Every year, for four days in September, locals and tourists flock to one of Barcelona’s biggest events, La Mercè Festival. It got its beginnings in 1687 when Barcelona was suffering from a plague of locusts. In desperation, city officials voted to ask for the assistance of La Mare de Déu de la Mercè (the Virgin of Mercy). Eventually, having been delivered from the pestilence, the officials named the Virgin of Mercy the patroness of Barcelona, and an annual festival has been celebrated in her honor in the city ever since.
Barcelona bids farewell to summer
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
What s cuter than nuzzling rhinos?
-
National Roller Coaster Day
-
Chapel on the rock
-
Acadia transformed
-
Sea Otter Awareness Week
-
A bridge comes full circle
-
Lace up your hiking boots for Mountain Day
-
A wetland in Västmanland, Sweden
-
National Aviation Day
-
Baltic Sea, Estonia
-
Ludwig’s palace
-
Arches National Park, Utah
-
Atolls in the Maldives
-
World Maritime Day
-
Glendurgan Garden hedge maze is 186 years old
-
Park of the Monsters, Bomarzo, Italy
-
Presidents Day
-
World Elephant Day
-
Grab onto the handlebars, kid
-
A crush in Lavaux
-
Lion cubs, South Africa
-
International Lighthouse Weekend
-
Oh, to sleep under the northern lights
-
A different kind of dive
-
Does this chameleon look a little insecure?
-
The Sky Over Nine Columns in Venice, Italy
-
Autumn comes to Old Town
-
Autumnal equinox
-
Longer days mean warmer sand
-
Relationship status: It s complicated
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

