Sant Pau del Camp, a little known jewel!

Although most people just have the time to see the basic Old Town, which would include the Gothic Quarter (Cathedral, Jewish section, medieval alleys and squares...) and the Born section (Santa Maria del Mar, Montcada street, maybe the Picasso Museum aswell), sometimes I'm asked to include in our itinerary other places off the beaten track.

This is the case of the Murph. After a halfday trip to Montserrat, and a Gaudí and Montjuic tour, we still had planned a discovery of the Old Town. So after stopping for lunch at one of my favorite bars of the Boqueria Market (they really wanted to have an authentic food experience, and we had it!), we headed first to the Gothic Quarter and the Born section.

The Murph love architecture and were specially interested in the Middle Ages. They had made some research and had found out about one of the oldest monasteries in town: Sant Pau del Camp. I'm rarely asked to take someone to this charming little-known place, a jewel hidden in the "wild" Raval district. So I was very pleased to take them there.

From the Born area we crossed the Mercè quarter (another area that I rarely include in my average tours... except for a couple of great taverns in my tapas tours!), passed by Palau Güell and entered the multicultural streets of the Raval that took us to this romanesque monastery built over 1000 years ago in what used to be the countryside around Barcelona (hence its name: St. Paul of the Field).

The Murph enjoyed its ancient architecture (specially its cozy cloister) and its millenary history. And after the visit I took them to a nearby avenue and helped them getting a cab back to their hotel. This had been an exciting and illustrating day!