The Museum of the History of Catalonia offers a tour of Baroque Barcelona
The tour “Barceloneta and the Barcelona seafront in the Age of Enlightenment (1753-1836)” explores the 18th century buildings and urban framework of the city as it was during the Baroque period
On the third Saturday of every month, the Museu d’Història de Catalunya (MHC) offers a tour of Barceloneta as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries. The itinerary, one of four alternating tours that the museum offers every Saturday, reveals how, even today, the design of the district constitutes an excellent example of academic, Baroque-period urban planning, features of which include both uniformity of streets and residential blocks and a desire for splendour envisioned through the use of free spaces and perspective.
Originally founded outside the city walls on land that had been reclaimed from the sea around the island of Maians, the Barceloneta district was designed and built by military engineers beginning in February of 1753 with the aim of both providing accommodation for the ever-growing population of the city and installing facilities relating to port and War Department activities.
The district was a project of the military engineer Juan Martín Cermeño and was commissioned by the General of Barcelona, the Marquis of La Mina. It was constructed on the basis of islets of single-family, one-story terraced houses with distinctive gabled roofs and façades. The plan brought to order the beach area, which had recently been occupied by shacks inhabited by Barcelona residents who had been made homeless due to the collapse of the Ribera district.
The tour is given in Catalan, includes entry to the museum and also includes some of the 18th century buildings that are still standing in the more recent district of Ciutat Vella.
Barceloneta and the Barcelona seafront in the Age of Enlightenment (1753-1836)
When: the third Saturday of every month
Tickets: 9'5€
Where: Museu d’Història de Catalunya
More information here