Forgotten stories of Barcelona to discover on foot
Barcelona is cool. Barcelona captivates, Barcelona brings prestige. You just have to search Instagram for hashtags like #barcelona or #lovebarcelona and thousands of tagged photos will appear in the city both by its citizens and by foreigners. However, this love for the Olympic city is not usually accompanied by knowledge of its history and stories, in plural. Because an ancient city like ours, treasures in its streets and squares hundreds of adventures and anecdotes, some tragic, whose memory has faded over time. Some of these remnants are still visible at a glance. You just need to slow down our pace when walking through the city and open our eyes as if we were foreigners and had just landed at El Prat. Today we suggest you rediscover Barcelona without rush. In a leisurely way, looking at the buildings and facades that surround us.
Núñez i Navarro Hotels offers its customers the NN Walk & Friends, a series of guided tours, on foot or by bicycle, through different areas of Barcelona to discover the stories hidden in every corner
We begin our tour departing from the Hotel 1898, by Núñez i Navarro Hotels, right in the middle of La Rambla. As soon as we step onto the iconic Barcelona promenade, we find ourselves above a cobblestone pavement shaped like waves, reminding us of a river's course. The reason? The street's fluvial origin, when the current thoroughfare would form a stream due to the rain, flowing down the street until it reached the sea.
We continue towards the Gothic Quarter and enter the old town through Portaferrissa Street, which in the 13th century was one of the gateways to the walled city of Barcelona. Specifically, the 'iron gate', which eventually changed its name to the current one. A mural on the fountain at the beginning of the street reminds us of this past. It is important to highlight the significance of this and other water spouts that for centuries were present in the streets and squares of the city, because there was no water supply in the houses, and they saved families from having to go outside the walls to get water.
We move along Portaferrissa, where old palaces with stately entrances are preserved, which the tourist phenomenon has transformed into souvenir shops. A good example would be the Tiger chain store, which we recommend visiting to enjoy the layout and design of the building.
We continued to delve into the neighborhood and after leaving the cathedral behind, we crossed Bisbe Street until we reached what many may consider the saddest square in Barcelona, Sant Felip Neri Square. The place was built over a medieval cemetery and is surrounded by Renaissance buildings and the church that gives the square its name. It was January 30, 1938, when, in the midst of the civil war, fascist aviation bombed the city. One of the shells fell on the square and killed 42 people, most of them children from the Sant Felip Neri school, when the basement ceiling they had taken refuge in collapsed. From that day, the facade of the church still bears the scars caused by the shrapnel impact.
That same church is the one Antoni Gaudí was heading to on June 7, 1926, when he was run over by a tram. Despite its gloomy past, the square is today one of the most beautiful corners of Barcelona, where the children from the current school play tag and ball without having to worry about traffic.
Another emblematic site that the route offers us is the Plaza del Rey, where we arrive after skirting the cathedral via Pietat street. There we find the Palau Reial Major, the residence of the Catalan counts and the kings of Aragon since the 13th century. Inside, there is the Saló del Tinell, where tradition holds that the Catholic Monarchs met with Christopher Columbus after his first voyage to the Indies. And it is precisely on its staircase that King Ferdinand the Catholic suffered an assassination attempt on December 7, 1492. A peasant tried to stab the monarch as he was leaving the palace. Currently, the Barcelona History Museum is located there.
We backtrack once again towards Bisbe Street to pause at the last of the spots we want to encourage you to rediscover in Barcelona. It's about the faux Gothic bridge that connects the Palau de la Generalitat with the Casa dels Canonges. If we stand underneath it, we will uncover a skull, believed to be authentic, pierced by a dagger. To this day, no one knows for sure what its purpose or meaning was, which has led to various urban legends. From the belief that Barcelona will collapse if someone manages to remove it, to the idea that it grants a wish if you cross the bridge backwards while looking at the skull. True or not, on the tour we discovered several tourists walking backwards until they bumped into another pedestrian.
These are just a few of the magical corners of the city that you can visit on the NN Walk & Friends. Areas like Montjuïc, la Ribera, el Born, or el Raval also treasure places full of stories that will make you fall in love with the city all over again. So go ahead and rediscover Barcelona!
