The Barrio Gótico (Gothic Quarter) of Barcelona is the oldest part of the city and its historical center, largely overlapping with the ancient Roman city of Barcino. In the past, it was known as the “Cathedral Quarter.” The historic urban axes of the neighborhood, the Roman cardo and decumanus, intersect at its highest point, the former Mount Táber, where the current Plaça de Sant Jaume is located.

The Gothic Quarter is made up of several distinct areas with their own unique identities: the Jewish Quarter (Call in Catalan), Sant Just i Pastor, Santa Maria del Pi, the Cathedral, Santa Anna, La Mercè, and the Palau. Each of these zones retains its individuality within the historic framework of the neighborhood.

The term “Barrio Gótico” originated as a tourism slogan devised by Adolfo Florensa, a councilor for the Barcelona City Council, although the original concept was created by the writer Ramón Rucabado. In 1927, Florensa identified a total of five buildings in Barcelona that could be classified as Gothic. However, Joan Rubió, the architect of the Flamboyant Gothic bridge on Carrer del Bisbe (1928), stated that “the Gothic Quarter shouldn’t be respected too much or too little because it doesn’t exist,” suggesting that much of what is considered Gothic was actually a later recreation intended to attract tourism.