From Friday 6 to Sunday 8 November, the Eixample Market is on at Casa Rius, at Carrer d’Enric Granados, 97. It’s a pop-up market for fashion and design, and entry is free.

Clothes stalls under the skylight in the main hall of Casa Rius during the Eixample Market

There are winter clothes and lots of knitwear (ponchos, shawls, crochet), jewellery and costume jewellery, candles and pieces from small brands. The stalls fill the great hall under the skylight, with its iron columns and peeling walls, and spill over into other corners of the house. Next to the garden there’s a table serving coffee if you need a break.

Stall with colourful bead necklaces in the skylit hall of Casa Rius

The place has a story of its own. Casa Rius was the workshop of the sculptor Josep Rius i Mestres, who at the age of twenty founded a business making religious statues and nativity figures, and went on to become one of the most sought-after Catalan sculptors of his day. The building is a 1912–1913 example of Catalan Art Nouveau (Modernisme), designed by the architect Salvador Puiggrós i Figueras. It combined a workshop for the business and a block of flats for the family: him, his wife and their fifteen children.

Wood and glass door with the Casa Rius logo etched in gold

The workshop carried on under different names until the 1960s and later ended up as a warehouse. It has now been restored by the Fundació ACICAC and is a cultural and events venue that only opens when there’s something on, so a market like this is a good excuse to go inside.

Old cinema seats and framed posters in one of the rooms at Casa Rius

The people at Casa Rius say that many visitors who see the entrance would never guess there’s a garden and a huge skylit hall inside. And there are corners like this room with old cinema seats, or the piano by the door, topped with candles from one of the stalls.

Grand piano with two lit candles next to the glass door of Casa Rius

If you like this kind of weekend market, a few years ago I wrote about the Downtown Market at Maremagnum and the Hermès pop-up store in the Passatge dels Camps Elisis.

Address: Carrer d’Enric Granados, 97, 08008 Barcelona
Opening hours: Friday 6 November, 3pm–8.30pm; Saturday 7, 10.30am–8.30pm; Sunday 8, 10.30am–3pm
Price: free entry
Website: Casa Rius
View on Google Maps