Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Remodelling work on the Rambla a few months ago brought to the first archaeological remains to the surface. Barcelona’s Archaeological Service has now been able to document new discoveries. These are the remains of the modern wall and the Convent de Sant Francesc.

The area where the find was made is bounded by the space in the Rambla, 1-5, Plaça del Portal de la Pau, 1-7, and Avinguda de les Drassanes, 2-4. The remains of the Convent de Sant Francesc have been located, dated and documented, a convent that was in use between the 13^th and 19^th centuries. More specifically, the remains belong to the gardens or cultivation spaces, which reached as far as the lower part of the Rambla, and were later incorporated into the Drassanes Semi-bastion towards the end of the 18^th century. An ancient stone noria providing the water supply for the convent’s garden and incorporated into the semi-bastion has also been documented.

Archaeological work has detected the remains of a large structure, the Drassanes Semi-bastion, a defensive construction of the modern wall, created towards the end of the 18^th century and which was pulled down in the middle of the 19^th century (1854).

Parts have been documented including the entrance, courtyard and various rooms of the old Drassanes Barracks that were built attached to the Drassanes Reials [Royal Shipyards] at the end of the 18^th century.

Previous excavations had found the wall closing one of the ships of the Generalitat de les Drassanes Reials dating back to the 17^th century. In addition, the original drainage ditch from the first alterations to the Rambla at the end of the 18^th century was able to be documented as well.

Finally, medieval-period rooms have also been discovered, located in several areas of the work site, just in the internal face of the medieval wall. An ornamental fountain from the 15th century has been documented too.

A find of great historical interest

Barcelona City Council’s Archaeology Service is tasked with documenting, dating and subsequently preserving archaeological remains whose conservation has been decided on the basis of their knowledge and preservation of the city’s history. The historical remains are covered with coarse sand and earth for conservation so that subsequent archaeological digs will know the location and state of the remains.

The space is of greater historical and archaeological interest as it had been part of the city since the first pre-historical occupation at the mountain end of the Rambla. Finds were subsequently located from the city’s Roman, medieval and modern periods, with several remains from burial grounds, walls, fortifications, defensive structures and other types of urban installations.