The route begins in Plaza de Sant Jaume, containing the Palau de la Generalitat, which was the seat of the Catalan parliament in the times of Peter III the Great (1283) and is currently the headquarters of the Regional Government of Catalunya. Most of it is built in the Gothic style: the portico crowned by a medallion on Calle del Bisbe, the staircase and courtyard, built in 1425, as well as the Pati dels Taronjers, of 1526. The City Hall, home to the Casa de la Ciudad since the fourteenth century, runs through a whole gamut of styles from the neoclassical façade to the Saló de Cent, inaugurated in 1373.

The Calle del Bisbe takes us to the Cathedral. From the Pla de la Seu we see the most modern part of the building: its main front, which was finished at the beginning of the last century, albeit based on a Gothic design of 1408.

The Capilla de Santa Llúcia, backing onto the cathedral, is a transitional Romanesque chapel built in 1268. In the Pla de la Seu stands the Edifici de la Pia Almoina, an eleventh-century poorhouse that was thoroughly overhauled in the fifteenth century. It is now home to the Museu Diocesà, Barcelona’s DiocesanMuseum, which exhibits a collection of medieval religious art. Huddling away from the hustle and bustle of the Plaza Catalunya is the Monasterio de Santa Anna with its Romanesque style church with Gothic reforms. The cloister and chapter house were built in the fifteenth century.

Towards Las Ramblas, on Plaza del Pi stands the fourteenth-century Iglesia del Pi, following the scheme of nave with side chapels set among the buttresses. Crossing Las Ramblas we can then visit the city’s medieval hospital, the Hospital de Santa Creu, built in 1401 by King Martí. This building boasts particularly fine Gothic naves and cloister.

The tucked-away Plaza del Rei lies only a few metres from the Plaza de Sant Jaume and is a must on any tour of Barcelona’s Gothic or Roman sights. The square is backed by the façade of the Palau Reial Major containing the Salón del Tinell, an exquisite Gothic room where the Catholic Monarchs received Columbus after his first journey to the New World. To the right is the fifteenth-century Capella de Santa Àgata and the high belfry, the Torre del Rei Martí (1555), from the top of which there are excellent views of the Gothic district. To the left, the Palau del Lloctinent, built in 1550, was for some time the site of the Official Archive of the Crown of Aragon.