Mercado Central de Atarazanas

What makes it special

You enter through a monumental marble gate, the only surviving piece of the 14th-century Nasrid shipyards that give the market its name. The city's fine-arts academy saved it from demolition. Look at the iron hall's facade on either side of it: its neo-Moorish details were designed to match the gate.

Inside, a huge stained-glass window fills the far wall opposite the gate and shows the city and its port. Before it was a market, the site also served as a warehouse, an arsenal, a military hospital and barracks.

Seafood is the main trade here, and some of the catch on the fish counters is fresh enough to still be moving. Between the fish stalls, look for olives, spices and cheeses.

Look out for local tropical fruit as well. The stalls deeper in the hall sell Axarquía mangoes and, in autumn, chirimoyas.

Visiting

The market has two halves, with food stalls on one side and bars and tapas stalls on the other. Shop first, while the fish counters are full: fruit and vegetables, fish and shellfish, meat, cured meats and offal, and pickles and salted fish.

Walk past the fruit stalls at the main entrance, which sell to tourists at tourist prices, and buy your fruit from the stalls deeper in, at normal weights and prices.

Then cross to the bars. Order the fish of the day, fried boquerones, grilled prawns or clams, and eat at a narrow metal counter wedged between other diners.

Tips

At the bars, push your way to the counter to order, because waiting politely at the back gets you ignored. By early afternoon the bar corner is packed and the noise is deafening, so eat in the late morning.

On a Monday the fish counters are thinner, because the fishermen do not go out on Sunday. Pick another day if the fish is your reason for coming.