Enchanted by the energy at El Mercat dels Encants

Seven years ago, we wandered around this amazing piece of architecture, a newly built market with a wild sculpted roofline of gold-foil-like panes -- El Mercat dels Encants. Yesterday, we went to explore it.

Market stalls and people reflected in the gold ceiling; you can make out bolts of fabric in the bottom left

It's a second-hand market that's been operating since the 1300s in different locations outside the old city wall, then within the city, and now in it's amazing new building. Wikipedia points out that the architects designed it to avoid looking like a shopping center. The inside outer walls comprise a series of ramped walkways with stalls, so we could start at the top and work our way down -- sorta like the Guggenheim -- to the ground floor that had a warren of vendors.  Despite "just continue down", we constantly got turned around, or ended up back where we'd been, because each level fanned out into other rows and files of vendors and racks and shops -- a fun way to get lost. 

Before we hit the ground level, we needed some refreshment. Since this is a civilized country, there were several cafes and bars within the Mercat.  We stopped at one that was doing a booming business -- frenetic even -- for some sandwiches and wine, and took in the view of the Torre Glories and Museu Disseny (design museum) nearby.

The upper floors seemed to specialize in new items, as well as antiques, like this gorgeous brass and wood slide projector. There were stores with statues and cherubs, some with military helmets from the Spanish Civil War, others with light fixtures from the 1970s (I didn't check to see if they had lava lamps, sorry). On the ground floor, it was a mosh-pit of random items -- consumer electronics, socks, bolts of fabric, kitchen items, barbeque and paella equipment. 

We looked for a glass pot lid to cover our plancha but didn't find what we needed. I don't think it's a place we'll go to often, like we do our food markets, but if we're in search of something esoteric or want a rush of flea markets and barkers, we'll be back to visit.