Central Catalan (Catalan: català central; IPA: [kətəˈɫa sənˈtɾaɫ]) is the Eastern Catalan dialect with the highest number of speakers, since it is commonly spoken in densely populated areas such as the whole Barcelona province, the eastern half of Tarragona province and most of the Girona province, except for it is northern part, where a transition to Northern Catalan begins.

This variety (when free of localisms from Barcelona, Tarragona or Girona) is perceived by most Catalans as the standard form in Catalonia. As such, it is the variety used in most written and audiovisual media, as well as in learning materials.

Excerpt from the Parable of the Prodigal Son extracted from the works of 19th-century linguist Manuel Milà i Fontanals, who wrote extensively about Catalan dialectal differences:

Un home només tenia dos fills. El més jove va dir al seu pare: "Ja és hora que sigui el meu propi amo i que tingui cèntims; me n'he [me n'haig] d'anar a veure món. Partiu la vostra herència i doneu-me el que em toqui".
"Ai, fill meu", va dir el pare, "com vulguis; ets un dolent i Déu et castigarà". I després va obrir un calaix, va partir la seva herència i va fer-ne [en va fer] dues parts.
Al cap d'uns quants dies, el dolent se'n va anar del poble molt tibat i sense dir adéu a ningú. Va travessar molta terra ferma, molts boscs i molts rius, i va arribar a una gran ciutat on [a on] va gastar tots els cèntims.

Rafael Guastavino Moreno (Valencia, Spain, 1842 – Asheville, North Carolina 1908) was a Valencian architect and builder, and the creator of the Guastavino tile, a "Tile Arch System" patented in the United States in 1885. It is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar. Guastavino tile is found in some of New York's most prominent Beaux-Arts landmarks and in major buildings across the United States.

Guastavino was an architect in his own right, but he is more important for his patented tiling system which is used in a huge number of architecturally important and famous buildings, which derive their flexibly vaulted spaces from his unique vaulting. Fame did not come to him because he served as a contractor and not the principal architect of most of these projects.

In 1881 he came to New York City from Barcelona, with his youngest son, nine-year-old Rafael III. In Spain he had been an accomplished architect trained in Barcelona and was a contemporary of Antoni Gaudi. In the United States his first major commission, of McKim, Mead, and White's Boston Public Library (1889), made him known to every major architect on the East Coast. His published drawings of interior decoration of the Spanish Renaissance style caught the eye of an architect, who asked him to submit a design for the planned New York Progress Club building. After forming a partnership with William Blodgett, he eventually was offered a construction position in 1890 with George W. Vanderbilt to construct arches for the new mansion, Biltmore at Asheville, North Carolina.