Gràcia district, Barcelona City, Spain

Gràcia is one of the ten districts of the city of Barcelona. It borders the Eixample in the lower part, Sarrià – Sant Gervasi in the west and Horta-Guinardó in the north. In 2019 it had 121,789 inhabitants. He inherited the old municipality of Gràcia, added to Barcelona in 1897.

Few districts of Barcelona are surrounded by as much symbolism as Gràcia. The old part of the neighborhood that gives it its name has never ceased to proudly claim its past as an independent municipality, and the new neighborhood map recognizes it by making the place name Vila de official. Thank you for naming this unit of almost 50,000 inhabitants, small and bustling streets and numerous squares.

To the north, the other nerve center of the district, Vallcarca, adds to the traditional name the place name of the Penitents area, due to the historical link between the two territories. On the other hand, the Coll gains its own entity as a neighborhood and separates from Vallcarca. The other two districts of the district are those of Camp d’en Grassot and Gràcia Nova, a more recent sector and, for this reason, autonomous from the town, and that of Health. The boundaries of the latter district have been widened on both sides of the section of the Travessera de Dalt, where a traffic reduction project is being carried out that will improve communication between the two sides of this road.

History
The district of Gràcia had formerly been an independent municipality in the Barcelona plan from 1850 to 1897. The current districts of Vila de Gràcia, Camp d’en Grassot and La Salut were part of it, while Vallcarca and El Coll were part of the municipality of Horta. It also included a sector that throughout the twentieth century, due to urban coherence, has been diluted in the Eixample.

The boundaries of the old town followed the junction of the current streets of Naples and Provence, through the Plaza de Sanllehy, then went up the Portell pass to near the hermitage of Carmel, reached the Bare Mountain, went down the street of Verdi, turning along Sant Cugat to Plaça de la Creu, cut through Josepets and went down Avinguda del Príncipe d’Astúries to Plaça de Gal•la Placídia, then along La Travessera to Riera de la Creu d ‘en Malla and continued along Carrer del Comte d’Urgell to Carrer de Rosselló and went to the intersection of Villaroel and Provença.

From the construction of the Josepets to the first independence
Usually set the start of the Vila de Gràcia with the establishment, 17 January of 1626, the Novitiate of the Carmelite convent of Our Lady of Grace, which was named The Josepets because of its occupants. This convent was built thanks to the generous donation of Josep Dalmau, councilor of the city of Barcelona, and his wife, Lucrècia Balcells, who went through the pain of losing his seven children. A series of farmhouses sprang up around the convent, the most important of which was Ca n’Alegre (1688). However, two centuries ago, in the fifteenth century, the Franciscan order was established in the convent of Jesus, and in the 16th century the monastery of Montcalvari, belonging to the old Capuchins, was built and destroyed in 1714.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century in the village there were a total of eleven owners with their respective families. A few decades later the economy, basically agrarian, began to diversify; then the first artisans and artisans emerged. According to a document from 1767, the territory is already called Gràcia.

During the eighteenth century, Gràcia consolidated what would be its social structure for many years, between the rural area and the summer area of the bourgeois of Barcelona. Proof of this is the large number of towers and second homes belonging to wealthy families. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the area we now call Gracia was sparsely populated, the three most important nuclei were those that had grown around of the convents in the area: that of Jesús (at the beginning of Carrer Gran), that of the convent of Els Josepets (the area of the current Plaça de Lesseps), and that of the Caputxins Vells (located in the area where there is currently the Central Abaceria Market).

Three time of independence
On March 4 of 1821, thanks to the Cadiz Constitution, which authorized those cores more than a thousand inhabitants constituted municipality, Grace won his first municipal independence, in which he was mayor and Josep Tuset. But this independence lasted little: in April 1823, the absolutism forced to put everything back as it was prior to March 1 of 1820, and January 30 of 1824, Grace lost its first council.

