The Monster of Carrer Ponent

Carrer Joaquìn Costa, just behind the Museu d'Art Contemporani, used to be called Carrer Ponent. We'll tell you why they had to change the name.

Enriqueta Martí, born in 1868, was a girl from a provincial town who came to Barcelona at a young age, becoming first a servant girl in the great mansions, and then a prostitute. In the crackdown after the Setmana Tràgica of 1909, a brothel where she pimped young children of both sexes to wealthy pedophiles was raided and Martí only escaped jail thanks to her influential clients.

After that, she moved to Carrer Ponent and carried on in the same line of work—luring in street children from El Raval and the other slums and prostituting or selling them. It brought her considerable wealth. By day, she would haunt the back alleys in rags, seeking out her prey; at night, dressed in lavish gowns she would attend the theatre or the concerts at the Liceu.