Passeig del Born
Once the site of medieval jousts and the Inquisition's autos-da-fé, the passeig, at the end of Carrer Montcada behind the church of Santa Maria del Mar, was early Barcelona's most important square. Nowadays, late-night cocktail bars and small restaurants with tiny spiral stairways line the narrow, elongated plaza.
The numbered cannonballs under the public benches are 20th-century works by the late poet, playwright, and designer, Joan Brossa—the so-called poet of space, whose visual-arts pieces incorporated numbers and/or letters and words. These sculptures are intended to evoke the 1714 siege of Barcelona, which concluded the 14-year War of the Spanish Succession, when Felipe V's conquering Castilian and French troops attacked the city ramparts at their lowest, flattest flank.
After their victory, the Bourbon forces obliged residents of the Barri de la Ribera (Waterfront District) to tear down nearly a thousand of their own houses, some 20% of Barcelona at that time, to create fields of fire so that the occupying army of Felipe V could better train its batteries of cannon on the conquered populace and discourage any nationalist uprisings. Thus began Barcelona's "internal exile" as an official enemy of the Spanish state.
Walk down to the Born itself—a great iron hangar that was once a produce market designed by Josep Fontseré and is in the Plaça Comercial, across from the end of the promenade. The initial stages of the construction of a public library here uncovered the remains of the lost city of 1714, complete with blackened fireplaces, taverns, wells, and the canal that brought water into the city.
The streets of 14th- to 18th-century Born-Ribera now lie open in the sunken central square of the old market. Around it, at ground level, are a number of new, multifunctional, exhibition and performance spaces that make this area one of the city's newest and liveliest cultural hubs. Among the attractions is the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat's El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria (closed Monday, free to upper galleries, €4 to the archaeological site).