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building, the
C3
café-bar has a sunny
terrassa
on the modern square joining
the CCCB to the MACBA, while a relaxed meal can also be had just up the
street in the the arcaded and tiled
Pati Manning
(c/Montalegre 7), where
a daytime café serves a good-value al fresco lunch.
FAD and around
Across the open expanse from MACBA, part of the former Convent dels
Àngels now houses the headquarters of the
Foment de les Artes Décora-
tives
(
FAD
; Tues–Fri 11am–8pm, Sun 11am–4pm; free;
T
934 437 520,
W
www.fadweb.org), a decorative art and design organization founded in
1903. Their exhibition spaces (including the former convent chapel) are
dedicated to industrial and graphic design, arts, crafts, architecture, contempo-
rary jewellery and fashion. Drop by to see the latest temporary exhibitions, or
call in for the spiffy bar and restaurant.
While you’re in the vicinity, it’s worth looking around the other small private
galleries and boutiques or having a drink or meal in one of the new bars and
restaurants that have sprung up in the wake of MACBA, especially on c/del
Pintor Fortuny, c/de Ferlandina, c/dels Angels and c/del Dr Joaquim Dou. For
a sit-down in one of Barcelona’s nicest traffic-free squares, head back along
c/d’Elisabets to the arcaded
Plaça deVicenç Martorell
, where
Kasparo
’s tables
overlook a popular children’s playground. Meanwhile, around the corner, the
narrow Carrer del Bonsuccés, Carrer Sitges and Carrer dels Tallers house a
concentrated selection of the city’s best independent
music stores
and urban
and streetwear shops.
Hospital de la Santa Creu and around
The district’s most substantial historic relic is the
Hospital de la Santa Creu
(
o
Liceu), which occupies a large site between c/del Carme and c/de
l’Hospital.The attractive complex of Gothic buildings was founded as the city’s
main hospital in 1402, a role that it assumed for over 500 years – Antoni Gaudí,
knocked down by a tram in 1926, was brought here for treatment but died
three days later. The hospital shifted site to Domènech i Montaner’s new
creation in the Eixample in 1930 and the spacious fifteenth-century hospital
wards were subsequently converted for cultural and educational use, and now
hold the Academy of Medicine, and two libraries, including the Catalan
national library, the Biblioteca de Catalunya.Visitors can wander freely through
the pleasant medieval cloistered
garden
(daily 10am–dusk; access from either
street), and inside the c/del Carme entrance (on the right) are some superb
seventeenth-century
azulejos
(painted tiles) of various religious scenes and a
tiled Renaissance courtyard.There’s also a rather nice café-
terrassa
in the garden
at the c/de l’Hospital side.
Walking west along c/de l’Hospital, it’s 100m or so to the bottom of
c/de
la Riera Baixa
, a narrow street that’s at the centre of the city’s secondhand
and vintage clothing scene.Walking the other way down c/de l’Hospital, back
towards the Ramblas, one of the Raval’s prettiest squares reveals itself:
Plaça
de Sant Agusti
, backed by the Catalan Baroque bulk of the Església de Sant
Agusti, an Augustinian foundation from 1728. Turning north, up c/de
Jerusalem, you soon find yourself at the back of the Boqueria market, another
area in which hip bars have proliferated recently. A couple overlook the
Jardins Dr Fleming
, a children’s playground tucked into an exterior corner
of the Hospital de la Santa Creu on c/del Carme.
EL RAVAL
|
FAD and around • Hospital
de la Santa Creu and around