Catalonia has been settled by the Phoenicians, the Etruscans and the Greeks, who were mainly in the coastal areas of Rosas and Empuries (above). Then came the Romans, who built more settlements and infrastructure. Catalonia remained a part of the Roman Empire until it was conquered by the Visigoths in the fifth century.

Catalonia was conquered by Arabs in 711 AD. The Frankish king Charlemagne stopped their advance at Tours on the Loire River and, by 759, the north of Catalonia was once again Christian. In 1137, the counties that made up Catalonia entered an alliance with the Crown of Aragon.

In the 13th century, the institutions of Catalan self-administration were created under the banner of the Generalitat de Catalunya. After the unification of the Crown of Aragon with that of Castile in 1476, Aragon was largely able to keep its autonomic institutions. However, the Catalan revolt — from 1640 to 1659 — saw parts of Catalonia ceded to present-day France.

After the conquest of Barcelona on September 11, 1714, by the Bourbon King Phillip V, Catalan instuitutions were dissolved and self-administration came to an end. Every year, on September 11, Catalans commemorate the end of their right to autonomy.

After the abdication of King Amadeo I of Spain, the first Spanish Republic was declared in February 1873. It lasted barely a year. The supporters of the Republic were split – one group supporting the idea of a centralized republic, the others wanting a federal system. Pictured here is Francisco Pi i Maragall, a supporter of federalism and one of five presidents of the short-lived republic.

Catalonia sought to establish a new state within the Spanish republic, but this only served to exacerbate the differences between republicans, ultimately dividing and weakening them. In 1874, the monarchy and the House of Bourbon (led by King Alfonso XII, pictured here) took the helm.

Between 1923 — with the support of the monarchy, the army and the church — General Primo de Rivera declared a dictatorship. Catalonia became a center of opposition and resistance. After the end of the dictatorship, the politician Francesc Macia (pictured here) successfully pressed for important rights of autonomy for Catalonia.

In the Second Spanish Republic, Catalan lawmakers worked on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. This was approved by the Spanish parliament in 1932. Francesc Macia was elected president of the Generalitat of Catalonia by the Catalan parliament. However, the victory of Franco at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) put an end to all that.

The Franco regime ruled with an iron rod. Political parties were banned and the Catalan language and culture were surpressed.

After the first parliamentary elections that followed the end of the Franco dictatorship, the Generalitat of Catalonia was provisionally restored. Under the democratic Spanish constitution of 1978, Catalonia was given a new Statute of Autonomy just a year later.

The new Statute of Autonomy recognized the autonomy of Catalonia and the importance of the Catalan language. In comparison to the 1932 statute, it was enhanced in the fields of culture and education but curtailed when it came to the realm of justice. Pictured here is Jordi Pujol, the long-time head of the government of Catalonia after the dictatorship.

A desire for independence has grown stronger in recent years. In 2006, Catalonia was given a new statute that broadened the Catalan government's powers. However, it lost these after a complaint by the conservative Popular Party to the Constitutional Court of Spain.

A referendum on independence was already envisaged for November 9, 2014. The first question was "Do you want Catalonia to become a state?" In the case of an affirmative answer, the second question was posed: "Do you want this state to be independent?" However, the Constitutional Court suspended the vote.

Since January 2016, Carles Puigdemont has been president of the Catalan government. He proceeded with the separatist course of his predecessor Artur Mas and called the new referendum for October 1, 2017. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed this as unconstitutional.

Last year's terrorist attacks, which killed 15 people and injured some 130, shook the Catalonian region to its core. Those who were wounded or witnessed the attack continue to harbor the traumas to this day. "The van passed by me and from there I saw everything ... people flew into the air like broken dolls, I was paralyzed, there were many people bleeding," said witness Ana Cortes.

A year on from the attacks, thousands gathered to see the families of the victims lay down wreaths on the scene of the attack. The emotional ceremony saw the crowd recite John Lennon's Imagine and read poetry in different languages.

Spanish King Felipe IV attended the commemorative ceremony with his wife Queen Letizia. While the country's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has sought to diffuse tensions between Madrid and Barcelona following last year's independence drive, the King made an unusual political intervention during his speech Friday to decry the Catalan separatist movement.

Despite calls from victims' families not to politicize Friday's commemoration, the deep rift between Barcelona and Madrid was always bound to rear its head. Several separatists boycotted the ceremony on the Placa de Catalunya due to the King's appearance, staging their own commemorative marches instead.

On August 17, 2017, Moroccan national Younes Abouyaaqoub, aged 22, ploughed a van into hundreds of pedestrians on Barcelona's famed Las Ramblas boulevard, before fleeing the van just of the Placa de Catalunya. During his escape, Abouyaaqoub stabbed to death a 34-year-old man as he was parking and stole the car.

Just hours later, five of Abouyaaqoub's accomplices stabbed a woman to death and injured six others in the coastal town of Cambrils, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Barcelona. All five attackers were shot dead by police in the ensuing manhunt. The so-called "Islamic State" (IS) terror group claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Four days after the attacks, Abouyaaqoub was shot dead by police in the town of Subirats, around 40 km (25 miles) from Barcelona. A police officer said that the killed suspect was wearing an explosive belt during the shootout.

Spanish authorities arrested a further four men in connection with the attacks —including the owner of the car used in the Cambrils attack and the brother of one of the killed terror suspects. Two of the detained remain in custody and face terrorism and murder charges, while the others have been released but are barred from leaving the country.

No stranger to the threat of terrorism, Spain tried to quickly readjust following the attacks, boosting security and restricting vehicle access to busy streets. Barcelona's tourism sector took a major hit in the aftermath of the attacks, which were followed by a controversial independence referendum. However, the city is set to retain its place as one of the most visited European cities in 2018.