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When Ildefons Cerdà planned the Eixample, he also planned all types of services necessary for the habitability of its citizens throughout the city. However, he never thought about the rapid growth that the right of the expansion had, so he never planned a market in that area of the city.
The block in which the Concepción market building is located, between the streets of Aragó, València, Bruc and Girona, was acquired by the city council from the lawyer Joan Pla i Moreau (although some versions do not give him full ownership of the land).
As the plot was very large, the city council allocated it to build a school for blind people on the corner of València and Bruc streets (today the Superior Conservatory of Music).
As the opening of the Vía Layetana was already being studied, the city council thought of building the Concepción church in the area, located, together with its magnificent cloister, at the intersection of Junqueras street and which was part of the Junqueras Convent. which would be dismantled stone by stone to be assembled in its new location.
The Mayor's Office of District IV was also built, today the headquarters of the Eixample District, on the corner of Aragó and Bruc streets, a building that has become too small and has undergone the transfer of the OAC offices to another nearby property on the same Aragó street.
The city council built the market on an island in the center of the block, leaving four passages on the sides for the entrance of customers, which were named Passatge Pla in memory of its first owner.
It is commented by several historians that, at the end of the 18th century, due to the lack of food establishments in the area, there were several farmers who set up their open-air sales stalls there.
The person in charge of its construction was none other than the then municipal architect Antoni Rovira i Trias, son of the master builder Antoni Rovira i Riera, who also built, among other things, the San Antonio and Hostafrancs markets, which have similarities.
The metal structure, like that of the other markets, was made by the Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima company, which was located at the beginning of the Barceloneta neighborhood.
The market project was completed in 1885, but construction, for economic reasons, did not begin until 1887. It was an isolated building with a single floor, with three gabled roofs, the central one being the highest to facilitate the entry of natural light. The central nave was 21 meters wide and the two side naves were 8.5 meters wide each.
As in the San Antonio market, Rovira i Trias built the building with exposed brick and, like its counterparts, the roof of the market was made with glazed ceramic elements in order to clean it with the rain.
It was inaugurated on September 26, 1888 by the mayor of Barcelona, Francesc de Paula Rius i Taulet, as the Right Market of Ensanche (Mercat de la Dreta de l'Eixample), although for a short time, since part of the Due to its proximity to the Concepción church, the public cordially called it "Mercado de la Concepción", a name with which it remained baptized to this day.
Between 1996 and 1998, the City Council carried out a comprehensive remodeling of the market by architect Alberto de Pineda Álvarez, in which an excavation was carried out to include a basement in which the new cold storage rooms and a vehicle parking lot were unified.
The new times made it advisable to provide the market with stalls in line with new trends and needs. The renovation was used to build a parking lot not only for customers, but also for transporters, since times had changed and it was difficult to find a place to park.
For many years the market had the privilege of having an exceptional neighbor, the now-defunct Can Ravell, founded in 1929 by Ignasi Ravell, when he acquired the primitive Estrada grocery store and, later, his son Josep Ravell converted it into a temple of gastronomy, in that you found politicians and other types of characters, eating at the same table. Can Ravell closed its doors on December 7, 2016. But this is another story...
