La Boqueria Market

In front of you opens the great iron and stained-glass entrance of the Mercat de Sant Josep, which everyone knows as La Boqueria. Its official name tells you something: the market stands on the site of an old Carmelite convent dedicated to Saint Joseph.

1A market before the market

Meat was already being sold by this gate in the medieval wall in the 13th century: a document from 1217 mentions tables here for cutting it. For centuries it was an open-air market, with no building, just outside the city. The name Boqueria is usually linked to boc, Catalan for billy goat, after the meat sold here.

2From convent to market

In July 1835, during anticlerical riots, the convent of Sant Josep was set on fire. The City Council seized the opportunity and, in 1840, work began on an arcaded square for the market, led by the architect Josep Mas i Vila. The great metal roof that shelters the stalls today went up in 1914, and the Art Nouveau entrance in front of you, by Antoni de Falguera, dates from those same years.

Long before it was a tourist magnet, La Boqueria was, and still is, the market where the city's cooks did their shopping.

If you go in, don't stop at the first stalls: towards the back and along the sides you'll find the most traditional ones, with fish, offal, seasonal mushrooms and small counters where you can eat standing up.

3What to look for

• The stained glass of the Art Nouveau entrance.
• The iron roof, best seen from inside.
• The sign reading «Mercat de Sant Josep», the official name.