Today running between the Romanesque Capella d'en Marcús and Passeig del Born, this medieval high street (an early example of town planning) was driven towards the sea from the road that in the 12th century led northeast from the city walls. It became Barcelona's most coveted address for the merchant classes; the great mansions that remain today mostly date from the 14th and 15th centuries (several of them housing the Museu Picasso).
This area was the commercial heartland of medieval Barcelona. Five of the mansions on the east side of the street have been linked to house the Museu Picasso. Across the road, others house what is now the Museu de Cultures del Món. Several other mansions on this street are commercial art galleries where you’re welcome to browse. Make time for a cocktail in the courtyard of the originally medieval Palau de Dalmases.
At the corner of Carrer dels Carders and the northern end of the street, beyond the 19th-century Carrer de la Princesa, stands a Romanesque chapel, the Capella d’en Marcús, once a wayfarers’ stop on the road northeast out of medieval Barcelona.
