The Gothic Quarter of Barcelona is the oldest part of the city and the historic centre. In ancient times it was known as the "Cathedral Quarter" and is divided into different neighbourhoods that retain their own personality such as the Jewish Quarter (Call in Catalan), Santos Justo y Pastor, Santa María del Pino, the Cathedral, Santa Ana, La Merced and the Palace.
The current name is a tourist slogan invented by Adolfo Florensa, a councillor of the Barcelona City Council, although the original idea of creating the Gothic Quarter was from the writer Ramón Rucabado. In 1927, Florensa made an inventory cataloguing a total of five works that could be defined as Gothic in Barcelona.
The structure of the neighbourhood survived until the 19th century, with major changes to the structure and morphology of the neighbourhood, such as the transformation of parish cemeteries into public squares, the emptying of large buildings with the consequent change in use, and the demolition of the walls.
There are still pieces of the first wall in the Plaza de la Seo, opposite the Barcelona cathedral. On Ataúlfo Street there is a Gothic chapel that belonged to the Royal Palace of Barcelona and is known as the Palace Chapel.
Among the most significant Gothic buildings are the Atarazanas (started in the 13th century) and the trading room of the Lonja de Mar (14th century), the façade of the Cathedral of Barcelona, built between 1882 and 1913 by Josep Oriol Mestres and Augusto Font Carreras, with a great profusion of Gothic style elements, the building of the Centro Excursionista de Cataluña (Paraíso Street), a work by Lluís Domènech i Montaner carried out in 1922 on a building of uncertain origin, to which he added crowned windows, battlements and merlons, the flamboyant Gothic style bridge that crosses Obispo Street was built in a new style in 1928 by Joan Rubió.
Casa Padellás, home of the Barcelona History Museum. Its façade was dismantled when Via Layetana was opened and moved to Plaza del Rey in 1936 from Calle Mercaderes. Although it was not rebuilt as it was originally, the elements that were not Gothic were removed and new ones were added.The Berenguer de Aguilar Palace, now the Picasso Museum (Calle Montcada), restored by Adolfo Florensa in 1959, adding galleries with arches and colonnaded windows.
The Pignatelli Palace, now the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona, its façade was built in 1970, with the addition of several Gothic windows recovered from municipal warehouses.The Plaça del Rei was remodelled, maintaining its old structure and removing the original architectural elements in other styles, replacing them with others in the Gothic style, such as the capitals of the columns or the canopies of the windows. The neoclassical portal was also replaced, but due to its value, as it was original, it was rebuilt at the back - it is the current entrance to the Marès Museum.
In this area is the Barcelona City Hall and the Palace of the Generalitat de Catalunya, seat of the Catalan government.
There are many documents where it is written that in this part of the city there was a large representation of the Jewish community in Barcelona, with many palace houses full of history and memories printed on their old walls.Las Ramblas are also part of this area, forming a natural border between other neighbourhoods in these areas of the lower part of the city of Barcelona.
The proximity of the port and the sea has made this neighborhood a reference point for the city with countless urban details.
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