Mercat de Sant Josep - La Boqueria, Barcelona

La Boqueria is the public food market opening onto La Rambla, and its stalls offer an unusually broad range of goods. More than 300 stands fill about 2,583 square metres, serving household shoppers and the city’s restaurateurs with both familiar and exotic produce. The market occupies the arcaded Plaça de Sant Josep, and its present character combines iron construction with Catalan modernisme.

Its most striking feature is the roof overhead: a metal structure made by La Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima, inaugurated in 1914. Look at the long iron framework and the coloured glasswork gathered around the arch at the end facing La Rambla. That arch, built in 1913 by Antoni de Falguera, carries an older Barcelona emblem within a circular glass design and hangs from forged-iron floral garlands.

The market’s story reaches back to at least 1217, when tables near an old city gate sold meat. The current structure began in 1840 under architect Josep Mas i Vila, after centuries of open-air trading. Women have shaped its daily life across generations; most of the market’s more than 300 businesses have been run by women.