In 1828, however, in order to regain municipal independence, the people of Gracia urged the monarchs Ferran and Amàlia to segregate Gràcia, on the condition that it be renamed “Villa de San Fernando y Santa Amalia”. After two years, in 1830, it was granted, and again Gràcia could have its own town hall, even if it lost its name, and obtained the title of Vila. But political problems meant that the council could never be reconstituted, leaving everything to nothing.

That was when, on October 13 of 1849, drafted an exhibition where the grant requested from the municipality, with the title of Villa, based on the Constitution of 1845. In nine months, this became a reality and on July 6, 1850, Josep Pons i Tarrecli, three deputy mayors and fourteen councilors, took office as mayor. This was the longest and most stable municipal independence of Vila de Gràcia, until the annexation of the city of Barcelona.

La Gràcia worker
In the nineteenth century, the vast majority of the people of Gracia had to go to work in Barcelona, but during that century some industries were established: One of the most important is the Vapor Vilaregut, in the area of Perill / Torrent de l’Olla, was to be known as the “Vapor Vell”, since in the area of Puigmartí there was also the Vapor Puigmartí, known as the “Vapor Nou”, enlarged in 1839.

The “New Steam” was perhaps one of the most important industries in the town, with about 500 workers, but it was not without labor disputes: In 1841 they wanted to set fire to the new steam, imported from Germany, and in the summer of 1855 the existence of a plot to kill Puigmartí was reported, five workers were tried, but nothing could be proved and the sentences were light. The factory remained strong until May 1876, when a fire completely destroyed it. The land of the old factory is now occupied by flats, in the market of the Abaceria Central. You can still see the steam chimney in the current Plaça del Poble Romaní.

The “Old Steamer” was not free from the labor problems of the time. In 1842 the workers already had to fight against the boss to prevent a drop in wages, and in 1855 they demonstrated on the border of the Villa to demand “bread and work.”

These two cotton industries, together with the large number of handlooms that many artisans owned, made Gràcia an important center in the textile production of the time. On May 10 of 1840 founded the first company working in Catalonia, Barcelona Weavers Association, many members of which were Gràcia.

Other industries were established, such as Miquel Matas’ elastic fabric factory in 1851, which already had 140 workers in 1889 and survived until 1935; the silk factory that Josep Reig opened in the current Carrer de l’Escorial, in the second half of the century, where 200 people were placed, and which ended in tragedy when, in 1962, it collapsed the building and four people died. Gradually, Gràcia grew thanks to the industries and houses that were built for the workers. In 1863, the Sarrià train had its stop on the west in La Vila.

The aggregation in Barcelona (1897)
In 1897, Gràcia, together with other towns in the plain of Barcelona is annexed to the city of Barcelona.

Districts
The current district of Gràcia, as it was set up in 1984, is made up of most of the old municipal district of Gràcia, except for the sector incorporated in the Eixample; and of a sector historically of Horta, which corresponds approximately with the districts of Vallcarca and the Penitents id the Coll

Vila de Gràcia
Gràcia has always had an active political and social life and a rich fabric of civic, cultural, recreational, artistic and sports institutions.

In principle this territory was dependent on Barcelona and sparsely populated. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, three convents (including the Josepets) and a series of towers promoted by the Barcelona bourgeoisie were installed near the existing farmhouses in isolation. During the first half of the 19th century, that small agricultural nucleus became the most important town in the plain of Barcelona, thanks to its progressive industrialization, taking advantage of the availability of free land. Gràcia became an independent municipality in 1850, when the town had more than 13,000 inhabitants. In 1877 the population reached 33,000. The convenience of integrating it into Barcelona was considered more and more strongly, in parallel with the progressive development of the plot of the Cerdà plan, then in full expansion. Thus, from 1880 onwards, projects of common interest were born, such as the one on Passeig de Gràcia, which connected the town with the big city following the old road.

