The stellar populations of the bars of barred spirals through evolutionarysynthesis: First results

As part of an ongoing project aimed at studying the age and metallicity gra dients of the stellar populations along the bars of a sample of barred spir als of different morphological types, we present our first results on NGC 4 314 (SBa). We have obtained optical and NIR colours and spectral indices al ong the bar and we interpret some of these results here and discuss their u ncertainties on the basis of single stellar population models. In a prelimi nary analysis, we constrain the limits for the age and metallicity of the n ucleus and two selected regions in the star formation ring of NGC 4314, cha racterizing both as metal rich (Z > Z(solar)) stellar populations, and find ing a difference in the mean luminosity-weighted age of at least similar to 3-4 Gyr.