Districts

Barcelona has many quarters, but the most important and interesting for visitors are:

• Ciutat Vella - Barcelona's old town, including the medieval Barri Gotic.

• Eixample - modernist quarter, noted for its art nouveau buildings

• Gràcia - historically a working class neighborhood, now rather gentrified, and very lively

• Barceloneta - historically a fisherman's quarter

Barcelona/Ciutat Vella

Ciutat Vella (Catalan for "Old city") is, as it's name suggests, the oldest part of Barcelona . It includes buildings and attractions from all the city history and has the most important monuments (except the most famous modernist ones).

The district is divided in four quarters, Barceloneta, Casc Antic , Barri Gòtic and Raval .

Get in

Since Ciutat Vella is the also the city center, nearly all public transportation leads you there. The transportation center is Plaça Catalunya, and is possible to arrive by train, subway (L1, L3, L6, L7) and bus (many regular ones during day, all the night lines and Aerobus to the Airport)

There are also two other places very close to Plaça Catalunya where the subway and the buses stop, Plaça Universitat, with L1 and L2 lines and Plaça Urquinaona, with L4 and L2 lines.

To reach the other parts of the district, the maximum time to get to the furthest part of the city is twenty minutes.

See

Casc Antic

• Palau de la Música , C/Sant Pere més Alt 13. This Modernist auditorium designed by Ramon Muntaner is the most important modernist example in Ciutat Vella. It was made to be the headquarters of the Orfeó Català , the oldest Catalan Choir. The most beautiful part is the stalls, although all the building is impressive. There are plenty of allegories about music and Catalonia, since the Orfeó Català is strongly bounded with the Catalan Renaixença , the romantic movement that tried to recuperate the Catalan history, language and traditions. It isalso the best place in Barcelona to listen to symphonic music.

• Santa Maria del Mar Plaça de Santa Maria. One of the most representative examples of Catalan gothic architecture, it features a sombre but beautiful interior. The upsweeping verticality and lightness of the interior are especially surprising considering the blocky exterior surfaces. Built between 1329 and 1383, it was once was home to a Christian cult in the late 3rd century.

• Calle Montcada , near C/Princesa, in the Born quarter. This street has the biggest collection of Gothic houses in Barcelona. In amongst these houses is the Picasso Museum, which is definitely worth a visit. Curb your hunger at one of the many tapas restaurants here that serve delicious, although a tad expensive, bite sized delights.

• Passeig del Born This avenue goes from the Santa Maria del Mar church to the Born marketand is where the legendary jousting matches of the Middle Ages took place, as well as numerous fairs and marches. This is also where men were knighted. It's a really old street, very wide for the time. Don Quijote de la Mancha , the famous Cervantes character, had a contest in this place.

• Mercat del Born This market was the central market for Barcelona until the 1973 and its closing marked the beginning of the neighborhood's decline before its current resurgence. While undergoing renvoations, whole streets and homes from Phillipe V's orders were discovered and archaeologists are now still studying the area.

• Parc de la Ciutadella , at the end of C/Princesa. This park is Barcelona's most central park, and includes a zoo, a lake and several museums. In fact, the park is so large, 74 acres, that the Catalan Parliament can be found in the center of the park. It's a great place to enjoy games, sports or to spend a leisurely afternoon.

Barri Gòtic

• Plaça Sant Jaume . This square has been the political hub since the Roman era. At one end there is the Palace of the Generalitat (the government of the Autonomous Community of Catalunya) and on the other stands the City Hall. This square has been witness to some of the most important events in recent Catalan history, such as the proclamation of the Catalan State in 1931. • Plaça Reial . This square, next to La Rambla , is famous for the nightlife and the uniform architecture. It was build during the XIX century in the place of a monastery, after the Mendizábal law expelled the monks. A new square was built, making all the buildings look the same, with fountains and palm trees. After some years, Antoni Gaudí , the famous architect, designed the lights. It is a good place to go for a drink or a dance.

• Plaça Sant Felip Neri . One of the most romantic squares in Barelona, hides a dark history in that it was built over the city's old cemetery. Barcelona's most famous architect, Antonio Gaudi, was on his way to visit the church there when he was run over and killed in 1928.

• Plaça del Pi This square next to Les Rambles is one of the prettiest parts of the quarter. It has a pine tree in the middle ( Pi mines pine tree), the church of Santa Maria del Pi , which is a very pretty Gothic church with a huge rose window. Many concerts are done here. The Pi square and it's twin square , called Sant Josep Oriol , have several bars and artisans, painters, musicians are there to sell their products.

Raval

• La Rambla La Rambla is often the first landmark that people identify with the city. It is the central boulevard which cuts through the heart of the city centre and is a vibrant and lively promenade filled with Barcelona action at its best and worst.

• Hospital de la Santa Creu C/Hospital 56. (going down Les Rambles , turn right at the Miró painting). This Gothic building was the old city hospital, before the modernist Hospital de Sant Pau was build in l' Eixample . Now, the Hospital has the national Library inside, and is a greatexample of civilian Gothic archictecture.

• Sant Pau del Camp C/Sant Pau 101 (Going down Les Rambles, following C/Sant Pau, which starts at the Miró painting). A rare example of Romanesque archictecture in the city. Its name reflects the fact that the church was once surrounded by green fields outside the city walls.

Harbor Although it's not a quarter, it is another area that tourists like to visit. To find it, just walk down La Rambla until the monument to Columbus. The sea is just after it. The harbor you can see is completely new, since until the 80's it was closed to the public. Some old buildings related to the harbor still exist, such as the Tinglado near the Barceloneta quarter that is now a History museum.