When it was finally reunited with Barcelona in 1897, Gràcia had almost 62,000 inhabitants and was a very populated and active city, but with a great lack of facilities and services. Gradually, streets were built that connected the neighborhood internally and externally, and facilities such as the Liberty Markets (1893) and the Central Abbey. Urbanization was often done autonomously by landowners, which explains the name changes and the physical discontinuity of some streets, as well as the numerous squares, usually one on each property. Gràcia has always had and maintains an active political and social life and a rich fabric of civic, cultural, recreational, artistic and sports institutions with great popular roots.

Camp d’en Grassot and Gràcia Nova
The territory of Camp d’en Grassot and Gràcia Nova harmoniously combines the warmth of the neighborhoods of Gràcia and the characteristic order of the streets of the Eixample de Cerdà.

The Camp d’en Grassot, a rural area full of farmhouses and tiles, was an extreme neighborhood of the municipality of Gràcia, on the border with Barcelona, which in time would be the neighborhood of the Sagrada Familia, in one of the limits of the Extension. Around 1860, its owners began to develop it, including Jeroni Grassot. The main axes of that urbanization still survive on the Cerdà plot, like the passage of Alió or the street of Grassot. The most outstanding building in the neighborhood is the old La Sedeta factory. Created in 1899 and in operation until 1976, Casa Pujol i Casacuberta was one of the many factories that were set up in the area looking for groundwater from torrents. It was acquired by the City Council in 1978, thus satisfying the public demand to recover it for public use. Today it is home to a civic center and an institute.

Above the Camp d’en Grassot, between Carrer de l’Escorial, Carrer de les Camèlies, Carrer de Sardenya and Carrer de Pi i Margall, there is the neighborhood of Ca l’Alegre de Dalt. It is a relatively autonomous area of the town of Vila de Gràcia, with a different and more recent urbanization. It also differs in social composition and even in the commercial aspect, with the impetus of its own commercial axis known as Gràcia Nova. These reasons, together with the relations it maintains with the upper part of the Camp d’en Grassot (Can Romans), especially along the axes of Pi i Margall and Secretari Coloma, are the basis for considering the neighborhood as a whole. of the Camp d’en Grassot and Gràcia Nova.

La-salut district
In the neighborhood of La Salut there is, without a doubt, the most outstanding urban element of the district: Park Güell, the work of Gaudí.

In 1864 it was decided to build a chapel on the outskirts of Gràcia dedicated to the Virgin of Health, around which the neighborhood grew over the years. But from before the area was known for the fountain and the farmhouse of Xirot. The nearby iron mines gave their characteristic taste to the spring water. Today, almost all the farmhouses have disappeared, except for those of Can Xipreret and Can Tusquets, and also the fountains, except for the one in El Carbó, which is located inside the Cottolengo estate. In the neighborhood there is the monastery of Sant Josep de la Muntanya. But, without a doubt, the most outstanding urban element is Park Güell, the work of Gaudí. An urbanization was to be established in the park, but it did not prosper. The brilliant integration of the built elements with the natural environment make it a unique work and admired around the world, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984.

Coll district
The Coll district is located at the north-eastern end of the Gràcia district. It extends to the foot of the hill of the same name.

The Coll district is located about 300 meters above sea level, at the north-eastern end of the Gràcia district. It extends at the foot of the hill of the same name, on both corners of the upper course of the old Farigola stream, a tributary of the Vallcarca stream. The origin of the neighborhood is the church of El Coll, from the 11th century. Nearby was the chapel of Lourdes. This whole area had been the hunting territory of the feudal lords of Barcelona. Later, different bandits used the Cimanya caves as a refuge —already on the other side of the Coll, in the current Carmel district—, which later became important iron mines.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the neighborhood was filled with farmhouses and houses. Towards the sixties, the urban fever caused the building to be extended, often in an unordered way, to the remaining free spaces, until it completely occupied both sides of the valley. Avinguda de la Mare de Déu del Coll is the main backbone in a neighborhood with an urban plot punished by steep slopes. In 1976 the construction of a park was demanded. The Creueta quarry was abandoned and flats were to be built. It was finally avoided, and in 1986 the Creueta del Coll park was inaugurated. Its most outstanding elements are the pond-pool that occupies the lower part, and the large suspended sculpture by Eduardo Chillida.

