Roman Barcino

September 24, 2009

In session 4 our class took a little trip to the Roman Barcino and the Museu d’Historia de la Cuitat. We focused on the Romans in Catalonia and the major impact they had on the way of life. The notion of the Romans conjured up imagines of life an enormously long time ago. It almost felt impossible to get a mental grip on the way of life and epochs from the Roman culture but this field trip forced me to use my imagination. The hub of Roman Barcelona, known then as Barcino, is in fact today's

Ciutat Vella or Barri Gotic. The inhabitants of Barcino decided to build the center of the city right around the Cathedral and religious center. The center of the city was the forum, a space for commerce and meetings to occur. I made connections with this notion of the forum or center of the city with other ancient Roman cities I had seen like Girona for example. Girona had a very
similar set-up originating from it’s Roman roots as well. I thought it was really interesting that the forum area was located in Plaza St. Jaume where the council and local government buildings are still positioned today.

Most of the ancient city is now buried deep underneath today’s city center. However, the City History Museum in Placa Del Rei had a great deal of excavated ruins. My favorite part of the museum was the “time-traveling” elevator. The elevator goes down into the vaults of the city while a digital year display counts down time in big red flashing numbers. We crammed into the elevators and 2 minutes later the doors opened at 600AD. We stepped out and began to explore the ruins! The ruins included a sweet drainage system, which was just another example that helped paint the picture of life in Barcelona. They also had what it looked like a trading area where they made salted fish and wine another important cultural good of that era. Not only did this field trip help me discovered and make connections of Roman life but also it showed me a new and unexplored part of Barcelona. The Barri Gothic has now become my favorite part of the city and I have a deeper understanding of the history behind it!