When the old wholesale Born market, a glorious 19th-century cast-iron structure built in imitation of similar buildings in Paris, underwent demolition in the 1990s, the plan was to turn it into a high-end retail destination, or perhaps a public library. But then ruins of streets and building foundations were discovered during the excavation, and the plan was put on hold while urban archaeologists did their work. Plans for the building shifted radically as city governments came and went, and when the smoke cleared and the Cultural Center opened in 2013, a glass floor at street level revealed basements similar to the buildings that still surround the market house. Why? In a transparently political move, the archaeological site was deemed significant because the ruins represent the siege of 1714, when the Spanish took over Catalunya. Is it worth visiting? Some of the center’s temporary exhibitions, like those highlighting the history of the building’s use as a market and the sociology surrounding that era, are edifying. Admission to the core of the center is free; you get what you pay for.