Can you imagine walking through the first map of Barcelona, when it was just beginning to expand beyond its walls? Well, now it is possible to look not only at this map, but at all the maps of the city from its birth until today.
The Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC) has made available to everyone more than 10,000 old maps of Barcelona in high resolution, which can be viewed and downloaded for free from its digital map library.
A journey through time in Barcelona
The Cartoteca de Catalunya, created in 1985, brings together nearly 100,000 historical archives including maps, photographs, books and documents that allow you to travel not only the history of Barcelona, but also the history of Catalonia and other parts of the world.
For almost 20 years, this digital catalog has been open to the public and allows access to materials ranging from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. Among them you will find from urban plans and maritime maps to spectacular panoramic photographs and old aerial views.
One of the great advantages is that many of these documents are in the public domain, which means that they can be downloaded, saved and used freely for research, study or simply personal curiosity.
In addition, each file clearly specifies its conditions of use and copyright, which makes this map library a reference resource not only for researchers and urban planners, but also for curious people who want to discover what Barcelona was like centuries ago.
You can access the digital catalog of the Cartoteca de Catalunya here.