Barcelona: Places to Explore

No other city in Spain displays an ancient quarter that rivals Barcelona's Barri Gòtic in either historic atmosphere or sheer wealth of monumental buildings. It's a stroller's delight, where you... Read more

Barcelona's most famous neighborhood, this late-19th-century urban development is known for its dizzying unnumbered grid and dazzling Art Nouveau architecture. Named "Expansion" in Catalan, the district... Read more

El Raval (from arrabal, meaning "suburb" or "slum") is the area to the west of the Rambla, on the right as you walk toward the port. Originally a rough outskirt stuck outside the second set of city walls... Read more

Gràcia is a state of mind. More than a neighborhood, it is a village republic that has periodically risen in armed rebellion against city, state, and country, whose jumble of streets have names... Read more

Now Barcelona's central downtown park, La Ciutadella was originally the site of a fortress built by the conquering troops of the Bourbon monarch Felipe V after the fall of Barcelona in the 1700-14 War... Read more

This hill overlooking the south side of the port is said to have originally been named Mont Juif for the Jewish cemetery once on its slopes, though a 3rd-century Roman document referring to the construction... Read more

The Rambla was originally a watercourse, a sandy arroyo called rmel. Today seasonal runoff has been replaced by a flood of humanity. No wonder Federico García Lorca called this the only street in... Read more

The textile and waterfront neighborhoods are studded with some of the city's most iconic buildings, ranging from the Gothic 14th-century basilica of Santa Maria del Mar to the over-the-top Moderniste Palau... Read more

Sarrià was originally a medieval country village overlooking Barcelona from the foothills of the Collserola. Gradually swallowed up over the centuries by the westward-encroaching city, Sarrià... Read more