A neighbourhood of architectural gems

Barna Centre lies in the heart of the old city, popularly known as the Barri Gòtic , seeing as it preserves the imposing architecture of medieval Barcelona and is full of palaces and churches, such as the cathedral, the Santa Àgata and Santa Llúcia chapels, the Casa Padellàs, the Palau Reial, Palau de la Generalitat, Palau Episcopal and the Palau Municipal, the City Hall. It also includes the city’s old Jewish quarter, El Call, a tangle of small streets full of emotion and silence, once the focus of intense commercial activity among Barcelona’s Jewish community during the Middle Ages. This magnificent medieval heritage continues side by side with the remains of old Barcino, Roman Barcelona: these include the Roman wall, the pagan temple to Augustus, the Via Sepulcral Romana necropolis at Plaça de la Vila de Madrid.

Barna Centre: commercial spirit

You will find a hive of commercial activity amid the privileged urban landscape that is the Gòtic neighbourhood. The area receives more than 51 million visitors each year. And that is no mean feat: the commercial activity here is extraordinary in both its quantity and diversity. This area has almost sixty thousand square metres of commercial space dedicated to every kind of product imaginable, with several truly unique shops. The big brand names can be found side by side with local-designer footwear and clothes shops as well as unique and specialist stores, many of which go back a hundred years, living monuments to previous eras: candle merchants, such as Abella, on C/ Boters, and Subirà and Codina, on Baixada de la Llibreteria; full-range knife shops such as the ones in Plaça del Pi and C/  Call and C/ Ferran; boutiques dedicated to selling espardenyes [traditional rope-soled shoes], such as Manual Alpargatera, where this typical Catalan footwear is still made by hand; shops specialising in prints and religious items, gloves and hats, such as the glovers Guanteria Alonso, on C/ Santa Anna and the milliners Mil, on C/ Fontanella and Obach, on C/ Call. There are also shops that specialise in board games, offering handmade chess boards that are true works of art, as well as a whole host of jewellers. The Barna Centre includes specialists in antiques, coins, stamps, ceramics and crafts. Many of the businesses in the neighbourhood are also craft food shops, such as Caelum, a heavenly establishment for purchasing “monastic” cakes and biscuits, stores selling handmade torrons [a kind of Catalan nougat] and the classic granja cafes on C/ Petritxol, one of the favourite places the locals go to for breakfasting or snacking on hot chocolate and cake. Tiny in size but immense in its beauty, this side-street is also houses the city’s oldest art galleries.