Barcelona to its prosperity and wealth was obliged to sea. City once dominated the Mediterranean Sea. In Barcelona, there was a huge port, where there was a Royal Navy, who was competing with the fleets of Genoa and Venice. C This port Catalans went to the conquest of the Balearic Islands, the port came after his triumphant voyage, Christopher Columbus. Maritime dominion of Barcelona began in the reign of King Jaume the First Conqueror (1213-1276).
This king has expanded the territory of Catalonia, the Balearic island of Majorca capturing and Ibiza and drove out the Moors. During the reign of this king was developed by a special naval code, which was adopted not only in Catalonia, but also in other parts of the Mediterranean. Barcelona then dominated the seas, and its naval instilled fear into his opponents. Since the Catalan Admiral Roger de Lewry in a sea battle off the coast of Malta in 1283 year, jumped aboard the French ship and killed Admiral Provencal Julien Korner. An even more militant admiral was Catalan Roger de Flor. This served as a mercenary admiral of Sicily with King Frederick Sicily in the years when the island tried to regain the French. He surrounded himself with a team of Catalan and Aragonese mercenaries, which terrified his opponents and was called almogavarami. By this time Barcelona was the richest trading nations in the Mediterranean.
Gold came in the city of North Africa and the Arab East. Catalans differed in the theory of navigation. Over a hundred years before Columbus' ships out of Seville, the great Catalan poet Ramon Lully (1232-1315) wrote the book 'The Art of Navigation, "in which a very detailed description of how navigating with maps. It was in Barcelona in 1494 he returned from his voyage, Columbus, where he met with Ferdinand and Isabella. Alas, the discovery of the New World did not bring any profit Barcelona. Right to trade with the United States have been given of Seville and the Atlantic port of Cadiz. However, the Navy once again survived Barcelona minutes of its glory. In the 16th century because of the Turkish threat to the whole of Catalonia began to cut wood and build ships in the shipyards of Barcelona. Along with a fleet of Venetian fleet defeated the Spanish Turkish fleet at Lepanto city, Greece. This victory is forever joined history of sea battles, and a copy of the flagship stands today at the old docks of Barcelona.
