on the plot when he first measured it.
Q 13Barcelona's name comes from Baŕkeno, inscribed on coins minted by which ancient people?
The Iberians
The Iberians of the Laietani tribe called the area Baŕkeno and wrote the name on their coins in Iberian script.
Q 21Which actress won an Oscar for playing the painter's ex-wife in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona?
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz won the Oscar and the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress as María Elena, the painter Juan Antonio's unstable ex-wife.
Q 22Which architect's German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona exposition was rebuilt in 1986?
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's pavilion was dismantled in 1930 after the fair, yet its Barcelona chair is still in production.
Q 23Barcelona's tree-lined pedestrian street runs 1.2 km from Plaça de Catalunya to a statue of whom?
Christopher Columbus
Q 14The Roman colony on the site of Barcelona was known by what name?
Barcino
Barcino's forum stood where Plaça de Sant Jaume is today, and the regional government and the city council still face each other there.
Q 15Legend says the Catalan flag's four red stripes were first drawn in which count of Barcelona's blood?
Wilfred the Hairy
In the legend, Charles the Bald dipped his fingers in Wilfred the Hairy's war wounds and drew them down his golden shield, though no evidence supports it.
Q 16The 1137 betrothal of Ramon Berenguer IV to Petronilla joined the County of Barcelona with which kingdom?
Aragon
Their son Alfonso II inherited both, creating what became the Crown of Aragon.
Q 17Founded in 1401, Barcelona's Taula de Canvi is often called Europe's oldest what?
Public bank
Barcelona's public bank was set up by the city's governing council, the Consell de Cent, to hold its deposits and manage its debts.
Q 18Which civil engineer designed the Eixample, Barcelona's grid of octagonal blocks with chamfered corners?
Ildefons Cerdà
Ildefons Cerdà's grid was imposed by the central government in 1860, though Barcelona's council had chosen a rival plan.
Q 19What does the Catalan word Eixample mean in English?
Expansion
Eixample means expansion: the district filled the plain between the walled old city and outlying towns such as Gràcia and Sants.
Q 20Cobi, the cubist mascot of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, was what kind of animal?
A sheepdog
Javier Mariscal drew Cobi as a cubist sheepdog of a local breed, picked to represent the host city.
La Rambla ends at the Christopher Columbus Monument, and Lorca called it the only street in the world he wished would never end.
Q 24La Rambla forms the boundary between the Barri Gòtic and which neighbourhood to the west?
El Raval
El Raval was nicknamed Barrio Chino in the 1920s, though no Chinese community lived there at the time.
Q 25What is the name of the big covered food market opening onto La Rambla near the Liceu opera house?
La Boqueria
La Boqueria, officially the Mercat de Sant Josep, had its first stone laid on 19 March 1840, Saint Joseph's feast day.
Q 26What happened at Barcelona's Liceu opera house on the opening night of its 1893 season?
An anarchist bombed the stalls
An anarchist bombed the stalls: Santiago Salvador threw two Orsini bombs into them, and only one exploded, but it killed at least 20 people.
Q 27The 60-metre monument at the foot of La Rambla was erected for which occasion?
The 1888 Universal Exposition
The 1888 Universal Exposition, the first of Barcelona's two world's fairs, also gave the city the red-brick Arc de Triomf as its gateway.
Q 28Tibidabo, the hill above Barcelona, is said to take its name from Latin words spoken by whom?
Satan
In Luke's Gospel, Satan shows Jesus the world's kingdoms and says 'tibi dabo', I will give you, though the name's origin is uncertain.
Q 29Barcelona lies on a coastal plain between the mouths of the Besòs and which other river?
The Llobregat
Between 2001 and 2008 the Llobregat's mouth was moved 2 km south so the Port of Barcelona could double in size.
Q 30Barcelona's cathedral honours the Holy Cross and which teenage martyr, the city's co-patron?
Eulalia
Eulalia was said to be 13 when she was martyred, which is why 13 white geese live in the cathedral's cloister.