Barcelona is an incredible place. For most visitors, it is highlighted by the allure of Spanish beaches, a dining scene that is diverse and affordable, and more cool architecture than any city deserves to have – especially the buildings of Antoni Gaudi. (Click here to read about Gaudi and here to specifically learn about Sagrada Familia.) But under that beauty and glitz, beneath the veneer of pleasantness that one gets just walking the wide streets and exploring the plazas, Barcelona has a fascinating millennia-long history.

Most of the city is new, a product of expansion in the 19th century that finally saw Barcelona break free from its series of city walls that held one of the most densely populated areas in Europe. But within the area of those old walls sits layer upon layer of history, odes to the city of past ages. This is the Gothic Quarter, and it’s what we are going to explore today.

(Note: in writing a history like this, it is necessary to sort of artificially create starting and stopping points lest an article become much too long and unwieldy, and lest it lose the travel aspect that we need here on The Royal Tour. We will use 1st century BCE Rome as the start and Spanish unification in 1492 as the end point, and I will look forward to return trips to delve deeper into Barcelona under the Spanish monarchy, during the War of the Spanish Succession, through Franco, and into modern times.)

Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter sits just to the east of La Rambla between the waterfront and Placa de Catalunya. It looks different than the rest of the city, with medieval stone construction and narrow alleys as opposed to the wide planned streets and uniform art deco buildings of the newer city. The name comes from the style of these buildings, few of which survived the centuries. (Most of those that did are either royal or religious in nature, unsurprisingly.) But while those medieval gothic buildings are what is visible, it is what is not able to be seen that tells more of the story.

For that, we visit the Barcelona History Museum. (That institution itself sits all over the city, but here in Placa del Rei we find its main campus.) The museum’s exhibits not only trace the entire history of the city, but even take us on a journey through the past.

While Barcelona may have originally been a Carthaginian colony, our first real knowledge of the city is the Roman Barcino, founded in roughly 10 BCE. Barcino was a fairly small town, and relatively unimportant outside of its geographic location, which enabled it to grow as a trading city. When the Western Roman Empire began to crumble around the end of the 3rd century CE, walls were built around Barcino to protect it.

Part of the Barcelona History Museum is built into those Roman walls, a small portion of which survive, although they got new defenses on top in the 12th century. And it is the route of those walls, which stretched about a mile in total and enclosed an area of about 30 acres, that mark the area that is now the Gothic Quarter.

From the top of the medieval defenses, the museum’s route goes underground, beneath today’s Gothic Quarter, to the Roman walls below, and to the actual remains of Barcino itself. Walkways take visitors over a portion of the late Roman Empire town, with signage discussing the building ruins, and lasers outlining where the rest of the wall would have been. It is remarkable what still exists.

And nearby, in the interior of a fairly nondescript building, sit three columns, remnants of a 1st century CE temple dedicated to Augustus!

After sacking Rome in 410, the Visigoths set about conquering much of France and the northern portions of Spain. This included Barcino, which they called Barcinona. Ataulf, the successor to Alaric (who led the Visigoths in the fight against Rome) established his court at Barcinona in 414, and while that would ultimately move to Toledo in 573, Barcino remained an important city due in no small part to its Roman walls. The Visigoths were a Christian kingdom, and the city’s center was given over to the early Church for use as an episcopal palace and basilica.

Those are today, as with the remains of Roman Barcino, buried beneath the Gothic Quarter. And as with the Roman ruins, the Barcelona History Museum’s route passes through those Visigothic structures. We see ruins of an arched wall of the episcopal palace (it probably connected that building to another), a huge building for making and storing wine, and a baptismal font.

After a brief interlude from 711 to 801 under control of the Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus (90 years isn’t really brief, but it is in relation to the other ages of Barcelona’s history), the city was reconquered by Christian forces in the form of the Franks and Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne. That same year (801) Louis established the city as the seat of a new quasi-independent County of Barcelona, a buffer territory between the Carolingian Empire and the Muslim caliphate. The counts were initially just administrators appointed by the Franks, but as that kingdom splintered, the county acquired more independence, and even began to expand at the expense of Muslim territories.

