By Jared Teitel
Nestled in between the stone walls and open courtyard of a Renaissance tower lays a hidden gem housing a hub of history: Museu Historia de Barcelona, or the Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA).
Museu Historia de Barcelona encapsulates a complete cultural reset into this coastal region of Catalonia, covering over a dozen areas and hotspots across the city – including but not limited to Temple of Augustus, Door of the Sea, Roman Funeral Way, Domus of Sant Honorat, Casa de l’Aigua and Turó de la Rovira.
But the one I guide you through today holds a special place in the heart of Barcelona’s medieval Gothic Quarter: the Plaça del Rei. Taken in an elevator flight more than 2000 years through time, you soon become introduced to a world that is hard to imagine was once the city you currently stand on.
Visitors gather outside the entrance of Museu Historia de Barcelona in this section of the Plaça del Rei square.
Plaça del Rei & Casa Padellàs
If you are truly looking for a day dedicated to discovering the history of Barcelona, be sure to make this noble 14th-century square your first stop. A subsection of the Palacio Real Mayor, or the Grand Royal Palace, Plaça del Rei began as a market hosting traditional joust events, locally known as Justas, which were open to public observance.
Now protecting the square is the Gothic-inspired Casa Padellàs, a royal palace built in the 16th century but later relocated to Plaça del Rei in 1931 after the construction of new roads threatened its existence. However, we can only thank this urbanization for laying men and women from across the globe an opportunity to travel back in time as they make their way to this charming Barcelona neighborhood.
Exterior of Casa Padellàs, rebuilt stone by stone in Plaça del Rei after its removal from Calle Mercaders.
“The main house of the museum was moved from the Vie Laeitana to here,” said Goam, security guard at Museu Historia de Barcelona. “It was during that time when the people discovered the archaeological remains.”
During the period of reconstructing the palace at Plaça del Rei in the mid-20th century, ancient ruins of the Roman civilization were found buried beneath the surface of the city. By the end of the Spanish Civil War, architects could fully devote their attention to preserving this hidden piece of history. More than a decade of archaeological excavations finally culminated in the transition of an imperial palace into a historical landmark. In April 1943, Casa Padellàs became home to the Museu Historia de Barcelona – 450 years to the day Christopher Colombus returned to Barcelona after his discovery of the New World.
Introducing Barcino
Upon entrance into the museum at Plaça del Rei are you escorted into what seems like an unsuspecting elevator car. Above the head will you find a monitor flashing the year 2022 in bright red. But with one click of a button leading downstairs your journey into Museu Historia de Barcelona begins. As you descend below ground level, you also descend through time as the monitor rapidly counts down to 12 BC. The next thing you know, the gates open into 4000 square meters of an ancient settlement by the name of Barcino, the Roman term for Barcelona.
The village of Barcino came into being after Roman Emperor Octavian colonized and claimed the territory from the Iberian Laeitani tribes between 15 BC and 10 BC. The Romans were quick to establish themselves separate from their neighbors along the peninsula when a defensive wall was built around the colony at the height of the first century.
Among the first artifacts you encounter stepping into what remains of the ancient city include a narrow path of roads and workshops. What appears to be shallow floors of rock were once the sources of laundry, bathing, dying clothes and other domestic activities.
A ring road extending between the defense wall and homes in Barcino.
Interestingly enough, you walk past deteriorated factories, or fullonicas, where launderers stepped in vats filled with urine and water to clean the clothes of the village people. Yes, in an era where Tide was not of any use, apparently human waste was considered the next best thing to free garments of stains and stenches.
Wine duct to store must, which is later transferred into fermentation vessels within the wine-making facility (c. late 3rd century) .
The fishing village
Just a few steps from the prehistoric workshops and laundromats is a fishing district that makes the Romans’ love for seafood quite clear. Off to your side are former factories once devoted to salting fish and preparing oysters caught fresh from the coast.
Another staple of the Ancient Roman diet included a decadent sauce known as garum, which was prepared by fermenting fish offal with prawns and oysters – a lovely pairing to a seafood meal.
Within these factories, you will find large tanks meant for bathing shellfish in salt, as well as smaller ceramic pots known as dolia for storing sizeable quantities of garum -- all waiting to be bought and sold to households and families across the colony.
Top to bottom: large salted fish tanks (c. 3rd century AD), ceramic dolia for preparing and storing garum (c. 3rd century AD), factories for chopping fish and preparing cetaria (c. 5th century AD)
The episcopal ensemble
As you make your way the into last legs of the museum do you begin to encounter a section of the city that concentrated a great deal of spiritual meaning for its Roman residents.
Main doorway of the episcopal hall, which led directly into a corridor housing the burials of many of the bishop's clerics.
Ever since its legalization by Emperor Constantine I in the 3rd century AD, the Christian faith became key to the function of domestic life and state affairs. Basilicas, monasteries and baptiseries soon took the place of public buildings as Christianity quickly came to symbolize the locus of power in Barcino.
Baptistery pools reconstructed into octangular shapes from square shapes in the 5th century.
As you stroll through the dimly lit episcopal complex of the ancient city, what remains of baptismal pools and the bishop’s quarters are found at almost every corner. Even pieces of stone coffin called sarcophagi lie propped up behind glass cases, carved with images of biblical characters and stories.
Sarcophagi with religious decoration constructed in workshops around Rome and afforded only by local elites.
And as you bring your tour to an end, it piques your interest to think what once was the epicenter of Roman life has amounted to almost nothing but decaying rubble today.
What next?
Museu Historia de Barcelona at Plaça del Rei only shares a fraction of the now vibrant city’s story. Ancient Roman artifacts have practically become the hidden Mickeys of the city as the pillars of old temples, tombs, thermal baths and chapels lay along modern buildings or city streets.
“There are a lot of civilizations in the museum, so we have many parts of the Museu Historia de Barcelona,” said MUHBA security guard Victor. “ It dates from the prehistoric times to the medieval times,” Gaom said cutting in.
Plaça del Rei’s museum stops only in the sixth century, so making your way to check out MUHBA’s fourteen additional sites documenting nearly a dozen additional centuries will surely make your travel through time complete.
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