Port Vell (Old Port)

Port Vell (Old Port) Review

From Pla del Palau, cross to the edge of the port, where the Moll d'Espanya, the Moll de la Fusta, and the Moll de Barceloneta meet. (Moll means docks.) Just beyond the colorful Roy Lichtenstein sculpture in front of the post office, the modern Port Vell complex—an IMAX theater, aquarium, and Maremagnum shopping mall—looms seaward on the Moll d'Espanya. The Palau de Mar, with its five somewhat pricey and impersonal quayside terrace restaurants, stretches down along the Moll de Barceloneta (try Llevataps or the Merendero de la Mari; even better is El Magatzem, by the entrance to the Museu de Història de Catalunya in the Palau de Mar). Key points in the Maremagnum complex are the grassy hillside (for lovers, especially, on April 23, Sant Jordi's Day, Barcelona's variant of Valentine's Day); and the Ictineo II replica of the submarine created by Narcis Monturiol (1819-85)—the world's first, launched in the Barcelona port in 1862.