Catalan Culture Studies Field Trip to El Born

A few weeks ago Xavi took us on a field trip to El Born to check out some of the old guilds from the Middle Ages.  We started at the Palau de la Musica and walked through the old windy streets down to the Santa Maria del Mar, learning about the streets, plazas, and guilds.  It was a rainy day, one of the few since I have been here, and I forgot my camera so I did not take pictures.  I did however take my parents on the same field trip one day when they were here, and surprisingly I took them on the exact same route through the windy streets. 

The first building we stopped by was the Palau de la Musica, which might be my favorite building in Barcelona.  We then walked down a narrow street and Xavi told us about the buildings, some of which were hundreds of years old.  Almost all of the buildings have a very small door and a large window on the ground floor.  Then the first floor has a big window with smaller windows as you get higher.  This is because the store front was on the ground floor, the owner lived on the first floor, the professional (Iron smith, shoe maker, etc...) lived on the second, the interns lived above that, and then servants lived on the top floor.  This makes sense because there were no elevators so wealthier people didn't want to walk to the top.  Also there was usually only one bathroom and it was on the ground level. 



At the end of that street is a market called Mercat de Santa Caterina. 

Recently it has been renovated and now it looks very nice and new.  This market is more spread out and not as crowded as the Boqueria and it basically has the same stuff.  There is also a restaurant inside that is very popular.  I need to go there before I leave here.

Next we went to a plaza called Plaça de Llana.  This means plaza of wool, which is where the price of wool would be listed for the traders when they came to Barcelona.  It would be a standardized price for each day and it was completely regulated by the people selling the wool.

One shop caught my eye as I walked back.  It was an old shoe store with some amazing shoes.  They were all hand made and leather but they were all over 200 euros. 

This store has probably been owned by the same family doing the same thing for a few hundred years.  It is cool to see things like that here in Barcelona because there is nothing like that in the US. 

There is also a church called Santa Maria de Mar.  This might be one of my favorite churches in Europe.  Almost every church I go to is so incredibly flashy, wealthy, and elaborate.  This one was the exact opposite.  It was very dark with no art and bare stone walls.  However it felt like you were transported back into the middle ages when you walked in.  There were graves that were over 400 years old with a family crest.  It had high ceilings, and huge arches, and was just breathtaking. 

Some other streets we passed were Carrer de Banys Vells (Street of the old baths) where women would go to wash clothing and people would take their baths about once a month.  Some more were Carrer de l'Espaseria (street of swords) and Carrer de Miralers (street of mirrors). 

I really enjoyed this tour and learned a lot about the area.  I was also able to give the tour to my parents, obviously not telling them all of the details, but I was able to translate some street signs in Catalan, and to tell them about the history of the area.