Barcelona - La Riberia 7 El Born

In my history class we went on a field trip to my favorite part of Barcelona, El Born and La Riberia. El Born is a part of Barcelona that has been heavily gentrified and now contains many shops and expatriates. This part of town reminds me of the winding streets of Florence, but leads to the sea, which is one of my favorite parts about it.

The picture shown above is from a square in El Born, and is the flame is actually a memorial for all those Catalans who died fighting for their independence in the War of Succession against the French in 1714. This square, called  --> El Fossa de les Moreres was actually where thousands of Catalans died and were buried. The tower in the background is from the Church Santa Maria del Mar, which was made in the 13th century by Pere III and is considered a traders/workers Church because it was built and funded by the traders in that area.

On the other side of La Riberia is La Ciutadella Park, where I go running usually. This park has so much history behind it that you could not tell just by walking around it. Before this park was built, there was a huge pentagon fortress that enclosed 150 acres and dominated the city. The fortress, which was built after France won the War of Succession and was the most hated symbols of Castilian rule for a century and took 20 years to demolish it. Now there is a park that I love with a zoo and lake and the gorgeous fountain that is pictured above.   

In this area of the city, the Guilds could be found. The guilds were the core of the medieval city economic life and lasted from the 13th century up until the French took over after the War of Succession. These guilds were important in both Political life as well as the Church, having great influence. The picture seen above is an example of La casa taller, which is the building where shopkeepers worked and lived. The ground floor of the building was the shop and then the first principle floor was where the owner’s family would live, which has bigger windows and the upper floors has smaller windows where the servants would live. 

Also, on our field trip we passed the

--> Llotja, which used to be the cities Stock Exchange building. The building was built in the 1350s and then rebuilt by Pere III in 14^th century. The contract room of the Llotja was the oldest continuously running stock exchange in Europe until it was moved to Passaige de Gracia. The building is a neoclassical building that conserves the 12^th century building inside. It has been used as many things including an Art Academy, where Picasso studied.