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
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First day of National Park Week
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Diamond Beach, Iceland
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World Population Day
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The old guard at Old San Juan
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An iris garden in Tokyo, Japan
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Mackerel forming a bait ball to avoid predators
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Unbearable cuteness
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The mountaintop of toppled gods
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Women s suffrage at 100
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Brown-throated three-toed sloth in cecropia tree, Costa Rica
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Endangered Species Day
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A peek at an explosive peak
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Welcome to my neck of the woods
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World Teachers Day
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Mysterious prairie mounds abound
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World Meerkat Day
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Happy Fourth of July!
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Celebrating Take Your Dog to Work Day
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Mount Sopris, Colorado
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Here’s looking at you, teachers
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A big birthday for Big Bend
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National Library Week
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Pont Alexandre III, Paris, France
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Apples ready for harvest in Minnesota
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Old City of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia, Croatia
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A. M. Foster Bridge in Cabot, Vermont
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Monet still makes an impression
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Hippo family in Chobe National Park, Botswana
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Earth Day and National Park Week
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Green is the new black
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

