Barcelona has a fascinating history beginning as a Roman retreat. Like Shrek, the city it similar to an onion, which you can peel off layers of history and discover the life of the Catalonian city through the ages. Although many parts of the city’s history have been lost or covered up, Rome’s mark is still visible under the metropolis.
Our Visual Culture class explored the Roman ruins that are embedded in Barcelona’s old town, also known as el Raval. In reference to the previous post on Barcelona’s expansion of the 19th century, L’Eixample, you can see the outline of the old town of barcelona which can also help identify the outline and partial plan of the original Roman town. Sites remaining today include parts of the outer wall, which has been built on, reused, and embedded into the city landscape and buildings over the decades and an aqueduct, which in some ways sticks out like a sore thumb while at the same time fitting right in the Barcelona style.
The center of the Roman town would have been a forum, which a few columns are still here and preserved (and closed for viewing). The site today is the city square that is flanked by the Mayor of Barcelona on one side and the President of Catalunya on the other. The highlight (for the class) at the square was a little cafe whose bocadillos were fantastic, and warm (although the day was the nicest day yet, still colder then normal for the city but that’s another story).
Our class ate and then headed off in all directions, our group wandering around until the brilliant idea of some bread, oil, and wine came up. We acquired the necessary items and had ourselves a picnic seaside, in the heart of the Barceloneta district, overlooking the Port Vell. The day’s adventures ended with a peaceful session of kite flying which proved very unsuccessful without the whole wind thing, oh well, I’ve time to try again.
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