The homonymus marvelous world
This year full of restrictions is about to finish. By reading this post you'll be able to "travel". We are a real estate agency with eighty years of experience and offices in Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallés. Thanks to the Social Networks our public is global: today we pay tribute to our followers.
Part 1: two enigmas and one reality:
Enigma 1: in 1493 a tiny Caribbean territory was baptized with a very familiar name in Catalonia. Do you know which it is?.
Clues:
1. Currently It belongs to the United Kingdom.
2. Its shape looks like Ireland.
3. In 1997 an eruption almost destroyed it. Find out the solution here.
Enigma 2: New York was the tenth city in the world in number of visitors in 2019. Do you know what was its name from its foundation until it became British?
Clues:
1. From 1624 to 1664 it was a city under Netherlands soveirignty. In 1667 it was delivered to the British in return for Suriname.
2. In Suriname it exist a city placed between two rivers called like it was called New York.
3. The original name is a variation of the city which was the biggest Stoke Exchange Market in the 17th century.
By the way, New York is named like this not because of the city of York but for the Duke of York (picture 1: Dutch governor meets the request for delivery). Find out the solution here.
An uncomfortable truth: Women do not appear a lot in maps: the illustrative cases of Lady Smith and Lady Elizabeth
Discover the extrordinary case of Lady Smith a woman with six toponyms. On the other hand, the most important population with a woman's name is Port Elizabeth, founded in South Africa in 1820, had: 967,677 inhabitants in May 2019. Attention, its name is not due to the Queen "Elizabeth I" but to the wife of the founder of the city.
Part 2: the "Barcelona's" far away from Catalonia
Certainly! Barcelona is not only between the Mediterranean and Tibidabo. However, Sant Cugat is not known to have more than one. For those who are curious, the "Institut cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya" has found "52 places with derivatives of Barcelona in 15 states". However, we restrict the question to not include derivations or additions to the name of Barcelona.
The homonymous toponyms that we have been able to verify:
The Venezuelan Barcelona: this is a city. At 7343 kilometers and there are five hours less than in the Catalan capital. Nobody argues that it is the best known and most populated homonym. Like this one, it is the capital of an entity with certain autonomy: the State of Anzoátegui.
The population is located in eastern Venezuela on the coastal plain at 8 meters above the Caribbean Sea level. It has a climate with low rainfall 644 mm semi-arid warm and average temperature 26.9 ° C. According to the most recent census, 424,795 people live there and the Neveri River runs through it.
It was founded in 1637 by the Catalan Joan Orpí with a longer name: "New Barcelona of the Holy Hill" it was planned that the city to be the capital of "Nueva Cataluña". The city was refounded in 1671 two kilometers south, inland, possibly to protect it from attacks by other European powers. Both the Catalan and Venezuelan Barcelona are less than 365 kilometers from Valencia (302 and 364 respectively).
Some significant monuments: the Cajigal Theater from the 19th century, the only one in the region, has been under restoration for many years and this prevents tourists from seeing it in its entirety (photo 2). Another unique space is the fourth oldest house in the city of Barcelona, which is located in Juncal Street and has housed the Anzoátegui Museum since 1960. The Plaza Boyacá in the center in honor of Simón Bolívar (photo 2) or the Cathedral of San Cristobal destroyed by an earthquake in 1648 and rebuilt in 1773 (photo 4).
Three of the Philippine Barcelonas: these are villages. At about 11,850 kilometers from Barcelona, with seven hours more than the peninsula, the Asian archipelago is full of cities with the same name as their Spanish counterparts. Not in vain when the Spaniards began the colonization (1565) there were no urban centers. Barcelona is no exception to this trend. In the region of Caraga the most populated with only 3,541 inhabitants, in the region of Bicol another with 3,258 and in the Zamboanga Peninsula one with 2,255. Information of the Philippine climate.
The Barcelona that before was a salt mine: it is a town. With four hours less than the original Barcelona in Brazil in the state of Rio Grande do Norte with about 4,000 inhabitants was renamed in 1958 although it seems that the name would come from a rubber plantation.
A town founded in 1945 in the Ecuadorian province of Santa Elena.
Eight towns in Colombia.
Other lesser territorial entities:
A neighborhood in Oranjestad, capital of Aruba (one of the four countries of the Netherlands):, not a city as Fred Van Krimpen, a Dutch colleague and owner of Elite Real Estate, kindly tells us. This is the first time that the place name has been used on American soil. The island has belonged to the Netherlands since 1636, one year before the foundation of the current Venezuelan city. The location of this old Spanish settlement is not anecdotal: at 58 meters above sea level it was an observation post.
A little division of Cornwall.
A subway division in Ecuador.
A mining county in Nevada.
In short, Barcelona -without addiction-, compared to other cities in the state, does not have many homonymous places. However, the 1992 Games were a great leap forward in its projection.
We wish you an excellent start to the year 2021!