Barcelona (2) The Old City

The Old City from the Romans to Picasso

Barcelona

We took a ‘city break’ in Barcelona in March 2008. As a Covid lockdown project I have reconstructed our visit from guide books, memory and most importantly my photographs and Lynne’s diary. The second of three posts, this concentrates on the Old City, (La Ciutat Vella) and follows the geography and history of the city rather than the chronology of our visit, which was from Tues 25-Mar-2008 to Sat 29-Mar-2008

The Districts of Barcelona (the map has been turned, the coastline actually runs SW to NE)
The work of Vinals Reproduced under CreativeCommons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Staying in the heart of the Old city had clear advantages but there were disadvantages, too. Barcelona is a party town; the revelry varies with the day of the week but can continue until late and a single-glazed third floor window is no defence. An hour or two after the party goers have gone, the refuse men arrive, clattering a sequence of metal bins right around the square. Sleeping can be problematic.

El Barri Gótic

Plaça de Sant Jaume

On the Friday we essayed The Lonely Planet walking tour of Old Barcelona. It a starts in the Plaça de Sant Jaume, the heart of the Barri Gótic. The lay-out here is medieval, but the square lies over most of the Roman forum so this was also the heart of Roman Barcino.

It retains its importance in modern Barcelona with the offices of the presidency of the Catalan regional government, the Palau de la Generalitat, facing the municipal government, the Ajuntament, across the square.

The Palau de la Generalitat, Plaça de Sant Jaume

My next photograph was in the Carrer dels Cotoners (Cotton Street), 200m in the wrong direction for the walk, but it is a pleasing example of the barri’s narrow alleys. I think we wandered in search of gifts to take home, many of these streets are lined with small shops selling artisan food and arty crafty stuff. We certainly acquired some slices of orange in chocolate and several small walnut/fig/toffee cakes from somewhere.

Carrer dels Cotoners, Barcelona

Sinagoga Major

Back on the suggested path we walked through the ancient Jewish Quarter. Crammed into these narrow alleys the significance of individual buildings becomes obscured, but the building on the left below is the Sinagoga Major.

Sinagoga Major, Barcelona

The original structure dates from the 3rd or 4th century. Whether it was built as a synagogue is unknown, but as it is aligned differently from its neighbours and the end wall points towards Jerusalem, it is possible. If so, it had been a synagogue for over a thousand years before the massacre of Barcelona’s Jews in 1391 brought about its closure. The building was used for other purposes and its existence as a synagogue was forgotten. The process of rediscovery started in the 1980s and it reopened as a synagogue in 2002.

Continuing the walk, we reached the church of Santa Maria de Pi, but repair work had surrounded it with fencing and swathed it in green netting.

Roman Tombs in the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid

The next place of interest was the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid. Lynne hated the Plaça, her description making the surroundings sound decidedly tacky. While writing this account, I took an on-line drive round, which is not the same as being there, but it looked a small, pleasant urban green space. Maybe it has changed.

What we both liked – and has not changed - was the excavation of a large group of Roman tombs beside the green (though Lynne berated the design of the viewing platform). The Romans generally buried their dead along the roadsides outside their cities. Walking from Santa Maria de Pi we had left the Roman city and were now on what is believed to be the spur joining Barcino to the Via Augustus the great Roman road running the length of Hispania from Cadiz to the Pyrenees.

Roman graves, in the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid

We abandoned the walk at this point. We had expected March in Barcelona to be warmer than March in Staffordshire, but on this day it wasn’t. We felt the need to return to our hotel and don another layer of clothing.

Back outside it was still cold, so we popped into the Taverna del Bisbe, the Bishop’s Tavern, on the cathedral square though not owned or run by the bishop - a shame, 'barista in mitre' would make a good photo. It was crowded, noisy, warm and sold coffee, all of which met a need.

The Plaça del Rei, Casa Padellàs, King Martin's Watchtower and Roman Barcino

Thus fortified we decided to go directly to the end of the walk, without passing go or collecting 200 Euros. The Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA) was inaugurated in 1943 and now is responsible for 16 sites around the city, ranging from the Roman burials at Plaça de la Vila de Madrid to a civil war air raid shelter, but its first and most important site is Plaça del Rei.

On the edge of the Gothic quarter, bounded on one side by the city’s Roman Wall, Plaça del Rei is surrounded by the former royal palace, the state archives, the Casa Padellàs and the Mirador de Rei Marti (King Martin’s Watchtower). The mirador, a strange bookshelf of a building, was built by Martin I (Martin the Humane), King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia and Corsica and Count of Barcelona. He ruled from 1356 to 1410 adding King of Sicily to his portfolio in his final year. In the 15th century it was believed, at least by the locals, to be the tallest building in the world.

King Martin's Watchtower, left, and the entrance to the Royal Palace (right)

Opposite the Mirador is the Casa Padellàs, which has a fine example of a medieval courtyard and was moved here brick by brick in 1931 from just outside the Roman Wall. For all the glories above ground it is the lift that takes you down to the most important part of the museum. Descending through the building’s steal underpinnings, the display normally showing the floors, here shows the centuries. After descending 20 of them the lift stops at the level of 1st century Barcino.

