L'Hospitalet de Llobregat is a small but very densely populated city in the northeast of Spain, just southwest of Barcelona. Located in Catalonia, it is the second largest city of the autonomous region. The area has been settled since the Neolithic era and Roman influence was also strong in the area with a number of artefacts dating back from the second century BC having been found.
The city became important in the nineteenth century when the textile industry started to take off in the region. Until then, the city had very much kept the atmosphere of a village. The population boomed again in the 1960s and afterwards as many people moved to the town to live there, coming from poorer parts of Spain. Today, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat has a diverse culture, with 22% of its population having been born outside of Spain, mostly coming from other Spanish-speaking areas of the world.
The historic centre of the city is home to many cultural and historic buildings including the Can Sumarro library and the History museum and the cultural centre, Barradas. The centre is adjacent to the districts of Can Serra and Sanfeliu to the north with Bellvitge to the south.
