El Raval: the fat cat, the skaters, and the oldest church
Botero's bronze cat, the white museum where the city skates, and a Romanesque cloister behind it all. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Rambla del Raval
A broad, modern *rambla* cut through the old tenements in the 1990s — palm trees, kids playing football, and Botero's enormous bronze cat halfway down. Rub its nose, photograph it, then keep walking; this is a lived-in *barri* (neighbourhood), not a set.

2. Sant Pau del Camp
The oldest church in Barcelona — Romanesque, ninth or tenth century, with a tiny cloister of carved capitals that almost nobody visits. A small fee for the cloister, and you will likely be alone in it.

3. MACBA plaza
Richard Meier's blinding white museum faces a wide flat *plaça* (square) that became, by accident, the best skate spot in Europe. You do not need a ticket to watch — sit on the steps for half an hour; the skaters are the show.

4. CCCB
The contemporary-culture centre next door, in a converted almshouse — worth stepping into the courtyard even between shows for the angled glass wall that throws the rooftops back at you. The exhibitions are reliably the most interesting in the city.

5. Mercat de la Boqueria (back edge)
Come in from the *Raval* side, off *Carrer de Jerusalem*, to reach the fish and the stand-up bars before the La Rambla crush finds them. Late afternoon, the traders are winding down and the prices soften.

El Raval: the fat cat, the skaters, and the oldest church