Plaça del Rei (meaning “King’s Square” in Catalan) is one of the most charming places in Barcelona. However, this emblematic place hides a bloody past—it once housed the prisons of the Spanish Inquisition. Today, a coat of arms in stone is still preserved. In the Middle Ages, a number of important buildings were established here: the Royal Palace, the Chapel Saint Àgata, and the seven-story King Martí Tower, the highest in medieval Barcelona. In the Inquisition’s old prisons (outbuildings of the Royal Palace), on the façade corresponding to Carrer dels…
