On Saturday this newspaper dedicated a magnificent special to Passeig de Gràcia which turns 200 years old. The street is the pride of the city and for the price of its square meter it ranks 37th in the world, ahead of Madrid Highlander. It is another proof that, despite the ‘procés’ and a mayor who is reluctant to do many things, Barcelona continues to have international prestige and attracts tourism with great purchasing power. The city has overcome the difficult last 10 years and maintains, or recovers, the prestige it gained with the 92 Olympic Games promoted by Pasqual Maragall, who obtained the support of both the Generalitat of Jordi Pujol as the Government of Felipe González.
And Barcelona attracts more things than the luxury shops on Passeig de Gràcia. Today you can enjoy two great art exhibitions. The ‘Picasso-Dalí’, on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the painter from Malaga, which takes place at the same time in the two museums that the two painters have in Barcelona and which – a notable fact – were promoted by the artists themselves, and that of Antonio Lopez in Gaudí’s La Pedrera on the same Passeig de Gràcia. In addition to the much visited CaixaForum and the Museum of Art of Catalonia in Montjuïc (pending subject).
The 40th season of Ibercamera has also been inaugurated, the work of Josep María Prat that brought and continues to bring – and in some way associating – pianists like Sviatoslav Richter and Maria João Pires and directors like Valery Gergiev. Prat founded Ibercamera without any help and from nothing.
And IESE, rising three places this year, has been selected by the ‘Financial Times’ as the third best business school in Europe, after the HEC in Paris and the London Business School in London. Esade jumps from 17th to 12th place and EADA is among the top thirty.
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None of this would happen in a downhill city. Barcelona continues to count in the world, as Pasqual Maragall wanted when he together with Juan Antonio Samaranch (the city council stupidly denies him a street), they brought the ’92 Olympics.