1. Fodor's Barcelona to Bilbao (New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, 2003), 37.
2. Some of these guidebooks can be very significant. Another Fodor's guidebook describes it in the following terms: "The Gothic quarter lies between Las Ramblas and the Via Laietana, much of which is pedestrianised. The 13th- to 15th- century buildings, still amazingly intact are splendid examples of the period's architecture, and now, combinations of museums, private homes and specialist shops," Fodor's See It: Barcelona (New York : Fodor's Travel Publications, 2003 ), 60. The same references to Medieval and Roman Barcelona can be found in Insight Guides: "Barcelona's old city, known as the Barri Gòtic or Gothic Quarter, is a wonderful display of solid stone, sprinkled with small shops, cafés, taverns and gourmet restaurants. Although most of the major architecture was completed between the 13th and the 15th centuries, there are traces of Roman civilisation. Barcelona's acropolis-the highest elevation in the Barri Gòtic-was originally the Iberian village of Laia" (Insight Guides. Spain, London: APA Publications, 2003, 252-53). As a final example, the Lonely Planet guide collects together a mixture of historic memories and information about the gastronomic and festive atmosphere of the quarter: "The Barri Gòtic is a warren of narrow, winding streets and unexpected little squares, and is home of a dense concentration of budget hotels, bars, cafés and restaurants. Few of its great buildings date from after the early 15th century-the decline of Barcelona went into that time curtailed grand projects for several centuries," Damien Simonis, Barcelona (Lonely Planet Publications, 2004), 73.
3. Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory ( Stanford : Stanford University Press, 2003 ), 3.