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Catalan theme park PortAventura hopes to reach 5 million visitors anually within the next few years

CNA

Investindustrial, PortAventura’s only shareholder since last November, will invest €75 million in enlarging the park’s facilities within the next five years. The amusement park, located in the Costa Daurada in Southern Catalonia, near Salou and Tarragona, has already been enlarged over the last few years adding the water park Caribe Aquatic next to the beach and several adjacent hotel resorts. Furthermore, the Italian group will change the park’s brand to: ‘PortAventura: European Destination Resort’. Investindustrial aim to reach 5 million visitors per year, half of which will come from abroad. As a start, the Italian group is investing €10 million in new projects for this new season, which will kick off on the 22nd of March.

March 14, 2013 10:27 PM

Unique fifth century well-preserved tombstone lid on show in a Catalan coastal town

CNA / Jordi Pujolar / Elise Griset

Extraordinary 5th century Early Christian tombstone lid on show, in Mataró, a Coastal town some 30 km north of Barcelona. It is a unique archaeological piece in Spain, which was found in one piece, with a cross in relief at the head. It needed to be restored and is now on show, placed in the old baptistery of Mataró’s Santa Maria Basilica. This piece is one of the first examples of the consolidation of Christianity at a local level after the last Roman period. It was found in 1958, was then exhibited in a local museum, but afterwards it ended up in the church’s crypt and deteriorated.

March 8, 2013 07:36 PM

Catalan El Celler de Can Roca, the world’s second best restaurant, to publish a book on its 25-year history

CNA/ Clara Roig Medina

The Catalan three-Michelin-star restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, considered over the last two years as the second best in the world by the British magazine ‘Restaurant’, will publish a book about its 25-year history this spring. The volume will include illustrations of 90 detailed recipes and a catalogue of its 240 most outstanding meals The Roca brothers’ cuisine is famous for its free-style, avant-garde techniques and an re-interpretation of traditional Catalan cuisine. The English edition will be published by Librooks.

March 5, 2013 08:49 PM

The 18th Global Mobile Awards recognize Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Google’s Android and Nexus 7

Karina Reinhard

This week the GSMA Mobile World Congress is in full swing in Barcelona. From the 25th to the 28th of February the MWC has opened its gates to more than 70,000 participants. On Tuesday, the 18th edition of Global Mobile Awards took place in the Catalan capital. The Android system and software was acclaimed for its role in the current mobile technology and in this regard the Samsung Galaxy S III won best Smartphone and Nexus 7 the best Tablet. 32 prices in six different categories were awarded to advances in mobile technology of several companies.

February 27, 2013 07:21 PM

Cowboys, criminals and superheroes: the main attractions at the 31st edition of the Barcelona International Comic Fair

CNA / Margalida Amengual / Rosa Soto

This year’s edition of the Catalan comic exhibition has chosen Westerns as one of its main themes but also includes retrospective exhibitions of superheroes like 'Superman', 'The Avengers' and the 'X-Men'. Another focus of the Comic Fair is the presence of authors and cartoonists from last year’s edition along with different types of conferences and cultural and artistic activities. International artists such as Manu Lacernet, Guy Delisle, Liniers and Lorena Canottiere have confirmed their participation at the event which will be held from the 11th to the 14th of April.

February 19, 2013 09:06 PM

Sitges celebrates Carnival in style with colourful and wild parades

Carlota Guerra

The Sitges Carnival is one of the best-known in Spain. Its spectacular nature, alongside with the crowded parades and the dedication of the entire city to this festival, make thousands of tourists and people from all over Catalonia visit the city and enjoy its Carnival. For a week, the whole town dresses up and organises activities that include parades, parties, races or balls, where adults and children have fun together. This year, more than 300,000 people joined the villagers in the celebration of Sitges’ most important holiday.

February 13, 2013 09:15 PM

Works begin at Tarragona’s Paleochristian Necropolis, the most important one of the Western Mediterranean

CNA / Arnaouti Stavroula

Restoration works of this UNESCO World Heritage site are expected to end in May, at a cost of €225,000 and after 14 weeks. The Paleochristian cemetery of Tarragona is mostly a third century funerary site, although it also contains ruins dating between the first (Roman times) and seventh century (Visigoth period). It is located in the city’s suburbs, near the Francolí River. It is the most important cemetery of the Western Mediterranean and due to its importance and uniqueness, the City Hall has decided to make it accessible to the public again. The space has remained closed since 1992.

