Carrer and placeta de Montcada in Barcelona

Beside the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, there is the Placeta de Montcada which, for a long time, served the Counts of Barcelona and finally became the leading power in the town in the 11th Century. The founding of the Monastery of Santes Creus highlighted the culmination point of the family's history and the period of their greatest splendour - when Guillem Ramon de Montcada was designated King Regent to the young King Alfons II. The street soon became the main centre of commercial life in the quarter of Ribera. Today, along Carrer de Montcada, there are several commercial galleries, with its biggest one being the Galeria Maeght and others including Galeria Surrealista, Sala Montcada of the Fundacio La Caixa, Galeria Beaskoa and Galeria Montcada.

The former mansions of the Carrer de Montcada currently house the city's major institutions such as Omnium Cultural which is set in the Palau Dalmases, or Picasso Museum that occupies the Aguilar, Castellet and Meca houses. The mansion of the Marquises of Llió, which at one time was home to the Royal Academy of Letters is nowadays home to the Textile and Clothing Museum. Of particular interest are also some other buildings such as the mansion with the trefoil window, the home with the lattice window and the palace with the Tuscan gateway. Running down towards the sea, the street is lined with palaces that were built in different times from the Middle Ages through to the late 18th Century.