Barcelona: La Carboneria, Palau Güell & Gothic Quarter
We spent another day walking the city, tracking down street art, and exploring the Gothic Quarter while searching out another incredible vegetarian restaurant.
For our first stop, I was on a hunt for La Carbonería, a 19th century coal factory, one of the oldest buildings in Barcelona’s Eixample District. It now sits empty on the corner of Comtes d’Urgell and Floridablanca streets, which was only a 10 minute walk from our Airbnb. Before being deserted, La Carbonería served as the city’s most famous okupa (squatters) house from 2008 until 2014. At that time the squatters living there painted an abstract black and white tree that covered most of the building’s facade. During an unsuccessful eviction attempt by the owner in January, 2013 they hung a banner that read “Cuando una ley es injusta lo correcto es desobedecer” (When a law is unfair the right thing is to disobey). In February 2014 police successfully evicted the squatters, to the dismay of many of the neighbors, who were afraid of the building being torn down and replaced with luxury apartments. La Carbonería was scheduled to be demolished, but it was saved when the city council re-categorized it as being of historic and artistic interest. Now La Carbonería features a painting of a soaring hot air balloon with one of the building’s balconies serving as its basket.
Then, on our way to the Gothic Quarter, we stopped by another of Gaudi’s creations, PALAU GÜELL. The businessman and industrialist Eusebi Güell, increasingly fascinated by the architect’s work, commissioned Gaudí to build his residence in the center of Barcelona. The Güell Palace was a milestone of European architecture in its time and it may be considered one of the pioneering buildings of the Art Nouveau movement. This large private residence, built between 1886 and 1888, is one of Antoni Gaudi’s earlier works. It features straighter lines than Gaudi’s more famous buildings but is a great example of the evolution of his style over the years. The beautiful ironwork around the entrance resembles seaweed.
We continued on through the cutest narrow streets until we found the vegetarian restaurant we were hunting for. Tucked away in the Gothic quarter near Plaça de Sant Jaume, Rasoterra is a vegetarian bistro which serves original mediterranean style dishes and tapas. Part of the slow food movement, they pride themselves in using locally sourced organic seasonal vegetables to produce delicious vegetarian and vegan food. The drinks menu includes a good selection of locally produced organic and vegan wines. We ordered so many dishes we had enough left over for a meal at home. It was amazing.
Rasoterra : Address: Carrer del Palau, 5, 08002 Barcelona, Spain
