Café Caelum

In the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter, in the old Jewish quarter known as the Call, there’s a cosy tea room devoted to monastic sweets: Caelum. It stands on the corner of Carrer de la Palla and Banys Nous. Coming in from the street, you find yourself in the little shop, where you can buy sweets to enjoy at home. The tea room itself is split into two spaces: one next to the shop, looking out through big windows onto the crossroads, and another down a narrow little staircase, in a dimly lit stone cellar said to have been 14th-century Jewish baths. Halfway down the stairs there’s a whole row of holy pictures of saints and Madonnas lit by candles, which give you spiritual insurance for finding a partner, looking after your business, keeping an eye on your home, getting through hard times… they even protect you from gossip! I tried to put the missing candle back, but there was no way I could… I hope it doesn’t mean anything!

As for the sweets they serve, they’re made by nuns from different monasteries all over Spain. You can try chocolate truffles, yemas de Santa Teresa (egg-yolk sweets), cinnamon sponge cakes, orange wine, jams, preserves, jellies and assorted honeys, leche frita (fried custard), panellets (the little almond sweets of All Saints’ Day), polvorones (crumbly shortbread), rosas de Santa Catalina, torta de Santiago (almond cake), turrón, tocinillos de cielo (egg-yolk custards), cabello de ángel (candied squash), etc. And you can choose from a range of teas.

Caelum is also the name of a constellation, which makes it a very fitting name for this café, where heaven has a hand both in making the sweets and in eating them.

Address: Carrer de la Palla 8, 08002 Barcelona

Telephone: 933 026 993

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