The rear wall of the Drassanes, the one that faces the current Blanquerna square, preserves a curious vestige from when the current Maritime Museum was a barracks. These are 16 aligned metal rings that were formerly used to tie army horses and mules. Since the 18th century, Las Drassanes housed the artillery park and training ground, and an adjacent building that has now disappeared next to the Rambla was the cavalry barracks, which today is occupied by the Naval Command.
The Drassanes area where the rings are located was a place of great traffic of stables, given its proximity to the portal of Santa Madrona. This was the entrance and exit to the walled city of the military quartered in the old medieval shipyards. It was used by horse detachments and also by draft animals assigned to transport artillery pieces, manufactured and repaired in the master's workshops, where for centuries the powerful galleys with which the Crown dominated Aragon had been manufactured. the Mediterranean and today converted into a museum.
What was the cavalry barracks was attached to the Drassanes and occupied the space up to the Rambla. It was built at the end of the 18th century and was distributed around a large central patio.
In 1927, the Government of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship undertook a plan to modernize the barracks, and the cavalry barracks began to be demolished in 1935 as it was considered obsolete. The medieval Drassanes, a unique civil Gothic complex in the world, continued as a park and artillery barracks until the civil war.
Initially, the land of the cavalry barracks was to be given to the city. The demolition was received with enthusiasm by the people of Barcelona, who were able to visit the building during a festive day before its demolition. The war delayed the plans and until the 1950s it remained as a vacant lot, until the current Naval Command was erected, maintaining its military use.
