Sant Miquel del Port: The Birth of Barceloneta in 1753
Why is it significant?
Stand in the little square and look first at the church, then down the street beside it. The church is baroque, honey-coloured, built in the 1750s. The street is narrow and dead straight, and so is the next one, and the next. You are standing in one of the first planned neighbourhoods in Spain.
Key Facts
| Place | Sant Miquel del Port: The Birth of Barceloneta in 1753 |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaça de la Barceloneta, 08003 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.38000, 2.18850 |
| Part of Walk | Barceloneta and the Sea: Barcelona's Fishermen, Bombas and Beaches |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in the little square and look first at the church, then down the street beside it. The church is baroque, honey-coloured, built in the 1750s. The street is narrow and dead straight, and so is the next one, and the next. You are standing in one of the first planned neighbourhoods in Spain.
Its story begins with a defeat. In 1714, after a long siege, Barcelona fell to the army of Philip the Fifth. To control the rebellious city, the new king built a huge fortress, the Ciutadella, and to make room for it, a large part of the old seaside quarter of La Ribera was demolished. Thousands of people lost their homes, and many of them ended up living in shacks on the beach for decades.
The answer came in 1753. The Captain General of Catalonia, the Marquis de la Mina, launched a new quarter on the sandbank outside the walls, drawn by military engineers. Long narrow blocks, identical small houses of a ground floor and one storey, every street running towards the sea. The houses were kept low, the story goes, so that the cannons of the fortress could see over them. The parish church of Sant Miquel del Port was one of the first buildings to go up, between 1753 and 1755, and the people simply called the whole place Barceloneta, little Barcelona.
What happened next is the secret of the neighbourhood's character. In the nineteenth century, with industry and the port booming, the owners added floor upon floor and split each house into tiny flats, often around thirty square metres. They were called quarts de casa, quarters of a house, and generations of fishermen's families were raised in them. That is why life here spills out onto the street: the balconies, the chairs on the pavement, the washing over your head.
A block away, in Carrer de Sant Carles, a little house from 1761 has been restored to show how those first homes looked inside. Now head back to the Passeig de Joan de Borbó and walk south along the quay, towards the slim tower with a clock on the fishermen's wharf.