Utrecht & Two Cities

Why Barcelona? Why Prague?

Dazzling Barcelona and mysterious Prague will be the guestcities of the 2012 edition of City2Cities. Two apparent opposites with one important similarity: an unmistakable literary identity. Both Prague and Barcelona have vibrant literary scenes which make them the centres of the Czech and Spanish literature. Not only are the streets of Barcelona and Prague bursting with literary references, the cities themselves also play important roles in literary works. The novels of writers like Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Eduardo Mendoza would be unimaginable without Barcelona being presented as the décor and even as a character in their books. And who could read Franz Kafka’s work without recognizing the secretive atmosphere of Prague? It is this combination of literature in the city and the city in the literature which make Prague and Barcelona excellent guestcities of C2C 2012.