It is one of the most unique corners of Barcelona. It is located in the current Consolat de Mar street, next to the Llotja, forming one of the corners of the small square of the same name. They are known as the Voltes dels Encants and Voltes dels Pintors, and are a set of arches and porticoes located on the ground floor of various buildings. Precisely on these ground floors and on others that formerly formed part of the now-defunct porticoed square of Sant Sebastià —where today the Post Office building stands—, the Encants market, one of the oldest in Europe, was held for five centuries.
Plaça de Sant Sebastià disappeared with the opening of Via Laietana. It took its name from the convent of the same name that stood on what is now the Plaza de Antoni López. The Encants were located in this square and in Consolat de Mar street from the end of the 14th century until the Universal Exposition of 1888, when they were transferred to the Sant Antoni market and the current Mistral avenue, before their last locations in the Plaza de the Glories.
Of those Encants next to the Llotja, the remains of some of its arches remain today. For example, those found on the ground floor of the housing estates between numbers 15 and 31, which, although they date from the mid-19th century, maintained the medieval arches that characterized the previous buildings. Today there are only two left, corresponding to estate 31 in Consolat de Mar, which are connected for pedestrians with Carrer de Portadores and Carrer de las Panses.
The arches corresponding to farms 15 to 29 were closed and transformed into premises that currently house various shops, but inside which the structures of the medieval vaults can still be seen.
Forming a right angle with these, are the so-called Voltes des Pintors, some porticos corresponding to two old buildings supported by quadrangular pillars and a wooden roof that were rehabilitated in the 1990s. The ground floors, set back about three meters, are also local commercial. The rest of the building are houses.
