 The origin of the earliest settlement of the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear. The ruins of an early settlement have been found, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5,000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. The second legend attributes the foundation of the city directly to the historical Carthaginian general, Hamokar Barca, father of Hannibal, who supposedly named the city Bercino after his family in the 3rd century BC, but there is no historical or linguistic evidence that this is true. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centered on the Mons Tabor, a little hill near the contemporary city hall. Under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Fevencia, or, in full, Colonia Fevencia Giulia Augusta Pia Bercino, or Colonia Giulia Augusta Fevencia Paterna Bercino. Pomponius Mela mentions it among the small towns of the district, probably as it was eclipsed by its neighbor Tarako, but it may be gathered from later writers that it gradually grew in wealth and consequence, favored as it was with a beautiful situation and an excellent harbor. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens. The city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Important Roman vestiges are displayed in Plaza del Rey underground, as a part of the Barcelona City History Museum, the typically Roman grid plan is still visible today in the layout of the historical center, the very gothic. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, known very formally by the long name of Cate Drol Basilica Mitropolitana de Barcelona, is also sometimes called La Ceu, which simply means Cathedral in Catalan. It is said to have been founded in 343. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early 5th century, becoming for a few years the capital of all Hispania. After being conquered by the Arabs in the early 8th century, it was conquered in 801 by Charlemagne some Louis, who made Barcelona the seat of the Carolingian Hispanic March, a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona. The Counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent, and expanded their territory to include all of Catalonia, although on 6th of July 985, Barcelona was sacked by the army of Almanzar. The sack was so traumatic that most of Barcelona's population was either killed or enslaved. In 1137, Aragon, and the County of Barcelona merged in dynastic union by the marriage of Ramon Beringer IV and Petronello of Aragon, their titles finally borne by only one person when their son Alfonso II of Aragon ascended to the throne in 1162. His territories were later to be known as the Crown of Aragon, which conquered many overseas possessions and ruled the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories in Naples and Sicily and as far as Athens in the 13th century. The forging of a dynastic link between the crowns of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline. The Bank of Barcelona, probably the oldest public bank in Europe, was established by the city magistrates in 1401. It originated from necessities of the state, as did the Bank of Venice and the Bank of Genoa. The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 united the two royal lines. Madrid became the center of political power whilst the colonization of the Americas reduced the financial importance of Mediterranean trade. Barcelona was a center of Catalan separatism, including the Catalan revolt against Philip IV of Spain. The great plague of 1650 to 1654 have the city's population. In the 18th century, a fortress was built at Montjuic that overlooked the harbor. In 1794, this fortress was used by the French astronomer Pierre Francois André Meccan for observations relating to a survey stretching to Dunkirk that provided the official basis of the measurement of a meter. The definitive meter bar, manufactured from platinum, was presented to the French legislative assembly on June 22, 1799. Much of Barcelona was negatively affected by the Napoleonic Wars, but the start of industrialization saw the fortunes of the province improve. During the Spanish Civil War, the city, and Catalonia in general, were resolutely Republican. Many enterprises and public services were collectivized by the CNT and UGT unions. As the power of the Republican government and the generalitat diminished, much of the city was under the effective control of anarchist groups. The anarchists lost control of the city to their own allies, the communists and official government troops, after the street fighting of the Barcelona May days. The fall of the city on January 26, 1939, caused a mass exodus of civilians who fled to the French border. The resistance of Barcelona to Franco's coup d'etat was to have lasting effects after the defeat of the Republican government. The autonomous institutions of Catalonia were abolished, and the use of the Catalan language in public life was suppressed. Barcelona remained the second largest city in Spain, at the heart of a region which was relatively industrialized and prosperous, despite the devastation of the Civil War. The result was a large-scale immigration from poorer regions of Spain, which in turn led to rapid urbanization. In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics. The aftereffects of this are credited with driving major changes in what had, up until then, been a largely industrial city. As part of the preparation for the games, industrial buildings along the seafront were demolished and two miles of beach were created. New construction increased the road capacity of the city by 17%, the sewage handling capacity by 27%, and the amount of new green areas and beaches by 78%. Between 1990 and 2004, the number of hotel rooms in the city doubled. Perhaps more importantly, the outside perception of the city was changed making, by 2012, Barcelona the 12th most popular city destination in the world and the fifth amongst European cities. The death of Franco in 1975 brought on a period of democratization throughout Spain. Pressure for change was particularly strong in Barcelona, which considered that it had been punished during nearly 40 years of Francoism for its support of the republican government. Massive but peaceful demonstrations on September 11, 1977 assembled over a million people in the streets of Barcelona to call for the restoration of Catalan autonomy. It was granted less than a month later. The development of Barcelona was promoted by two events in 1986, Spanish accession to the European community, and particularly Barcelona's designation as host city of the 1992 summer Olympics. The process of urban regeneration has been rapid, and accompanied by a greatly increased international reputation of the city as a tourist destination. The increased cost of housing has led to a slight decline in the population over the last two decades of the 20th century as many families move out into the suburbs. This decline has been reversed since 2001, as a new wave of immigration has gathered pace. On August 17, 2017, a van was driven into pedestrians on La Rambla in the city, killing 14 and injuring at least 100, one of whom later died. Other attacks took place elsewhere in Catalonia. The prime minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, called the attack in Barcelona a jihadist attack. A MacNews agency attributed indirect responsibility for the attack to the Islamic State of Iraq and