Ciutat Vella

La Rambla’s history is the Boqueria Market’s history. The evolution from a past of peddlers to a modern and charming present, full of colour and life. The market is a metaphor for Barcelona’s life, a human river that is the delight for those who like watching.

The first of Barcelona’s local markets was opened on Saint Joseph’s day, on the 19th of March 1840, after four years of work on the land that was up until then occupied by Saint Joseph’s convent. However, the history goes back a good few years before, because on the site on Rambla where the market is today, there were already peddlers selling meat in the thirteenth century.

Marquis Campo Sagrado, Catalonia’s general captain, started to establish the rules for this travelling market in an area that became a large square after the convent was gone. With time the Boqueria Market of Barcelona transformed itself in a modern market. It incorporated the gas illumination and the metal cover was finished in 1914. This metal cover as well as protecting food, sellers and buyers, gives character to the market. Nowadays, the third and fourth generation of sellers proudly show the oldest and most complete food market of Barcelona. They offer us vegetables, meat, fish and thousands of other products in stalls with great charm and imaginative presentation. Boqueria Market is a space full of life, history and unquestionable architectural value.