Mercat de la Llibertat: The Market of Liberty
Why is it significant?
In front of you rises a market hall of iron and glass, its roof edged with decorative ironwork and its gables carrying the coat of arms of Gràcia. Inside, the stalls hum with the morning's shopping: fish on crushed ice, pyramids of fruit, cured hams hanging in rows.
Key Facts
| Place | Mercat de la Llibertat: The Market of Liberty |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaça de la Llibertat 27, 08012 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.39990, 2.15350 |
| Part of Walk | Gràcia, the Village Inside Barcelona: Squares, Rebels and Gaudí's First House |
| Generated | Generated |
In front of you rises a market hall of iron and glass, its roof edged with decorative ironwork and its gables carrying the coat of arms of Gràcia. Inside, the stalls hum with the morning's shopping: fish on crushed ice, pyramids of fruit, cured hams hanging in rows.
The Mercat de la Llibertat opened in its present form in 1893, when Gràcia was still an independent town and proud of it. The name, the Market of Liberty, is no accident. This town liked to name its streets and squares after the great ideals of the nineteenth century. Wander around and you will find streets called Llibertat, Fraternitat and Progrés and, a few minutes from here, a square named after a revolution.
The designer was Francesc Berenguer, one of the great hidden figures of Catalan architecture. He was Gaudí's closest collaborator for decades, the man who turned sketches into drawings and drawings into buildings. But Berenguer never completed his architecture degree, which meant he could not legally sign his own projects. So other, qualified architects put their names to his work. On paper this market belongs to the municipal architect Miquel Pascual i Tintorer. The hand behind it was Berenguer's.
Berenguer left his mark all over Gràcia, including the town hall you are about to see. When he died in 1914, still in his forties, Gaudí is said to have been devastated, telling friends he had lost his right hand. Few people outside Barcelona know his name, and yet you could spend a whole day here walking past his buildings.
The market was restored in the early twenty-first century, keeping its iron bones and adding a modern interior, and it is still where the neighbourhood comes to argue about the price of tomatoes. Step inside if it is open, then head east, back across Gran de Gràcia, and follow the narrow streets to Plaça de la Vila, where a clock tower stands guard.