This Barcelona trivia quiz has 69 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 69 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Barcelona is the capital of which autonomous community of Spain?
Catalonia
It is Spain's second-most populous municipality after Madrid, with about 1.7 million people inside the city limits.
Q 02Which architect designed the Sagrada Família, Park Güell and Casa Batlló?
Antoni Gaudí
He was struck by a tram in 1926 and, taken for a beggar, was not helped straight away; he is buried in the Sagrada Família's crypt.
Q 03In what year did construction of the Sagrada Família begin?
1882
Gaudí took over from the original architect the following year and worked on it until his death.
Q 04Which pope consecrated the Sagrada Família and proclaimed it a basilica in 2010?
Benedict XVI
A different pope blessed the completed central Tower of Jesus Christ in June 2026, on the centenary of Gaudí's death.
Q 05Roughly how much of the Sagrada Família was finished when Gaudí died in 1926?
Less than a quarter
Anarchists burned the crypt and workshop in 1936, destroying many of his original plans.
Q 06With its 172.5 m central tower completed in 2026, the Sagrada Família holds which world record?
Tallest church
It is also the most-visited monument in Spain.
Q 07Gaudí was struck by what on his daily walk to church in June 1926?
A number 30 tram
Passers-by assumed the shabby old man was a beggar; he died three days later.
Q 08Gaudí's mosaic technique using broken ceramic pieces is called what?
Trencadís
You can see it on the dragon at Park Güell and across the façade of Casa Batlló.
Q 09Because of its rough-hewn façade, Casa Milà is popularly known by what nickname?
La Pedrera
It means 'the stone quarry'. Built 1906-1912, it was the last private residence Gaudí designed and boasts a self-supporting façade and an underground garage.
Q 10Casa Batlló sits on a row of rival Modernista buildings on the Passeig de Gràcia known as what?
The Block of Discord
Four striking and strikingly different houses by different architects stand side by side.
Q 11Which industrialist and patron commissioned Gaudí to design Park Güell?
Eusebi Güell
Building ran from 1900 to 1914; Gaudí lived in one of the show houses there from 1906 to 1925.
Q 12Which Gaudí building, built 1883-85 in Gràcia in an orientalist style, is considered his first major project?
Casa Vicens
It was added to the UNESCO list in 2005 alongside the Sagrada Família's Nativity façade.
Q 13How many of Gaudí's works were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites between 1984 and 2005?
Seven
Park Güell, Palau Güell and Casa Milà came first in 1984; four more followed in 2005.
Q 21What does the Catalan word Eixample mean in English?
Expansion
It filled the plain between the walled old city and outlying towns such as Gràcia and Sants.
Q 22Barcelona's Arc de Triomf was built as the entrance to which event?
The 1888 Universal Exposition
Unusually for a triumphal arch it is red brick in the Neo-Mudéjar style, and it commemorates a trade fair, not a war.
Q 23Where was the 1929 International Exposition staged?
Montjuïc
It left the city the Palau Nacional, the Magic Fountain, the Poble Espanyol and the stadium later used for the 1992 Olympics.
Q 14What was the origin of Barcelona's name, according to the ancient coin inscriptions?
The Iberian Baŕkeno
The romantic story that Hannibal's father founded and named the city has no ancient evidence behind it.
Q 15The Roman colony on the site of Barcelona was known by what name?
Barcino
The Roman forum sat roughly where Plaça de Sant Jaume is now, so the seat of power has not moved in 2,000 years.
Q 16The city is nicknamed the Ciutat Comtal, or City of Counts, because it was the seat of what?
The local count
The counts of Barcelona grew steadily more independent of the Frankish kings who installed them after 801.
Q 17The 1137 marriage 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 18Founded in 1401, Barcelona's Taula de Canvi is often called Europe's oldest what?
Public bank
It narrowly predates the Bank of Venice (1402) and the Bank of Genoa (1407).
Q 19The name of the broad hill above the harbour, spelled Montjuich in medieval sources, means what?
Jewish Mountain
A medieval Jewish cemetery on the hill was declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest in 2007.
Q 20Which civil engineer designed the Eixample, Barcelona's grid of octagonal blocks with chamfered corners?
Ildefons Cerdà
The city council preferred another plan; the Spanish government imposed Cerdà's, adding to Madrid-Barcelona friction.
Q 24Which architect's German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona exposition was rebuilt in 1986?
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
It gave the world the Barcelona chair; the reconstruction stands on the original Montjuïc site.
Q 25The Magic Fountain below the Palau Nacional pushes water through roughly how many jets?
3,620
Its highest spout reaches about 170 feet, and it was another 1929 exposition project.
Q 26Barcelona's tree-lined pedestrian street runs 1.2 km from Plaça de Catalunya to a statue of whom?
Christopher Columbus
Lorca called La Rambla 'the only street in the world which I wish would never end'.
Q 27La Rambla forms the boundary between the Barri Gòtic and which neighbourhood to the west?
El Raval
The Palau Güell, Gaudí's mansion for his patron, is just off it in the Raval.
Q 28What is the name of the big covered food market opening onto La Rambla near the Liceu opera house?
La Boqueria
Officially the Mercat de Sant Josep, its current building was begun in 1840.
Q 29On the opening night of the 1893 season, what happened at the Liceu opera house?
An anarchist bombed the stalls
About twenty people died. The theatre burned in 1861 and again in 1994, and was rebuilt both times.
Q 30The 60-metre monument at the foot of La Rambla was erected for which occasion?
The 1888 Universal Exposition
It marks the fact that Columbus reported to Ferdinand and Isabella in Barcelona after his first voyage.