A stroll through Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter brings to light the early Roman city of Barcino and the medieval town with its palazzos, mansions and Gothic churches. This is the style that defines “the heart of Barcelona”: a neighbourhood where the splendour of the historic past coexists with the vibrancy of the present.
The centre of the Roman city, today’s Gothic Quarter, was marked by the point where the two main streets, the Cardo and Decumanus, converged. Today the Carrer del Bisbe and Carrer Llibreteria stand on this site. Nearby, we can still see the remains of the Roman temple of Augustus. In fact, the original centre of Roman and medieval Barcelona still forms the core of 21st-century Barcelona. Its maze of narrow streets and squares is steeped in the city’s past and present.