Ciutat Vella

As you explore Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter you’ll come across one of the city’s best-kept secrets in a building on Carrer Paradís. Inside a small medieval courtyard, the four columns from the Temple of Augustus have survived despite the passing of the centuries. They are more than 2,000 years old, like Barcelona itself.

Zealously guarded by a medieval building, four temple columns bear witness to the magnificent origins of Barcelona in the heart of the Gothic Quarter. Along with some fragments of the transept and its plinth, the columns are all that remains of the Temple of Augustus. You’ll find them at the end of Carrer Paradís in the Gothic Quarter, which is reported to take its name from a beautiful garden once located in the area around the temple in Barcelona. Opposite number 10 on this street, a millstone marks the highest point of the Roman city, Mont Tàber, a hillock that stood just over 16 metres high. The uniform columns of the Temple of Augustus inside are 9 metres tall and comprise an imposing relic of one of the temples from Barcelona’s Forum which stood on a corner site at the rear. The temple was built in the 1st century BC and, as its name suggests, it was dedicated to the worship of Emperor Augustus. It was 37 metres long and 17 metres wide, and the front contained six columns (hexastyle temple). The columns surrounded the entire building, which had a single nave inside. The temple was reconstructed by the architect Puig i Cadafalch in the early 20th century.