More than 600 young people took part in the protests, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reports.
About a dozen stores were looted, and protesters threw rocks and fireworks at police, set fire to garbage cans and built barricades using parked vehicles. Emergency services extinguished more than 30 small fires.
The protest was organized on social media and is said to have been directed against rising housing costs and calls for better living conditions.
"We will not let this go unpunished," Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni said at a press conference alongside Catalonia's Interior Minister Núria Parlon, according to La Vanguardia.
The riots are believed to have been inspired by similar protests in France.