CATALONIA. HISTORY AND CULTURE

Catalonia has been one of the major success stories of the last 25 years. Emerging from the dark days of the Franco dictatorship, wh en Catalan was once banned in public places, Catalonia has staked a claim as a dynamic European region with its own autonomous gover nment, and a language policy which is the envy of many other minority languages across Europe. With the Olympic Games in 1992, Barce lona became synonymous with a stylish, modern approach to combining great public projects with private sector entrepreneurship.