After September 11, 1714, the Bourbons decided to build a massive citadel in Barcelona to control a city whose population lacked strength and resources, and could barely feed itself or rebuild the houses destroyed by bombs. In fact, as he explained Albert Garcia Espuche in an interview at ARAThe people of Barcelona thought the victorious military wouldn't be capable of what they ended up doing: demolishing a thousand houses and wiping out 17% of Barcelona's surface area. One of the neighborhoods they erased from the map was La Ribera, where mainly fishermen and sailors lived. More than 300 years later, one of the streets swallowed by the rubble has resurfaced: the old Caldes Street (now Antiga de Sant Joan Street). Four of the cannonballs fired by the Bourbon army at the houses have even been found. The construction of the new sewer system has uncovered a twenty-meter stretch and up to nine houses that stood on both sides of the street. They are quite humble houses. Closer to Passeig del Born, there was likely an inn. The dining room and even the location of the fireplace can still be seen. It was in this house that four cannonballs, about thirty centimeters long, were found. Next door were probably taverns where sailors went to eat and drink. Towards the area of ​​the present-day Avenida del Marqués de la Argentera, there were salted fish shops, cod fishmongers... Archaeological work has uncovered some evidence of this activity: large ceramic tongs and some cooking grills. Archaeologists have also found many coins, many kaolin pipes, a ring, spoons...

It's a constant stream of locals dropping in. They want to know when they'll reopen. And the answer is that the Mundial Bar reopens on Wednesday, September 10th. From then until the 14th, they'll be offering much more affordable dishes and tapas. They'll be applying a 50% discount on reservations for both lunch and dinner, reminiscent of when prices were in pesetas. The interest aroused by the neighborhood of Sant Agustí Vell Square is explained by the fact that this was a refuge for people of all political stripes and the home of a boxing club.

We're near Santa Maria del Mar (Canvis Vells, 2, Barcelona) to discover the small shop specializing in Catalan cream. It's called Sucre Cremat, and they offer a 150ml tub of the creamy dessert topped with a thin layer of crunchy sugar for five euros. The establishment has a subtitle: "Authentic Catalan cream." Who had the brilliant idea of creating a special shop featuring the most representative desserts of our land? Who saw the potential and gastronomic joy of Catalan cream? A Brazilian and a Portuguese woman.

"Memory disappears from the acronym, but not from the heart of the museum," says Carles García Hermosilla, who was appointed director of the Barcelona History Museum last December. From now on, the Born Museum will drop the initials CCM (Center for Culture and Memory) and will be called El Born. Barcelona History Museum. At the presentation of the new phase of the Barcelona History Museum, which also changes its name (the acronym Muhba will no longer be used), García Hermosilla emphasized that El Born and the Barcelona History Museum "will merge."

The newspapers have reported that the library that was to be installed in the old Casa de la Prensa to renovate the Biblioteca Francesc Boix in Poble-sec will finally be installed in another space, yet to be determined. If it has to be to offer a good service to the citizens of that neighbourhood, we should be happy.

The residents of Passeig del Born and the surrounding streets wake up, especially on weekends, with the doors to their buildings full of disposable coffee cups and milkshake glasses that, suspiciously, contain slices of lemon. "We ordered sangria," says a 22-year-old student from the Netherlands, holding a takeaway coffee cup. "I'm having a cocktail," adds a friend of hers. So it is, every evening, that crowds gather to have a drink in el Born in a game of cat and mouse with the police. Often they don't respect the safety distances, they form large groups and most of those who wear masks drop them under their noses and mouths.