Gothic is not necessarily the architectural style which comes to mind first when talking about Barcelona. You rather associate the capital of Catalunya with the Modernismo movement, the local version of Jugendstil and in general with the beginning of the 20th century. However, the city of Barcelona is older. Much older, in fact. It was founded as Barcino in the times of the Roman empire and was an important city at the Mediterranean sea throughout the middle ages. Therefore, as the rest of Europe during the middle ages, it was influenced largely by the Gothic style of architecture. There is some of it still left in the city, particularly the magnificent old Cathedral in the city center of Barcelona.