Plaça Catalunya, the starting point of the first day
Our tour starts at Placa Catalunya. This square is located very centrally, you will come across it a lot during your Barcelona stay.
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The Gothic Quarter is the historical and current city centre of Barcelona. It forms the old town together with the districts El Raval and El Born. Our tour proposal is two days long and it will take you to the sights of the neighbouring districts as well.
The Old Town is the touristic and geographic centre of Barcelona. Here you'll find many sights.
This two-day city walking tour has a lot to offer. You can see old Gothic churches and buildings from the Modernism, the Catalan Art Nouveau and you can experience a very special flair caused by the many narrow and winding streets but also bright and open spaces.
On the first day you will walk about 1,500 metres, on the second day about 2,500 metres. You should schedule about 6-8 hours for each day, depending on how much you would like to see and how long your breaks are going to be.
Our tour starts at Placa Catalunya. This square is located very centrally, you will come across it a lot during your Barcelona stay.
More information...From Plaça Catalunya we'll make an excursion into the adjoining district Sant Pere. The Palau Música de la Música Catalana is an absolute worth seeing building of the modernism designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The Palau is listed on the UNESCO list of world heritage.
From the Plaça Catalunya walk along the pedestrian zone Avinguda de Portal del l'Angel. The street starts at the corner, at which the gray department store building El Cortes Inglés is located. After 100 metres go left into the Carrer Comtal until you get to Via Laietana; a main road that seperates the gothic district from the district Sant Pere.
Cross the Laietana and walk to the right. After about 50 metres of walking there's a smaller street. Walk into that street and you will already see the music palace.
The next stop is Barcelonas gothic cathedral. Walk along the Via Laietane towards the ocean (southern direction). After about 200 metres you will see the Avinguda de la Catedral on the right side. It leads to the forecourt of Barcelonas cathedral. You will find it for sure. Take a little time to look around in the cathedral.
More information...The Museu Frederic Marès - the most important sculpture collection from roman sculptors in Spain - is located only a few metres away. Walk into a small alley to the left of the cathedral. The Carrer dels Comtes leads directly past the museum.
If the museum isn't interesting for you, just look at the inner yard of the building. It is beautiful and you can take a little break at the kisok in the far end.
Just walk along the street. After the cathedral, which is located to your right, there's a small alley to the left that leads to the gothic Plaça del Rei. The Museu d'Història de la Ciutat, the city's history museum, is located here. In the basement of the museum situated in a palace is the biggest roman dig found within Europe but outside of Rome: Barcino, former name of Barcelona.
More information...Walk along the street that leads from the cathedral past the Museu Frederic Marès to the Carrer de Jaume I, where you turn right into this street and walk further until you're at Plaça de Sant Jaume. This is the historcial and political centre of the city. The city government and Catalonia's government have their beautiful palaces here. However you can only visit those on a few days of the year.
More information...Just walk further on the Carrer Ferran, which leads from the west side of the Plaça Sant Jaume towards the Rambla. It's about 300 metres to the Rambla. Just before the Rambla you can go left to the Plaça Reial. Enjoy this square. There are some good restaurants here. You can have dinner in one of those.
The first day of the tour ends here. The next metro station is Liceu: just walk from the fountain in the middle of the square to the Rambla and after about 200 metres turn to the right towards the Plaça Catalunya.
On the second day you will start at the metro station Liceu. From the metro station walk directly into the Carrer del Cardenal Casañas. This alley leads you in an about 50 metres long sweep directly to one of the oldest gothic churches Barcelona's: the Santa Maria del Pi.
Walk back to the Rambla and then to the right. After about 50 metres you can see the entrance to the Mecat de la Boqueria on the left side (Mercat de San Josep). If you didn't have breakfast yet, then you might be hungry. The market is absolutely worth seeing, even if you don't want to buy anything. You can also eat something here.
More information...The next stop is the opera Liceu, that was rebuilt in the 90s after a fire. To get there walk on the Rambla for about 200 metres towards the ocean (southern direction). You can visit the opera within a tour before noon.
More information...From Liceu walk down the Rambla, after about 200 metres you can see the Nou de la Rambla on the right side. Walk into this street and continue for about 50 metres. On the left side you can see the Palau Güell, which is an early work designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudí. On the way to the Carrer Nou de la Rambla you will pass the Plaça Reial, which you know from the previous day. You can take a break there if you would like to.
More information...Walk the Rambla further down towards the ocean (southern direction). After about 200 metres there's a little unremarkable alley, the Passeig de la Banca. The Museu de Cera (wax museum) is located in a former palace of a bank. The museum is quite enjoyable, especially if you're sightseeing with children. However if you much rather take a great interest in gothic architecture and the development of the city, you can skip the museum and go straight to the second to last stop, the Columbus monument.
More information...You can experience the Ramblas and the Barri Gòtic in bird perspective from the about 60 metres high observation deck of the Monument a Colom.
After the Columbus monument there are several options: Take the Golondrinas along the coast or through the harbour, walk along the Rambla de Mar further to the shopping centre, which is located at the harbour, or go straight to the last stop of our tour proposal, the Santa Maria del Mar.
More information...The last and for sure one of the most important sights in Barcelona is the Santa Maria del Mar. This gothic church was built in the 14th century in only 55 years of construction. Because of the short period of construction there's no mixture of different construction styles. A mixture of construction styles is often the case with churches that are built and extended over several centuries.
There's two different ways to get to Santa Maria del Mar. If you have some time left - the church closes at 20:00 - you can walk along the Rambla to the Maremàgnum, maybe have a coffee and take a little break and then walk past the IMAX cinema and the aquarium on Moll d'Espanya to the coastal road Passeig de Colom. Then walk along Via Laietana for about 50 metres until you see Carrer dels Agullers on the right side. Walk until the end of this street and then turn left into the Carrer dels Canvis Vells and walk until you get to the forecourt of the Santa Maria del Mar. The detour is about 1.200 metres by foot.
If you don't have enough time, walk along the Passeig de Colom from the columbus monument until you get to Via Laietana, then continue to Santa Maria del Mar like indicated above.
The next metro station from Santa Maria del Mar is Jaume I. (L4). You can reach this station directly on the Carrer d'Argenterina.
You can eat something in this area or you can go to the district Barceloneta, where you can find a lot of restaurants that offer fish. Barceloneta is on the other side of the yacht harbour that you passed if you chose the longer route.
More information...The Gothic district is the oldest district in Barcelona. You can find history from over 2000 years, since the settling of the Romans. It's a very vibrant district today.
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