February 11, 2013 09:23 PM

Samuel Aranda: “Being a photojournalist has taught me that not everything is what it seems”

Laia Ros

CNA interviews Samuel Aranda, the Catalan photographer who eighteen months ago leapt to fame by winning the World Press Photo competition, the most important award in photojournalism thanks to a shot that would become the symbol of the Arab Spring: Fatima cradling her son Zayed, who was suffering from the effects of tear gas after participating in a demonstration in Yemen. However even after reaching such heady heights, Aranda hasn’t stopped working as his controversial photo essay for the New York Times about the extent of the Spanish economic crisis shows.

February 4, 2013 04:03 PM

20% increase of Catalan caviar sales produced by Caviar Nacarii, from the Pyrenees

CNA / Elise Griset

The Catalan brand sold 812 kilograms of caviar in 2012, all being produced in the Vall d’Aran County, in the north-western corner of Catalonia, in the middle of the Pyrenees. The sales increase is due to the growth in the international sales of its product. The 2012 main market has been Russia but now they are trying to introduce its caviar to Sweden and Taiwan. Therefore, they will be present in 10 countries in Europe and Asia. Besides caviar, the company also sold 7.5 tons of sturgeon meat which represents a 7% rise over the previous year.

February 1, 2013 08:56 PM

Girona offers ten-euro hotel rooms and restaurant menus this weekend for the second year in a row

CNA / Tania Tapia / Carla Marchesi

On the 26th and 27th of January, Girona celebrates the second edition of #Girona10. This low-cost tourist event consists of offering hotel rooms and restaurant menus for €10 in and around the city. It was created last January in order to promote this northeast Catalan city and is aimed at both local and foreign tourism. The 2012 #Girona10 project was hugely successful, and the website where people could register quickly collapsed. This fact has led the organisers to think about a new hotel room distribution model, based on a lottery. Also due to last January’s success, this year the campaign offers 40% more hotel spots and 25% more menus than last year, while other institutions and activities have been added to the event providing new services.

January 24, 2013 08:36 PM

Horses, ponies and carriages brave the rain at Barcelona’s 'Tres Tombs' parade

CNA / Ana Macías

The 188th edition of the traditional ‘Tres Tombs’ animal parade, in honour of Saint Anthony the Abbot, took place in Barcelona last weekend. In Catalonia, he is the patron saint of the animals. The parade includes a blessing of pets ceremony. Traffic was stopped in the main streets of the Catalan capital’s Ciutat Vella district and in the Sant Antoni neighbourhood to give way to another kind of vehicles: donkeys, ponies, horses and old carriages. Although a popular festivity, this year’s 'Tres Tombs' couldn’t keep a hold on its audience as the cloudy morning became a very rainy day.

January 21, 2013 09:08 PM

Former FC Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola to train Bayern Munich until 2016

CNA

The Catalan Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola has reached an agreement with FC Bayern München to manage the football team as from next season until 2016. Finally, after rumours circulated pairing him with Manchester City and Chelsea, Guardiola has chosen the German club for its way of understanding football, which is much closer to the Catalan’s own approach based on attacking, playing nicely and working with home-grown players. Pep Guardiola quit FC Barcelona in June to take a year’s sabbatical, and moved to New York with his family. He will replace Jupp Heynckes, who is retiring at the end of the current season, in Munich.

January 17, 2013 09:25 PM

The most magical night for children in Catalonia

CNA

All towns in Catalonia welcome the arrival of the Three Wise Men on the 5th of January. Children and parents gather on the streets throughout the country to greet the Kings from the East in an enormous display of colour, sweets and presents that cannot fail to delight everyone. The Three Wise Men often travel by camel, but they have also been known to visit some towns using floats, classic cars, boats or even helicopters! Catalan children are very excited that night, because this is the “magical night” on which they traditionally receive their big Christmas presents – although some also get presents from other magic figures such as Santa or the very Catalan tradition of the ‘caga tió’ on the 24th of December.

January 4, 2013 09:26 PM

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