Gothic Barcelona

Discover the ancient core of Barcelona, the Gothic Quarter. Founded by the Romans in 15 BC and built and rebuilt, Barcelona, with the Gothic Quarter at its heart, has always been known for its fine dining. It was about Barcelona that a king´s counsellor once wrote: “Catalans eat with more grace, and better than other nations.” Barcelona and Catalan, a Latin-derived language, are intricately connected. It was here that the first recipes in the language, such as the famous recipe book Sent Soví, were written in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Catalan cuisine is a distinctive amalgamation of ancient Roman and Visigoth customs, stemming from right here in the Gothic Quarter, with that of Andalusia, itself a combination of Mediterranean culture and Arabian influences. Rice, spinach, eggplant, lemons, sugar, and fideus (a type of pasta) were all introduced to the Iberian peninsula by the Arabs, while fish, olives, greens (long viewed as a source of health) were indicative of long held Mediterranean customs.

From the very beginning, Catalan cuisine showed a willingness to adapt and incorporate the best of other culinary cultures, as befitting the spirit of this cosmopolitan city on the crossroads Europe. The tour will take you on a journey of discovery of the hidden and not so hidden influences of the various cultures that have left their mark on Catalan cuisine and along the way reveal some little-known facts about these ancient streets and Barcelona’s millennia of history.