Mercado de la Boqueria

In the Mediterranean, over the course of many centuries, markets lived, like the people, out of doors, and canopies were put over the stalls to protect them from the blazing sun more than from the rain, a rather rare event. Possibly, the chief reason the markets were first covered were the complaints from neighbours, fed up with the smells, not always delicate, of the rubbish, with the habitual rows among vendors, with the shouting and, in general, with the uproar, which must have been of such magnitude that in Catalonia there's the saying "Sembla el mercat de Calaf" (It sounds like the market of Calaf), and the market is may be seen as a local form of the Tower of Babel.
In the markets people communicated in shouts, but also in whispers, and before newspapers, radio and television existed, it was the best place to get on line on what was going on in town and in the world. It was a place of work, and sometimes of mucking- about as well, and all this came to make up a fabric full of everyday life, which reflected the most vital character of the citizenry. For, in the Mediterranean, the markets are as ancient as the people who settled there, and in Barcelona, a crossroads and communion of maritime and terrestrial routes, they proliferated like mushrooms.

---

Contact Information

Mercado de la Boqueria
Pl. de Catalunya 17-S
08001 Barcelona

Tel. +34932853834

http://www.barcelonaturisme.com