Walkways led through the excavated Roman city, past a laundry, dyeing works, wine makers, fish salters, garum makers and shops that would have sold this produce.

Roman Barcino beneath the Casa Padellàs

Friday afternoon is not relevant to this post - it pops up elsewhere. In the evening we dined at El Café d’En Victor next-door to the Taverna del Bisbe. It was cheap and cheerful, which suited our mood.

Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran

Warmed by a good dinner and a glass or two of Empordà, the café’s excellent house wine, we made our way back towards the Plaça del Rei. This time we approached from outside the Roman walls across the Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran. Ramon Berenguer III (son of RB II, father or RB IV) known as the Great was Count of Barcelona 1086-1131.

The wall is high and forbidding. There is also a tower which frequently appears in image searches for the ‘St Martin’s Watchtower’. Google maps clearly mark the ‘bookcase’ as the watchtower, so in the absence of any other confirmation I have gone with that.

Tower and Roman wall, Barcelona

On the other side of the wall in the Plaça del Rei there was traditional music and dancing. If only it had been a little warmer….

Plaça del Rei in the evening

Picasso

The Picasso Museum is outside the Barri Gótic, 200m beyond the Roman wall, but still well within the Old City. We walked there earlyish on Thursday morning (by tourist standards) and found a queue had already formed. It moved along quickly enough.

Picasso was born in Andalusia and lived most of his life in France, but he spent much of his childhood in Barcelona. His father taught at the School of Fine Arts and young Picasso’s extravagant talent led to him being admitted to the Advanced Course aged 13. At 16 he left Barcelona to study in Madrid and then, like all ambitious young artists of the time, found his way to Paris. He frequently returned to Barcelona until the Franco years, when his exile ceased to be voluntary.

The Picasso museum dates from 1963, a little act of Catalan rebellion at a time when Picasso did not like Spain and ‘official Spain’ did not like him. His recent works were unavailable but a large number of his early paintings were collected. ‘Science and Charity’ a large canvas near the entrance was painted in 1897 when he was 16. Traditional in style and subject matter, it demonstrates his prodigious early talent. Although in the public domain in the US, this and other images are still under copyright in Europe, but his early works can be seen here.

Velázquez is long out of copyright, so here is his 1656 masterpiece Las Meniñas.

Las Meniñas, Diego Velázquez, 1656 (Public Domain)

Picasso is one of several painters to have re-interpreted Las Meniñas. In 1957 he produced a series of 58 such paintings, now on permanent display in Barcelona. I do not pretend to understand the thought processes, but I found the morphing of images from one canvas to the next while still respecting the original to be fascinating.

Las Meniñas, one of Picasso's variations

When we left the museum the queue outside was huge. I do enjoy a little schadenfreude now and again.

Parc de la Ciutadella

Before our latish flight, we spent the morning of our last day (a Saturday) in the Eixample district but detoured on our way back to the hotel and our airport taxi to the Parc de la Ciutadella in the La Ribera district of the old town. Inside the park is an ornate fountain (switched off for our visit), Barcelona zoo and the Catalonian parliament. During the 2018/19 troubles surrounding the officially illegal referendum and abortive declaration of independence the authorities often felt the need to close the park.

Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona

Catalonia has always been uncertain whether its destiny truly lies with Spain. They backed the Grand Alliance (i.e. the Rest of Europe) against the Spanish/French choice in the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-14). Barcelona was rewarded by a 13-month siege.

Having taken the city and confirmed his position as king, Philip V decided to end Catalan rebellion for good by building the largest fortress in Europe. La Ribera was largely razed to make way for the fort, leaving the inhabitants homeless. Taxes were levied on the citizens of Barcelona to pay for it, and those who could not pay were conscripted as construction workers. These actions did not make Catalonia any less rebellious or Philip any more popular.

By 1848 Spain was more stable and there was no further use for the fortress. It was destroyed rather than demolished and in 1872 the site became a park. For several decades the Parc de la Ciutadella was the only green space within the city.

The second half of the 19th century was a period of growth for Barcelona. The modernist Eixample district was developed and the building of the Sagrada Familia started (in 1883, completion is now expected in 2026). Barcelona was becoming a modern international city and in 1888 it hosted the Barcelona World Fair. The site chosen was the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Arc de Triomf was built as the entrance. A whimsical piece of modernist architecture with Islamic-style brickwork, it was designed by Josep Vilaseca as the arch through which Barcelona would rep les nacions (welcome the Nations).

Arc de Triomf, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona

So much for the old town, the next post moves on to Eixample and the Sagrada Familia.

Barcelona
Barcelona (1) La Rambla and Barceloneta
Barcelona (2) The Old City
Barcelona (3)Sagrada FamiliaAntoni Gaudi and the Eixample District