Ganiveteria Roca
More than a century selling knives
Plaça del Pi is home to one of Barcelona’s oldest establishments, a knife shop that has preserved its Viennese-style windows. This shop, which started out in 1916 selling high-quality scalpels and straight razors, has become part of the collective image of one of Barcelona’s most historic squares.
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Why visit Ganiveteria Roca?
Ganiveteria Roca, in Plaça del Pi in the Gothic Quarter, has been located for more than a hundred years in the ground-floor premises of the Gothic building constructed in 1685 for the Guild of Traders of Barcelona. One of the facades of the building, which is now occupied by the Associació de Socors Mutus insurance agency, sports the city’s oldest sgraffito work.
The knife shop has remained faithful to its original decoration, including its Viennese-style shop windows, which still contain traces of its original early 20th-century techniques such as an anvil, and the signs bearing the name of both the shop and the cities Solingen, Paris and Barcelona, Europe’s principle cutting-tool manufacturing centres at that time.
Ramon Roca learnt his trade in Catalonia, Germany and France and founded the company with his brother in 1911 in a nearby square. In 1916 they moved to the premises in Plaça del Pi and became well known for their straight razors and scalpels before gaining further popularity in the 1930s through the importation from Sweden of stainless steel cutlery, which did not start to be manufactured in Catalonia until the 1950s. In 2000 the Roca family relinquished their managerial role and the shop is now run by a group of specialists who trained at the establishment. In addition to its production facilities and a workshop for repairs and blade sharpening, the shop sells high-quality kitchen utensils and wine accessories.
How do you get to Ganiveteria Roca?
Hop off at the Plaça Catalunya stop, the start and end of the Red Route and of the Blue Route or at the Barri Gòtic stop on the Red Route of Barcelona Bus Turístic to get to Plaça del Pi and visit the knife shop.
For the most curious of you
- Did you know? Ganiveteria Roca has its own sharpening and repair workshop. It also manufactures pieces on demand and has its own brand of knives.
- Local’s tip: Ganiveteria Roca is one of a number of traditional shops that form part of Barcelona’s Emblematic Establishments. The majority of them are still owned by the same family that established them and they all offer excellent customer service.