Vallcarca and the Penitents district
Vallcarca is a neighborhood hidden between two hills, the Putxet and the Coll, which extends following the course of the stream that gives it its name.

Vallcarca is a neighborhood hidden between two hills, the Putxet and the Coll, and extends along the course of the stream that gives it its name. Its original nuclei were the Hostal de la Farigola, Can Falcó, Can Mas and Can Gomis. The gardens of Can Gomis were destroyed with the construction of the Military Hospital. The old hostel of La Farigola, on the stream of the same name, was demolished and a school was built. On the grounds of Mas Falcó there is a small urbanization of isolated towers. In its beginnings, Vallcarca was part of Horta. It was a neighborhood of summerers and people with different interests who lived in the valley. Summer visitors wanted tranquility and the people of the valley wanted better communications. Finally, a viaduct was built to save the valley (the Vallcarca bridge) and the stream was developed. Following the course, the avenue of the Military Hospital was opened to traffic, which meant the end of isolation.

At the top of the neighborhood, on the Paseo de la Vall d’Hebron and at the foot of Collserola, is the neighborhood of Penitents. It was born in 1902, when the first urbanization of the large manor house of Can Gomis took place. The name of the Penitents comes from the meetings of the faithful which, with some hermit inspiration, were held for a time in a convent and some caves in the area. Monsignor Cinto bought the convent, but had to leave it due to financial problems, and Horta City Council demolished it. Over time, the environment became a small residential neighborhood, later divided by the Ronda de Dalt. The largest part, on the roundabout, has seen new buildings grow around Collserola Street.

Main Attractions
Discover and take advantage of everything the district has to offer: urban spaces, cultural and architectural heritage, natural spaces, museums, leisure and leisure centers, study centers, proposals for shopping or sports and much more.

Casa Vicens
The Casa Vicens is a building modernist and first project important to the architect Antoni Gaudí started to build in 1883. Located in the street Carolinas, number 20-26, in the district of Gràcia of the city of Barcelona. It is a work declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

House stately gardens of complex volumes, Gaudí combines the stone, the brick and seen a wide range of tiles in Valencia in colors different, where the influence of Orientalism rooted in Islam is clear.

The wrought iron fences are directly inspired by nature and, in particular, by the palm tree (a palm tree typical of the western Mediterranean). Railings and grilles are also wrought iron and prelude modernist decorative motifs. The marquetry of the lattices of the garden, the garden itself, ranging from interior finishing solutions Arabising, of a Mediterranean or closeness to nature.

In the interior, the main decorative element is carved and polychrome wood, which together with the furniture and produces a set of a fantastic character.

Park Güell
The Park Güell is a large garden with elements architecture located in the upper part of Barcelona, on the slopes of the Carmel hill overlooking the sea, not far from Tibidabo. It was designed by the architect Antoni Gaudí, the greatest exponent of Catalan modernism, built between 1900 and 1914 and inaugurated as a public park in 1926. It has an area of 17.18 hectares (0.1718 km²), which makes it one of the largest architectural works in southern Europe.. In 1984 UNESCO declared the Park Güell a World Heritage Site.

The design of the park clearly shows the hand of an architect, and Gaudí’s peculiar style is evident in any element, no matter how small. There are undulating shapes, similar to lava rivers, and walkways covered with columns that are shaped like trees or stalactites. Many of the surfaces are covered with trencadís, pieces of ceramic or glass in the form of colored mosaics. Due to its location in the middle of the city and at a high altitude, this park is a haven of peace that contrasts with the noise and frenzy of the Catalan capital. Antoni Gaudí had the English garden cities in mind, and he insisted on achieving a perfect integration of his works into nature. Proof of this are the columns made of stones of very variable sizes and shapes, which suggest tree trunks, stalactites and natural caves. Right angles appear nowhere: the columns are sloping like palm trees.

