The Park Güell is one of the most prominent icons of Catalan modernism and one of the most emblematic creations of the renowned architect Antoni Gaudí. The park is named after Eusebi Güell, a patron and friend of Gaudí, who commissioned its construction in 1900 as part of an urbanization project.
Barcelona’s oldest garden.
At the beginning of the 12th century, just opposite where the market stands today, on a spot that back then was outside the city walls, farmers and traders were already setting up itinerant stalls and selling their produce to passers-by entering or leaving the city at this point. Eight centuries later, the Boqueria is still one of Barcelona’s vital organs and has become famous around the world.
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, shortened as the Sagrada Família, is an under construction church in the Eixample district of Barcelona. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. It is Gaudí's masterpiece and the ultimate representation of Catalan modernist architecture. It is the most visited monument in Spain and the most visited church in Europe after St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. When completed, it will be the tallest Christian church in the world, standing at 172.5 meters in height.
Montjuïc Castle in Barcelona is an old military fortress, located at the top of Montjuic Mountain, more than 170 meters high. It was built between 1640 and 1779, first being a small fort and later transforming into the castle we know today, thanks to enormous expansions carried out in those years.
The Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia in Barcelona is one of the city’s most iconic monuments and has as many unusual features as it has stones. Its walls conceal stories of ancient Barcelona and its facade is one of the most photographed. The cloister, with the white geese of Santa Eulàlia, the five access doors, the ou com balla (dancing egg) and the 200 gargoyles that keep watch from the roof are some of the things to be discovered. The Gothic cathedral is more than a place of worship, it is a legend and one of the city’s main attractions.
Casa Batlló, an iconic Gaudí building on Passeig de Gràcia, represents the artistic splendour of this unique architect. Declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO, its undulating roof, which reminds you of a dragon’s back, is one of the icons of Barcelona Modernisme.
With perfect proportions, sober, elegant and upstanding, the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona is the best example of Catalan Gothic architecture. Legend says that there are as many stones as the days that were needed to raise the building. Stones that were loaded and transported by the harbour porters from Montjuïc mountain to the sandy La Ribera neighbourhood to construct their “cathedral”.
A Modernista gate
It occupies land where Philip V had a large military citadel built in 1715 to control the city, following its surrender on 11 September 1714. The walls on the city’s north-west side and 1,262 houses in the Rivera neighbourhood had to be pulled down to make way for it.
If we had to choose an icon of Passeig de Gràcia, one of the main candidates would be one of the 32 lamp-post benches inaugurated on December 21, 1906, and specifically designed for this location by the then municipal architect of Barcelona, Pere Falqués i Urpí.
A place for joy and suffering, Camp Nou is Futbol Club Barcelona’s stadium. Whenever there is a match, the normally quiet neighbourhood fills up with fans who live football. It goes so much further than sport. Considered to be one of the most impressive pitches in Europe, Camp Nou has become another tourist attraction and its museum is now the third most visited in Spain.
Almost one kilometre long, Barceloneta is one of the oldest beaches in Barcelona and witnessed the changes and transformations the city underwent in the course of the 20th century. Initially it was considered indecent to bathe in public and bathing spots were reserved for the upper classes, but soon afterwards the beach was opened to everyone.
Bàrcino, a colony founded in the time of Augustus, became the hub of a stable community and at the end of the 3rd century, Emperor Claudius decided to strengthen the primitive wall. This second wall followed the outline of the earlier one but was thicker and considerably taller. Around 75 watchtowers were also built.
In the heart of the Gòtic neighborhood is Plaza Sant Felip Neri, where there is also the baroque church that gives it its name and which was affected by the bombings of 1938.
Built for the Universal Exposition in 1888, the Arc de Triomf stood at the head of the avenue that led to the main entrance of the fair, in Parc de la Ciutadella, which had just been opened. The redbrick monument, built in the Neo-Mudéjar style, reflected the eclectic, decorative taste so typical of Catalan Art Nouveau in vogue at that time.
Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, is one of the most emblematic Modernista buildings from the beginning of the 20th century in Barcelona.A visit to Casa Milà, which stands on Passeig de Gràcia and is open to the public, lets you peek inside and discover the impressive roof terrace, dotted with stone warriors.
Uniting the Casa dels Canonges and the Palau de la Generalitat, the Pont del Bisbe is a large marble structure with lovely Gothic-style columns. It’s also covered in interesting designs that help add to the overall feel.
The opening of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 1847 was a decisive factor in the construction, the following year, of a square mainly for the wealthy bourgeois families living in the area. It was designed by the architect Francesc Daniel Molina on the site previously occupied by the old Capuchin convent and is one of very few porticoed squares in Barcelona.
The bunkers of Carmel is a viewpoint from which you can see the whole city of Barcelona (360º city view). It is located at the top of Turó de la Rovira in the Carmel neighborhood with a height of 262 meters.
This lively square is the heart of Barcelona and it's beating strongly. A favourite meeting point, it's also the geographical space that separates the districts of Ciutat Vella and the Eixample. Steeped in history, the Plaça de Catalunya is the nerve centre of the Catalan capital.
The Torre Glòries, formerly known as Torre Agbar , is a 38-story skyscraper located near Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, which marks the gateway to the new technological district of Barcelona. It was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel in association with the Spanish firm b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos and built by Dragados. The Torre Glòries is located in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona and it was originally named after its owners, the Agbar Group, a holding company whose interests include the Barcelona water company Aigües de Barcelona.
There is no-one in the world who is not fascinated by life on La Rambla. In little over a kilometre you have the entire essence of the city. From Plaça de Catalunya to the Columbus monument, La Rambla changes at every step. Drink water at the Canaletes fountain, buy flowers, cross yourself in front of the Capuchins, eat in La Boqueria, be thrilled in the Liceu and end up right by the sea. And then back up La Rambla again. An unstoppable river of life that never sleeps, a city within the city itself that feels Barcelona’s pulse.
The Fossar de les Moreres "Grave of the Mulberries" is a memorial square adjacent to the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar. The plaza was built over a cemetery where defenders of the city were buried following the Siege of Barcelona at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. The plaza features a memorial to the fallen Catalans of the war, with a torch of eternal flame and a heroic poem by Frederic Soler, "El Fossar de les Moreres".
Below Ronda del Litoral, the coastal ring road, the park extends out next to Barceloneta beach and is home to a wide variety of plant species.The park still contains reminders of its history and industrial origins: the Modernista Torre de les Aigües building designed by architect Josep Domènech i Estapà in 1907 still stands.
The Castle of the Three Dragons (Spanish: Castillo de los Tres Dragones), is the popular name given to the modernisme building built between 1887 and 1888 as a Café-Restaurant for the 1888 Universal Exposition of Barcelona by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. This name was probably adopted from the 1865 play by Serafí Pitarra.
The successor to the 1401 hospital in the Raval neighbourhood, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau was created at the end of the 19th century by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Both as a health facility and for its architectural value, it is one of the most extraordinary Modernista sites in Barcelona.