Barcelona/Eixample

The Eixample is the quarter designed during the middle of the 19th century by Ildefons Cerdà, expanding the medieval city of Barcelona into space left empty for defense outside the citywalls. It's an enormous field of rectangular blocks in an continuously repeating layout, with the constant thread of getting lost (at least for those used to european cities. Eixample contains most of the modernist buildings, including La Pedrera , Casa Batlló and La Sagrada Família . A very interesting example for planned urban development and subsequent re-planing and restucturing. See • Sagrada Família Designed by renowned architect Antonio Gaudi, this remarkable landmark remains Barcelona's most famous unfinished church, having been started in 1882. It is one of Gaudi's most impressive works and can be described as warped Gothic. The rippling contours of the stone facade make it look as though Sagrada Familia is melting in the sun, while the towers are topped with brightly-colored mosaics which look like bowls of fruit. Definitely worth a visit.

• La Pedrera Another one of Gaudi's masterpieces, there is not one straight edge on the exterior and the structure is one of Gaudi's most eccentric and enticing architectural creations. Tours of the interior and the incredible roof structures are available.

Barcelona/Gràcia

Gràcia , about 1 km north of the center of Barcelona at the north end of the Passeig de Gràcia, is the most distinctively Catalan neighborhood to be found in easy walking distance of the center. A prosperous neighborhood, Gràcia nonetheless has more a local than a cosmopolitan feel to it, with much of life lived on the many public squares. It's also a very good place to start (or finish) a walk through the most important modernist buildings. A good place to stay in an hotel. Get in Both the Fontana and the Lesseps Metro stations (on line L3) are located in or near the Gracia district. From the stations, the heart of Gracia will be to the NNE (this may appear as East or "to the right" on most, if not all, maps of barcelona).

See

Check out any plaza and it will most likely be humming with life and vibrancy.

Do

One of Barcelona's most lively festivals, the Festa Major de Gracia, is a week long festival that displays the best of Catalan with a mass celebration in the streets. One of the most populare events is the 'Best decorated street', where residents from 23 neighboring streets use anything and everything to decorate their street in a theme and vie for the prize.

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Barcelona/Barceloneta

Barceloneta or Little Barcelona was built after the king Felipe V ordered the construction of a new fortress (La Ciutadella, nowadays a park) in order to control and punish the city of Barcelona, that fought against him during the War of Spanish Succession. The fortress was planned very close to the city so that a tenth of it was demolished, and the people who lived in this part had no compensation and as a bigger punishment were obliged to demolish their own houses. The people from the demolished part of Barcelona had to move, so a new quarter was planned by the French military (Philip V was from France). Therefore, the streets are straight and with a square shape. There are still some houses from this period, easy to recognize because they are much lower than the others and have a simple neoclassical decoration.

Get In

You can arrive either walking from the city center (15 minutes in a nice walk around the harbour from Les Rambles) or by subway (L4 yellow line stopping at Barceloneta).

Sants Montjuic

Sants is a neighbourhood of Barcelona , in the southern zone of the city. It belongs to the district of Sants-Montjuïc , and is bordered by the districts of Eixample to the northeast, Les Corts to the northwest, and by the municipality of Hospitalet de Llobregat to the south.

Montjuïc is translated as Hill of the Jews in the medieval Catalan language , or perhaps as a corruption of Latin Mons Jovicus (that is, hill of Jupiter ). The name is found in several locations in the Catalan Countries : the Catalan cities of Girona and Barcelona have a Montjuïc, as does the island of Minorca . When written in a Spanish rather than Catalan context it is generally spelled Montjuich (in the old Catalan spelling before Pompeu Fabra 's orthography).

Description Barcelona's Montjuïc is a broad shallow hill with a relatively flat top overlooking the harbour , to the southeast of the city centre. The eastern side of the hill is almost a sheer cliff, giving it a commanding view over the city's harbour immediately below. The top of the hill (a height of 173 metres) was the site of several fortifications , the latest of which (the Castell de Montjuïc) remains today.

The fortress largely dates from the 17th century, with 18th century additions. In 1842 the garrison (loyal to the Madrid government) shelled parts of the city following disturbances. It served as a prison, often holding political prisoners, until the time of General Franco . The castle was the site of numerous executions. In 1897 an incident popularly known as Els processos de Montjuïc prompted the execution of anarchist supporters, which in turn lead to a severe repression of the workers' struggle for their rights. On different occasions during the Spanish Civil War , both Nationalists and Republicans were executed there, each at the time when the site was held by their opponents. The Catalan nationalist leader Lluís Companys i Jover was also executed there in 1940, having been extradited to the Franco government by the Nazis.

Also on the Montjuïc

• Fundació Joan Miró , a modern art museum centring around a large collection of the works of Joan Miró
• Cementiri del Sud-Oest, a cemetery containing many of Barcelona's rich and celebrated, including Lluís Companys and his predecessor as President of Catalonia Francesc Macià , as well as artist Joan Miró , dancer Carmen Amaya and poet/priest Jacint Verdaguer . Numerous unmarked graves hold those executed in the fortress.
• The botanic gardens .
• The museum of ethnology
• The Catalan museum of archaeology (housed in the 1929 exhibition's palace of graphic arts)
• The Olympic museum

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This page was last edited at 11:29, on 16 March 2008 by Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. Based on work by Denis Yurkin, oriol badia, David, Tim Sandell, Nick Roux and Colin Jensen, Wikitravel user(s) Texugo, Pstng, Huttite and Dhum Dhum, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others.