Badalona is a city on the Catalan coast, ten kilometres to the north of Barcelona, with five kilometres of beaches. The city covers an area of 8.7 square kilometres and the municipal district an area of 21 square kilometres. Badalona has a population of 220,000 and a population density of 9,500 inhabitants per square kilometre, which makes it the third largest city in Catalonia.

The origins of the city go back 2,000 years to the Roman period, when it was founded in around 100 BC on the site of former Iberian settlements. The Romans landed in Empúries in 218 BC and in around the 1st century BC they laid a series of urban foundations that included Baetulum (Badalona), which in time would become the most thriving town in Laietania. The city reached its period of greatest splendour, with 15,000 inhabitants, towards the end of the 1st century BC, thanks to the prosperity obtained from its vineyards and its wine exports to much of the western Roman empire. There are still vineyards and wineries that produce high-quality wines with the Alella, denomination of origin. Though it does not strictly include the municipality of Badalona, this region extends to the municipalities bordering on it and to the neighbouring county of the Maresme.

Most archaeological remains found in the excavations belong to this period, and can be visited in the basement of the City Museum.

The economic progress of Catalonia based on the specialisation of farming and trade with America in the 18th century laid the bases for the industrial revolution and for the second great stage of growth of the city of Badalona, which became one of the most industrial cities in Catalonia and Spain, as it still is today.

The arrival of the railway in 1848 with the construction of the first line in Spain between Mataró and Barcelona was a great spur to industry, as was the demographic pressure of Barcelona, which led some factories to move to Badalona. The main economic sectors that developed were textiles, foodstuffs and chemicals. However, in the course of the 20th century the industry became more diversified to include metal and capital goods, in addition to a construction sector linked to the strong growth in the city’s population as immigrants arrived to work in industry.

From the 1973 oil crisis to the 1980s the large-scale industries were gradually replaced by smaller service firms based on outsourcing. Some companies in Badalona closed and others transferred production out of the area due to the lack of industrial land and demographic and social pressure on the most polluting industries. The arrival of democracy made it possible to carry out a series of urban development products aimed at remodelling an area that had grown chaotically. All these factors marked the beginning of a definitive change in the profile of the city that is now culminating with new urban development projects and infrastructures.

Today, as in all Western cities, the service sector is predominant in Badalona, though it still has a great deal of industry compared with other Catalan cities. The opening of the Montigalà estate in the 1980s, and the Les Guixeres estate and the Granland Business Park in the last two years, have favoured the location of a significant number of new distribution companies, large supermarkets and industrial firms.

The city of Badalona is also the home of:

The DKV Joventut de Badalona basketball club ,founded in 1930 with the name Penya Spirit of Badalona, which achieved its greatest success in 1991 as European champion.

The Teatre Zorrilla a theatre that opened on 31 October 1868. It is an Italian-style theatre with three floors and a capacity for 450 persons that is suitable for a wide variety of shows. Since it was reopened to the public on 22 February 1999, it has offered a stable programme of theatre, music and dance, and is the headquarters of the Scenic Arts Centre of Badalona.

The Professional Music Conservatory, which was opened in the late 19th century as a private school of music. In 1915 the City Council agreed to create the first Municipal School of Music and in 1980 it became a Professional Conservatory. In 1991 the School of Music Modern and Jazz was created in order to widen the range of musical education in the city. At present the Conservatory has 52 teachers and over 500 students.

The International Olof Palme Foundation, which was created in 1989 in homage to Olof Palme to provide support to his main objectives: peace, disarmament, human rights and the solidarity with developing countries.

 

The Sea School, the School of Marine Studies of Badalona, which was founded in 1987 with the mission of maintaining Badalona's links with the sea. The goals of the Sea School are to teach the biology and ecology of the Mediterranean sea and, through this knowledge, to activate attitudes of respect towards the sea, in addition to recovering, maintaining and disseminating the historical memory of Badalona as a city with a maritime tradition: fishing, rope-making, sailing and leisure activities on the beach are a few examples of this.

The Museum of Badalona, built on the thermal baths of the Roman city of Baetulum, which were discovered in 1954. It was opened in 1966 and allows visitors to see the remains of the Roman city and the thermal baths, which are located below ground level. On the ground floor there is a permanent exhibition that explains the first dwellings found in Badalona (prehistoric, iron age and Iberian) and the history and characteristics of Roman Baetulum, including outstanding exhibits such as Les Pollegueres, the Venus of Badalona, and the Tabula hospitalis.

The Museum also has a very rich collection of archaeological materials from the excavations that it carries out, and it has a great variety of objects from other periods that bear witness to the city's history. In the museum it is also possible to consult the image archive and the historic archive, which conserve the municipal documentation up to 1945, in addition to archives from other sources (companies, entities and private individuals of Badalona).