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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World Lion Day
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The largest living organism on Earth
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World Sea Turtle Day
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An enduring vision
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Misool Island, Indonesia
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Dreaming of the Tyrrhenian Sea
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I ll call for pen and ink
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Balloons and camels are two ways to catch a ride here
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Tesla, the visionary
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Take a break! It s Labor Day!
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Water colors
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Roques de Benet, Els Ports Natural Park, Catalonia, Spain
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Gamboa Crater, Mars
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Wildebeest on the move
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Beyond Walls for World Refugee Day
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A. M. Foster Bridge in Cabot, Vermont
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Sounds of Bach come to Bath
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Children at play for International Day of Friendship
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Wild turkeys in repose
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Homeward bound
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Happy Boxing Day!
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Pretty poetic for a pit
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Giants of the avian world
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Lucian Blaga National Theater, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
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Too awesome to be a planet
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Teacher Appreciation Day
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Making it work—in Norway
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Jackie Robinson Day
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Eye of the cave
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National Park Week: Olympic National Park, Washington