Barcino, Barchinona, Barcelona. Una ciutat, un bisbe, un territori

At the end of the 3rd century, Emperor Diocletian made a new territorial division of the Roman Empire: from that moment it would be divided into two demarcations, the Eastern and the Western, and each of these into dioceses and provinces. From this territorial division, the Church was gradually shaped and distributed throughout the Empire; also here, in Tarraconensis, where the capital of the province would be Tarragona (Tàrraco) and there would be some dioceses –episcopal sees– that would be established later, such as Bàrcino in the 4th century and Ègara in the 5th century.This territorial organisation –with some small changes– was maintained until 15 June 2004, when Pope John Paul II erected two new dioceses: Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Terrassa, making Barcelona a metropolitan see and these two its suffragans.Over the centuries, the parish has been and continues to be a fundamental institution in the history of the Church and of culture itself, because it has shaped the territory, the towns and the people as we know them today. Thanks to the peculiarities of each area, the map of parishes of the former diocese of Barcelona forms a rich geographical, human and cultural mosaic, a good sample of which can be seen at the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona.