Plaça del Rei

In front of you are the steps of the Palau Reial Major. The square is so small and so lovely that it's hard to imagine an attempt on a king's life here. And yet that is exactly what happened.

17 December 1492

That year, Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella of Castile were in Barcelona. On 7 December, as the king left the palace after an audience, he was wounded in the neck by a peasant named Joan de Canyamars, who struck at him with a sword. The queen later described her fear in a letter to her confessor. The king survived, and his attacker, judged to be deranged, was put to death in gruesome fashion a few days later. The wound was serious, but by the end of the month Ferdinand was back at work.

2Did Columbus climb these steps?

This is where the ground gets shakier. It is documented that the Catholic Monarchs received Christopher Columbus in Barcelona in the spring of 1493, on his return from his first voyage. What isn't clear is exactly where. Tradition, repeated in paintings and guidebooks, places the scene on these steps and in the Saló del Tinell, but no document confirms it.

Columbus's reception in Barcelona is history; the scene on these steps is an oft-repeated tradition.

The square keeps one last secret beneath your feet: when the Casa Padellàs was moved here in 1931, whole streets of Roman Barcino came to light, and today you can walk them under the museum.

3What to look for

• The staircase where tradition places Columbus's arrival.
• The palace doorway, through which the king walked out on the day of the attack.
• King Martin's Watchtower, the gallery tower that keeps watch over the square.