The Plaça de la Font dates from medieval times and its name comes from an artificial spring that was initially built there, in the 18th century, to bring water from outside of the walls. 

It was first called Plaça Mitjana (1573-1583) and then Plaça de la Font or Plaça de la Vila (1724-1825), as it was where the Town Hall used to be, in the Pia Almoina building. It was also known popularly as the Plaça de les Patates, because there used to be a potato market held there.

The square’s original spring was built against the wall of the Pia Almoina in 1636. The water cistern can still be seen inside the Pia Almoina. There is an inscription on the building’s exterior with the names of the men who were the town’s councillors (“jurats”) at the time.
The present spring was built in the late 19th century.

As well as the Pia Almoina building (13th-14th centuries), the square has other important buildings, such as Can Mirambell, today called Can Frigola (15th-16th centuries), with a 16th-century porticoed ground floor and windows, and the butcher’s shop at Can Baldiró, previously called Cal Nunci, where Father Cinto Verdaguer stayed in the summer of 1884. 

Location