La Boqueria market

La Boqueria market is a festival of colours, flavours, aromas and life you will not find anywhere else in the world, a real show you just have to see. It is an attractive, picturesque showcase for Barcelona and Catalan gastronomy, with local produce and exotic items from around the world.

La Boqueria was chosen as the world's best market in 2005 at the biennial World Congress of Public Markets, held in Washington in 2006. You can find it in the middle of the Rambla, the most popular and touristy of the city's avenues, and you could include it on any of your visits to the centre of Barcelona. They say what you cannot buy there, you cannot buy anywhere in the world. The best market in the world: are you going to miss it?

A little about the market's history

There were already reports in 1217 of peasants selling their products on the Pla de la Boqueria, outside one of the gates in the old city walls that skirted the Rambla. It was a good spot to sell things and farmers still sell their products on a little open square next to the market today.

It is also known as the Sant Josep market because it was built on the site of a Barefoot Carmelite convent, the Sant Josep church, and later incorporated the land of the Jerusalem convent. Like the nearby Gran Teatre del Liceu or Plaça Reial, it resulted from the sale of Church lands decreed by the Liberal government of 1835. The original idea was to build a large neo-classical arcade like the one leading into the Plaça Reial but the municipal architect Josep Mas i Vila finally decided to build a permanent covered market based on an iron structure.

Suggestions

Fruits and juices from around the world

Eating at the market is an experience you have to try. If you go in through the Rambla entrance, you will immediately see stalls with fruit from all over the world and delicious juices you can try while walking around.