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Palau de la Virreina
The graceful eighteenth-century
Palau de la Virreina
(Virreina Palace) stands
at no. 99 (
o
Liceu), on the corner of c/del Carme, set back slightly from the
Ramblas. Commissioned by a Peruvian viceroy, Manuel Amat, and named after
the wife who survived him, its five Ramblas-facing bays are adorned with pilasters
and Rococo windows. Today the palace is used by the city council’s culture
department, with a ground-floor shop (Tues–Sat 10am–8.30pm) featuring locally
produced arts and crafts and souvenirs and a walk-in
information centre
and
ticket office for cultural events.Two galleries are used for changing
exhibitions
of contemporary art and photography (Tues–Fri 11am–2pm & 4–8.30pm, Sat
11am–8.30pm, Sun 11am–3pm; admission usually charged;
T
933 161 000,
W
www.bcn.cat/virreinacentredelaimatge), while in the courtyard are usually
displayed the city’s two official
Carnival giants
(
gegants vells
), representing the
celebrated thirteenth-century Catalan king, Jaume I, and his wife Violant. The
origin of Catalunya’s outsized (five-metre-high) wood-and-plaster Carnival
figures is unclear, though they probably once formed part of the entertainment at
medieval travelling fairs.The first record of specific city giants is in 1601 – they
were later used to entertain the city’s orphans but are now an integral part of
Barcelona’s festival parades.
Mercat de la Boqueria
Beyond the Palau de laVirreina starts
Rambla Sant Josep
, the switch in names
marked by the sudden profusion of flower stalls – it’s sometimes known as
Rambla de les Flors.The city’s glorious main food market is over to the right,
officially the Mercat Sant Josep though referred to locally as
La Boqueria
(Mon–Sat 8am–8pm;
T
933 182 584,
W
www.boqueria.info). While others
might protest, the market really can claim to be the best in Spain. Built on the
site of a former convent between 1836 and 1840, the cavernous hall stretches
Newspaper stall, the Ramblas
THE RAMBLAS
|
Palau de la Virreina • Mercat de la Boqueria