The birth in 1836 of a finally settled Sant Josep market was largely the consequence of a tenacity under the sign of physical presence.
Indeed, the historian Ramon Grau already dates back to 1217 when he evoked precariously installed stalls dedicated to cutting meat next to the bed of a stream that would end up being transformed into the Rambla.
The construction of the first Gothic wall at the end of that century forced the displacement of that work that had generated the name of Bocateria; the place where the butcher shops ended up and concentrated, fits one of the portals, received the name of Boqueria.
The urbanization of the Rambla in the last third of the 18th century made it necessary to put order in that agglomerated merchant trade in what was already a public thoroughfare, with a clear vocation of being the main artery of the city.
The demolition of some buildings belonging to the great convent of Sant Josep already allowed in 1823 to locate an increasingly growing activity there. The anticlerical fervor unleashed by the more political and social noise than bullfighting that broke out in the arena of Barceloneta, Torín, caused the fire of the convent and the church of Sant Josep. It was 1835. The nascent site allowed then to be the destination to welcome the disorganized marketing that invaded the Rambla the following year.
In the interim the temptation had arisen instead to transform that enormous void into Treball Square. This claim was soon dismissed.
The architect Josep Mas i Vila designed the framework of a robust colonnade that went on to monumentalize the Sant Josep market, but that the popular voice had already logically consolidated as Boqueria. It consisted of 340 mobile sales stalls; Those that had been located inside the porticoed enclosure were not only fixed, but all had a home on top of it. The fish market was located behind the Virreina.
It was unfortunate that when deciding to install a necessary and large coverage that Boqueria deserved so full, the railway structure was not opted for, an innovative, feasible and of course better trend. The collaboration of the architect Josep Oriol Mestres was given in such a proposal, although the project did not prosper. We had to wait until 1914.
