Description
La Ribera is the medieval waterfront quarter of Barcelona's old city, east of Via Laietana: narrow stone lanes, Gothic merchant palaces and, in its southern part, the busy bars and boutiques of El Born.
In the 13th to 15th centuries this really was the shore, and the merchants who grew rich on the sea built here. Their palaces still line Carrer de Montcada, home to the Museu Picasso, and their wealth paid for Santa Maria del Mar, the neighborhood's great Gothic church.
Nearby, the Fossar de les Moreres marks the mass grave of Catalan soldiers who fell in the siege of 1714. After that defeat Philip V had a large part of the quarter, more than a thousand homes, torn down to build a military citadel, a punishment for the defeated city.
The citadel is gone too, replaced by the Parc de la Ciutadella. Under the roof of the old Mercat del Born, a 19th-century market hall, excavations brought to light the streets and houses demolished after 1714.
In the 13th to 15th centuries this really was the shore, and the merchants who grew rich on the sea built here. Their palaces still line Carrer de Montcada, home to the Museu Picasso, and their wealth paid for Santa Maria del Mar, the neighborhood's great Gothic church.
Nearby, the Fossar de les Moreres marks the mass grave of Catalan soldiers who fell in the siege of 1714. After that defeat Philip V had a large part of the quarter, more than a thousand homes, torn down to build a military citadel, a punishment for the defeated city.
The citadel is gone too, replaced by the Parc de la Ciutadella. Under the roof of the old Mercat del Born, a 19th-century market hall, excavations brought to light the streets and houses demolished after 1714.