Barcino

Barcino is the ancient Roman name for the settlement that later became Barcelona. It was established as Colonia Iulia Augusta Faventia Barcino in the late 1st century BCE during the expansion of Roman rule in Hispania.

The town was laid out on a grid around a hilltop site near the coast, with a Cardo and a Decumanus forming a basic Roman street plan. Public buildings included a forum, temples, baths, and defensive walls. The city grew as a local center of administration and trade, serving as an important link in the network of Roman Hispania.

In late antiquity and the early medieval period, Barcino declined as Roman urban institutions waned, but it continued as an urban nucleus under Visigothic and later Frankish influence. The Roman street plan and ruins influenced the medieval Gothic Quarter, and remains of Barcino are preserved in museums and archaeological sites in Barcelona today.

The name Barcino is the ancestor of the modern city’s name Barcelona, and the legacy of the Roman settlement shapes the historic core of today’s city, where archaeological remains and the street layout echo its ancient origins.