MERCADO SAN MIGUEL

Like a Cinderella story for the modern world, this market began life in 1916 and after falling into disrepair, was given a fairy godmother-like makeover, transforming it into the thrumming Mercado it is today. Under its wood and iron roof you’ll find 33 different vendors, selling everything from fresh fish and meat wrapped in crisp white paper to cookery books and utensils, fresh baked goods and stalls from the likes of Vinçon, the high-end design store from Barcelona, and Laie, the Catalan bookseller with an eye for the unusual.

It also does a great trade in restaurants, boasting the cervecería for beer-lovers, La Casa del Bacalao for cheap, fresh tapas, and the Pastelería Austriaca for fresh pastries, to be eaten at communal, picnic-style tables throughout the space that attracts both tourists and locals alike. There’ll be no turning into a pumpkin come midnight, but you may well believe you’ve been touched by magic – foregoing air-conditioning, the market releases a mist of micro-rain every few minutes to keep its customers cool; not exactly fairy dust, but close enough.