Mercat de La Boqueria
Barcelona’s most famous food market is conveniently located on La Rambla. Freshness reigns supreme and shoppers are spoiled for choice, with hundreds of stalls selling everything from vine-ripened tomatoes to haunches of beef and moist wedges of Manchego cheese. The city’s seaside status is in full evidence at the fish stalls.
La Rambla 91
Open 7am–8pm Mon–Sat
Els Encants
Barcelona’s best flea market, Els Encants (east of the city) is where you’ll find everything you want, from second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and toys to home-made pottery and used books. Discerning browsers can fit out an entire kitchen from an array of pots and pans. Bargain-hunters should come early. Discussions are being held regarding the market’s location.
Pl de les Glòries Catalanes
Open 7am–5:30pm Mon, Wed, Fri & Sat
Fira de Santa Llúcia
The Christmas season is officially under way when local artisans set up shop outside the Cathedral for the annual Christmas fair. Well worth a visit if only to peruse the row upon row of caganers, miniature figures squatting to fer caca (take a poop). Uniquely Catalan, the caganers are usually hidden in the back of nativity scenes. This unusual celebration of the scatological also appears in other Christmas traditions.
Pl de la Seu
Open 1–23 Dec: 10am–8pm (times may vary) daily
Fira de Santa Llúcia, Plaça de la Seu
Book & Coin Market at Mercat de Sant Antoni
For book lovers, there’s no better way to spend Sunday morning than browsing at this market (west of the city). You’ll find a mind-boggling assortment of weathered paperbacks, ancient tomes, stacks of old magazines, comics, postcards and lots more, from coins to videos.
C/Comte d’Urgell
Open 8am–3pm Sun
Fira Artesana, Plaça del Pi
The Plaça del Pi brims with natural and organic foods during the Fira Artesana, when producers bring their goods to this corner of the Barri Gòtic. The market specializes in home-made cheeses and honey – from clear clover honey from the Pyrenees to nutty concoctions from Morella.
Pl del Pi
Open 10am–2pm & 5–9pm 1st & 3rd Fri, Sat & Sun of month
Cheeses, Fira Artesana, Plaça del Pi
Fira de Filatelia i Numismàtica
Spread out in the elegant Plaça Reial, this popular stamp and coin market draws avid collectors from all over the city. The newest collectors’ items are phone cards and old xapes de cava (cava bottle cork foils). When the market ends (and the local police go to lunch), a makeshift flea market takes over. Old folks from the barrio and immigrants haul out their belongings – old lamps, clothing, junk – and lay it all out on cloths on the ground.
Pl Reial
Open 9:30am–2:30pm Sun
Mercat de Santa Caterina
Each barrio has its own food market with tempting displays but this one boasts a spectacular setting. Opened in 2005, the building was designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles (1955–2000).
Av Francesc Cambó 16
Open 8am–2pm Mon, 8am–3:30pm Tue, Wed & Sat, 8am–8:30pm Thu & Fri
Mercat del Art de la Plaça de Sant Josep Oriol
At weekends, local artists flock to this Barri Gòtic square to sell their art and set up their easels. You’ll find everything from watercolours of Catalan landscapes to oil paintings of churches and castles.
Pl de Sant Josep Oriol
Open 11am–8:30pm Sat, 10am–2pm Sun
Mercat dels Antiquaris
Antiques aficionados and collectors contentedly rummage through jewellery, watches, candelabras, silver trays, embroidery and assorted bric-a-brac at this long-running antiques market in front of the Cathedral.
Pl de la Seu
Open 10am–9pm Thu
3.14.246.254