The emergence of the Roman forum changed the history of urban planning in Barcelona.

BarcelonaWhen the Romans arrived in what would become Barcelona between 15 and 13 BC, they were looking for the best location to found a colony between the prosperous Emporiae (Empúries) on the north coast and Tarraco (Tarragona) on the south coast. The chosen site was the summit of Mons Tàber, a small hill overlooking the sea and the plain, where Plaça Sant Jaume is located today. The colony, with the full name of Iulia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino, grew rapidly, and in the 1st century AD it was walled and a forum was built. The construction work on the Gran Hotel Barcino, at number 3 Carrer Hércules, has unearthed an extraordinarily well-preserved section of this central element of Roman city life. The remains will be preserved and can be viewed in a museum space within the hotel.

This is not only the most important archaeological find in Barcelona in the last thirty years, but it also forces us to rethink many things. The orientation of the forum has been the subject of debate, sometimes quite intense, among various scholars of the city's Roman past. In Ancient Rome, the forum was the political, administrative, religious, and commercial center. The most important public buildings were concentrated there: the basilica (a space for business and trials), the curia (where the local senate met), the market, and the temple dedicated to the emperor. It was the central square of the city and the point where the two main axes of the urban layout intersected. These two axes were the thistle, in a north-south direction, and the decumanusIn an east-west direction. Until now, most studies, despite some discrepancies, had argued that the forum was aligned with the cardo. This discovery indicates, however, that it ran parallel to the decumanus. Therefore, there is a complete reversal and a new interpretation of how Barcino grew. In fact, it sheds more light on the urban layout and helps explain why certain pavements, walls, and architectural alignments that had appeared in the past seemed contradictory.

"It's the foundational pavement, because there was no previous construction underneath," says Jordi Amorós, the archaeologist who led the research. The forum measured about 80 meters long, stretching from Pietat Street, where the columns of the Temple of Augustus are located, to where the hotel now stands, and about 70 meters wide, from Bisbe Street to Freneria Street. "Both the Catalan government and the Barcelona City Council maintain that the forum is perpendicular to the sea, not parallel to it as previously stated. This will necessitate changes to museum displays and history books," asserts Xavier Maese of the Barcelona Archaeology Service.

The monumentality of Barcino

The remains of the forum demonstrate the skill and precision of the Romans when it came to constructing large public works. It is a complex measuring 42 meters.² Composed of large rectangular blocks, the slabs, which can reach up to 149 centimeters in length and 118 centimeters in width, retain a considerable thickness of between 18 and 35 centimeters. Construction took place between 15 and 10 BC, and the Romans transported the stones from Montjuïc with the intention of creating a stable and substantial surface on rather uneven terrain. The Montjuïc quarry was already being exploited during prehistoric times. The oldest recorded human settlement on the Barcelona plain has been found there: a jasper extraction workshop from the Epipaleolithic period. Excavations continued for many more centuries, until the 1960s. Between 1989 and 1990, an archaeological campaign revealed that local sandstone had been quarried in the area since Roman times. Last June, the remains of a Roman-era quarry face were also discovered Dating from between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, the large pavement is only partially preserved.

"When we dug a hole to install the elevator, the pavement started to emerge, and we had to rethink the project. We could have simply removed the stones, but we weren't in a position to do that," explains Xenia Gargallo of the Gargallo Group, owners of the hotel. The excavation began three years ago, and the idea of ​​installing an elevator was definitively ruled out in July 2023. The most fruitful phase, when the entire pavement was uncovered, took place between February and July 2025.

"Until now, no paving of the quality and extent of the forum had been found in Barcelona," Amorós asserts. It is over two thousand years old but extraordinarily well preserved. It helps one imagine the grandeur of Barcino, which in Ancient Rome had large domus scattered throughout the city, with gardens and rich ornamental decorations. Written sources speak of a certain opulence: "They live in marble palaces, they are shrunken from all the gold they wear, they drag silk trains, they are painted crimson, and, moreover, there is no lack of gardens and places of rest by the sea, exquisite wines, splendid banquets." The Bishop of Barcelona between 360 and 386 was scandalized by the Romans.

More than 150 marble fragments

The paving stones aren't the only things that have been recovered. In the southeast corner of the pavement, a Roman concrete foundation is preserved, which would have formed part of the original boundary of the complex. Next to it are two wells, 2.6 meters deep, connected by a siphon. This hydraulic system likely supplied water to fountains and ornamental pieces. Throughout the excavation, more than 150 marble fragments have been recovered, which arrived in Barcino from Carrara, Anatolia, Egypt... It must have been quite sumptuous.

This fragment of the city's past, which will not disappear, is not the only one found during the excavations. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the forum also gradually faded away. Life went on, and construction took place on top of it as the city and its streets were reconfigured. Like any excavation, each level opens a window to the past and reveals its scars. The arrival of Ataulf, the Visigothic king, and Galla Placidia in the 5th century left the traces of plunder. "It was used to create an open-air market, and we've also found materials from the Carolingian period. There are quite irregular walls consistent with domestic spaces. Around 1380, the Gothic house (the Llauder or Requesens house) was built, and where the forum had been, there was a courtyard in the air." In the mid-15th century, with the construction of the church of Sant Just and Sant Pastor, there were changes to the urban layout. In the 16th century, the courtyard was enclosed and built upon. The Requesens house passed through different families, and in 1925, a religious order, the Daughters of Saint Joseph, moved in. In 2008, the Gargallo group bought the building to convert it into a hotel.

An exceptional numismatic collection has been found, with Late Roman, Carolingian, and Saracen coins. "There's one commemorating the founding of Constantinople, and another of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son," Amorós points out. From the medieval period, a 3,000-liter silo has been unearthed, built upon Roman concrete and perfectly preserving its original form. When visitors enter the courtyard of this medieval building, now a hotel, they can journey back in time and observe its transformation from the 1st century AD to the present day. The paving, the hydraulic structure, the Late Antique structures, and the medieval silo are all clearly visible. It's not all stones, though; there's also the story of Lucius Licinius Secundus. He was a freedman (a freed slave) who achieved exceptional prestige in the 2nd century AD. The epigraphic pedestal bears witness to his story. There are many more elements that bring us closer to the daily lives of our ancestors, such as a bottle with a message from the early 20th century that reads: "Watch the cap, there's money." "The area where the forum is located will be the breakfast area, but guided tours will be organized in collaboration with the Barcelona History Museum," says Gargallo.