Things to Do in the Gothic Quarter

Seeing the Gothic Quarter takes a morning; doing it takes longer. Beyond the squares you can walk Roman streets underground, eat where Picasso drank, and come back after dark for a Gothic Quarter night tour or a tapas crawl of your own. Here is what each costs you and when to fit it in.

Go underground at MUHBA Plaça del Rei

The Barcelona History Museum has occupied Plaça del Rei since it was founded in 1943, and its best room is below the square. You walk the excavated streets of Roman Barcino, past a laundry and a dye house from the second century AD, a third-century factory that salted fish and made garum, and a winery. Further on are the remains of the city's first Christian community, including a baptistery.

Back above ground, you visit the Saló del Tinell and the Chapel of Santa Àgata of the medieval Royal Palace, and Casa Padellàs, an early sixteenth-century palace moved here from Carrer Mercaders almost a hundred years ago.

• Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 19:00. Last entry is 45 minutes before closing. Closed 1 January, 1 May, 24 June and 25 December.
• Price: €7.30, and the ticket covers every Barcelona History Museum site except Park Güell.
• Free entry: under-16s, the first Sunday of the month, and every Sunday from 15:00.

The Picasso Museum across Via Laietana

The Picasso Museum is not in the Gothic Quarter. It is a five-minute walk away, over Via Laietana in El Born, set in medieval palaces on Carrer de Montcada. Most walks that cross into El Born pass its door, and one starts a few streets away on Passeig de Picasso.

The museum sets its own tickets and hours, so check them before you go. None of the walks goes inside, so plan it as its own visit.

Els Quatre Gats and the Modernista cafés

Els Quatre Gats opened on 12 June 1897 on the ground floor of Casa Martí, on Carrer de Montsió. Pere Romeu ran it with the painters Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas and Miquel Utrillo, modelling it on Le Chat Noir in Paris. It became the meeting place of Barcelona's Modernista artists.

A teenage Pablo Picasso came to its gatherings, held his first solo exhibition there and drew the cover of its menu. It is still a restaurant, so you can sit where they sat over coffee or lunch. Two of the small-group walks end or stop outside.

Eat and drink in the lanes

The Gothic Quarter is full of small bars, and the choice is the hard part. Tapas come by the plate, so you order a few at a time and move on. Lunch is usually served from about 13:30 and dinner rarely before 20:30, later than you may be used to.

If you would rather have the bars chosen for you, a guided tapas walk serves a full meal across several stops, with a glass of wine at each. The Gothic Quarter food tours compare the midday and evening options. Barcelona's city rules ban organised alcohol routes between bars, so a tapas walk is a meal with a drink, not a bar crawl.

An evening in the Gothic Quarter

The quarter changes after dark. The day groups leave, the stone turns gold under the lamps, and the terraces of Plaça Reial fill. It is the best time to walk the lanes if you like atmosphere more than detail.

Two guided ways to spend it: the ghost and legends walk, ninety minutes of the quarter's darker stories starting from a bar, and the evening tapas and wine walks, which end with dinner eaten. Keep your phone and wallet zipped away in the crowds, as in any busy old city.

A rainy day in the Gothic Quarter

Rain is the day to go inside. Start under Plaça del Rei at MUHBA, then take the Cathedral's cultural visit, then lunch somewhere dry. The walks go ahead in the rain, so you do not lose a booking, but the stone lanes turn slippery. Wear shoes with grip.

Things to do with children

Children under 16 enter MUHBA free, and the Roman streets underground hold their attention better than most museums. The geese in the Cathedral cloister are a reliable hit. Older children tend to enjoy the ghost walk, and the listing warns it is not suitable for people with heart problems. The tapas walks are for adults, and the Segway needs riders of 16 or over.

Where each thing to do sits in the lanes is on the Gothic Quarter map, and the sights themselves are on what to see in the Gothic Quarter.

Things to do: quick answers