The Palau de la Generalitat in Barcelona, located in the Plaça Sant Jaume, is the seat of the Catalan government. The Palau has pure Gothic, flamboyant Gothic, Renaissance and baroque elements behind the neoclassical façade. The building was constructed between the 15th and mid-17th centuries. The architecture is beautiful and ornate, without being too much, like a Gaudi building for example.
The Palau de la Generalitat was built to provide a permanent seat for the Corts Catalanes, the Catalan Assembly set up in 1283 which is referred to as "the first parliament in Europe".
The Catalan institution was abolished in 1714, when the city fell to Philip V's army, but it was reinstated in the 20th century during the Second Republic, only to be suppressed again by General Franco after he won the Civil War in 1939. In 1977, two years after Franco's death, Spain was moving towards democracy and the former President of the Generalitat de Catalunya Josep Tarradellas returned from exile to Barcelona and uttered the historic words: "Catalans, I am here!". He spoke from the main balcony of the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya, in front of Andreu Aleu's sculpture of Saint George (1860).
After Franco, when democracy was restored to Spain ...and after the 1977 Spanish General Election, the Palau became again the seat of the Generalitat, which was restored on September 29, 1977, before the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.
For many Catalans, this is a place to protest, make voices heard and also to feel their Nationalism. read more