The birth in 1836 of a finally established Sant Josep market was largely the result of tenacity under the sign of physical presence.
In fact, the historian Ramon Grau already goes back to a distant 1217 evoking precariously installed stalls dedicated to the cutting of meats next to the bed of a stream that will eventually be transformed into the Rambla.
The construction of the first Gothic wall at the end of that century forced the displacement of the task that had generated the name Bocateria. The place where they stopped and the butchers were concentrated, near one of the portals, was named Boqueria.
The urbanization of La Rambla in the last third of the 18th century forced order to bring order to that agglomerated merchant trade located on what was already a public road with a clear vocation to be the main artery of the city.
The demolition of some buildings belonging to the great convent of Sant Josep made it possible in 1823 to locate an increasingly growing activity there. The anti-clerical fervor unleashed by a more political and social than bullfighting riot that broke out in the Barceloneta bullring, El Torín, led to the fire of the convent and the church of Sant Josep. It ran in 1835. The nascent lot then allowed it to be the destination to welcome the disorganized market that invaded the Rambla the following year.
Meanwhile, the temptation had arisen to transform that huge void into Plaça Treball. Soon this claim was dismissed.
The architect Josep Mas i Vila designed the framework of a robust colonnade that went on to monumentalize the market of Sant Josep, which the popular voice had already consolidated, in good logic, as the Boqueria. It consisted of 340 mobile sales stalls. Those that had been located inside the porticoed enclosure were not only fixed, but all had housing above them. The fish shop was located behind the Virreina.
It is to be regretted that, when it was decided to install a necessary and large cover that the so congested Boqueria deserved, they did not opt for the iron structure, an innovative trend, feasible and, of course, better. In this proposal, the collaboration of the architect was given until 1914.