In 1137, Count Ramon Berenguer IV married the princess of Aragon, Petronilla, and their son Alfonso II would inherit both the county and the Crown of Aragon in 1162, thus uniting the two. And it wound remain so, the union of Aragon and Catalonia, until 1469 and the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, which united the two as what we think of as Spain, a process that finished in 1492 with the conquest of Granada.

It is this medieval period, that under the Crown of Aragon, that makes up the largest portion of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. The Barcelona Cathedral is easily the most recognizable of these. Completed in 1448, its neo-Gothic facade is actually much newer. Built atop some of the earlier Visigothic church remains, it is dedicated to Saint Eulalia.

(Note: basically no church that tourists would want to see in Barcelona is free to enter, the cathedral among those. Some, like Santa Maria del Mar, which we will talk about in a moment, are open to the public on Sundays at specific times. Therefore I have no photos or descriptions of the insides of these, as I haven’t been inside.)

Once again, the Barcelona History Museum also has visitors covered from the medieval period. The museum, after exploring beneath the Gothic Quarter, emerges into the former Aragonese royal palace and attached chapel. While decor is plain (or not much has survived) it is still a wonderful way for the visit to end.

In total, those buildings make up the Placa del Rei, the royal square, one of the coolest spots to appreciate the medieval character of the Gothic Quarter if you don’t want to go inside anywhere. You may need to deal with schoolchildren spending time in the square, however, if you visit during the day during the week.

Within the Gothic Quarter, exploring the tiny alleys can give some fun glimpses into medieval Barcelona under the Crown of Aragon. Buildings open to columned courtyards, stone towers emerge into view, and a covered bridge links two buildings.

But if this period truly interests you, one more Gothic Quarter stop is a must: the Museu Frederic Mares. Dedicated to the sculptor Frederic Mares whose personal artifacts make up the centerpiece, it holds one of the largest collections of Spanish medieval art anywhere. You’ll explore the period by way of mainly religious art, since that is what was allowed during the period. Dozens – literally – of status of the Virgin and Child sit alongside dozens – again, literally – of wooden crucifixes of varying size and level of detail.

Stone sarcophagi and other artifacts occupy another floor, along with a full doorway from a now-destroyed cathedral. It is dizzying.

(And upstairs, while it doesn’t relate to our story at all, is Mares’ personal collection, which I call an ode to hoarding. He loved accumulating things, and so a room of iron keys abuts one with hundreds of ladies’ fans, cases of pocket watches, and so many things one can only hope one doesn’t have to clean out of one’s home at some point.)

It was during this time, under Aragonese rule, that Barcelona finally enlarged, emerging from the ancient walls of Barcino to a new set that expanded the footprint outside of the Gothic Quarter to another neighborhood adjacent. Our story finishes there, at the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar and the El Born market.

Santa Maria del Mar was built in the 14th century and is the second largest church from the medieval period, to the cathedral. (Like the cathedral, I did not pay to go inside.) However, its facade has not been redone, so it gives us a better idea of period decoration of the exterior of a major church.

Down the street from Santa Maria del Mar is the El Born market. Originally a large covered market, it is now a branch of the Barcelona History Museum, and it is easy to see why. Today, the entire building is given over to the ruins discovered beneath it, which date to the periods of both Aragonese and unified Spanish rule.

While access to the ruins themselves is only available via a pre-booked guided tour, looking down and reading the signage is free, and a wonderful way to spend a half hour exploring even more medieval history of the city.

Most people come to Barcelona for more modern aspects of the city and its culture. But in the Gothic Quarter (and just outside of it), lies a different Barcelona, one that takes us from Roman times to Visigothic rule, through the Muslim caliphate to the Crown of Aragon. It is a dizzying history, and one that will leave you wanting more.

Thank you to Barcelona Turisme for graciously agreeing to work with me – a second time – and sponsoring my admission to both the Barcelona History Museum and the Museu Frederic Mares. I am grateful for your belief in me and hope this whir through the city’s history justifies that.

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