The walk began with labour before dawn and ended with people trying to survive until dawn. Between them, Barcelona extended darkness with new lighting, governed marginal night economies, built mass entertainment and discovered how fragile an electrified city becomes when its workers stop. The night is not empty time between two days. It has its own infrastructure, rules, jobs, pleasures and vulnerabilities.
Barcelona's Gothic Quarter is full of things that look as if they have been waiting here since the Middle Ages. Some have. Some have not. A modern plaque can tell a medieval magic story, a bridge from 1928 can pass for Gothic, a saint's legend can attach itself to a street, and an apparently ancient palace can have been physically moved across the city. This seven-stop walk does not try to ruin the atmosphere. It makes the atmosphere more interesting by asking one question at every stop: what can we actually document, what belongs to legend or later folklore, and what can you still verify with your own eyes?
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