Places to Explore

• The Barri Gòtic

  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... (more)

• The Eixample

  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... (more)

• El Raval

  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... (more)

• Gràcia

  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... (more)

• La Ciutadella and Barceloneta

  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... (more)

• Montjuïc

  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... (more)

• The Rambla

  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 Today seasonal runoff has been replaced by a flood of humanity.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... (more)

• Sant Pere and La Ribera

  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... (more)

• Upper Barcelona

  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... (more)