Strolling the Gothic Quarter Barcelona

One of the districts not to be missed is certainly the Gothic Quarter Barcelona. It stretches along La Rambla Street and radiates a special charm.

Gothic Quarter Barcelona

There is nothing you can compare to a stroll along the charming narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter Barcelona, walking between buildings walls so high and thick that you only get a hint of daylight from above. Numerous lanterns and shop signs were sticking out of the dark-bricked walls.

While strolling around, you come across a small square and a Gothic church Colegiata of Santa Anna, Basilica del Pi with an impressive rose window, Santa Eulalia Cathedral, and charming Brisbe Street. The whole place is like it just came out of medieval times. Amid all those nice, sharp corners and heavy buildings, you will stumble upon the Picasso Museum. The small shops and cafes here are such a delight to the eye. The gloominess breaks before their modest lantern lights.

I have to admit, there was a place I had in mind when walking through the Gothic Quarter Barcelona. It is a restaurant which is not only famous for its menu.

Things to See in Gothic Quarter

I heard about it long before coming to Barcelona. Someone told me about the place while I was in Paris many years ago, mentioning the famous cafe called Les quatres chats. (France was an amazing experience for me at the time. I was looking for hotels in which Charles Baudelaire once lived, traveled to Giverny, and Rouen to find Claude Monet’s house and the famous Cathedral, and then went to Arles to the south in search of the sanatorium Van Gogh cut his ear in. Make sure to check out the series about my travel to France if interested.)

Anyway, I was told that the 19th-century guy saw this Paris cafe and fell in love with it. When coming back, he opened a similar restaurant in the Gothic Quarter Barcelona – Els quatre gats. Soon, famous artists started to assemble. It so happened that Pablo Picasso began to visit the cafe when he was 17 and even held his first solo exhibition in the main room!

I had been strolling the Gothic Quarter Barcelona for some time now, leaving the Els quatre gats for last. I came out of one of the nearby streets – and there it was!

The famous gathering place of artistic creme de la creme of the time. It even had a poster that stood on the corner of the street outside the restaurant that Picasso designed. What an introduction to the Picasso Museum! I will go there as soon as I come back from Figueres, first thing.

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