The central point of the park is made up of an immense square, the edge of which serves as a bench and undulates like a snake one hundred and fifty meters long. This bench is also covered with trencadís made of small pieces of ceramics and glass and is the work of Josep Maria Jujol, a collaborator of Gaudí. The square is partially supported by the Hall of the Hundred Columns, composed of eighty-six columns resembling giant stalagmites in a cave. On the ceiling, between the columns are circular decorations where the columns that were initially planned were not built (they had to be a hundred).

The staircase at the main entrance to the park reaches this place, with steps arranged symmetrically around the sculpture of a salamander that has become the emblem of the garden. Represents the alchemical salamander, which symbolizes the element fire. At the main entrance to the park stand two buildings of pure Gaudí style, with smooth curved ceilings, strange appendages and geometric motifs. What is on the right is the Casa del Guarda, conceived and designed by Gaudí as a home for the goalkeeper of Park Güell. The forging works are the work of Badia, brothers.

The Casa del Guarda is one of the few examples of a modest house built by Gaudí. It was built between 1901 and 1903 in response to the principles of utility and interior simplicity, without sacrificing, however, a great formal and visual richness. Over time, the house has had different uses and has undergone various restorations to accommodate the current museum project of the Museum of History of Barcelona (MUHBA). The exhibition “Güell, Gaudí and Barcelona. Expression of an urban ideal ”that explains the Casa del Guarda, the Park Güell and the Barcelona of the times of modernism from three axes: the house, the park and the city.

Casa Fuster
The Casa Fuster is a building modernist designed and created by Lluis Domenech i Montaner with the help of his son Pere Domenech i Roura between the years 1908 and 1911 in the city of Barcelona. It was built by order of Consol Fabra i Puig, daughter of the Marquisate of Alella and wife of Marià Fuster Fuster, who was to reside there. It is located at number 132 on Passeig de Gràcia, at the top of everything, in front of the Salvador Espriu Gardens, near the Diagonal. Precisely the gardens are named in honor of the poet, as in one of the offices of the cylindrical tower on the corner Espriu created much of his literary work. Domènech i Montaner, in one of his last works, the last in Barcelona, uses many of its characteristic elements: base of robust pink stone columns, trilobed windows, floral ornamentation. The ensemble, however, denotes a great expressive restraint, favored by the whiteness of the marble and the eurhythmy of the façades; the posterior is unusually flat. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest.

The building known as Casa Fuster was designed by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built between 1908-1911, commissioned by Consol Fabra and Mariano Fuster i Fuster. The new building is located at the end of Passeig de Gràcia, being configured as an almost exempt building, with three facades: the main ones on Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer Gran de Gràcia -which form a corner- and a secondary school in Carrer de Gràcia.

On the two main façades, the architect used neo-Gothic and floral elements, typical of his modernist language, but, on this occasion, with a certain restraint and a more austere concept in the ornaments. This restraint is seen precisely in the decorative elements of the different openings and capitalswhich offer a schematization in plant motifs and a clear tendency to flatter, geometric lines. Likewise, the corner takes center stage with the construction of a cylindrical body in all its height, an element already present in other works by Domènech i Montaner such as the Hospital de Sant Pau or the Casa Lleó Morera. This towered element is developed only from the first floor, leaving the ground floor as an open point with a large central column.

The base of the cylinder thus forms a kind of richly sculpted cantilever and from where they start nerves that pour into a kind of corbels of Ionic order. These brackets form the basis of the columns – of woodfluted and sculpted capital – which make up the porticoed gallery on the first floor. This porticoed element is developed on both sides of the tower -on the first floor of the facades of Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer Gran de Gràcia- specifically, as a cantilevered gallery that serves as a base for the balconies located on the second level of the building.. The openings of the upper floors stand out, in the form of coronella windows – of medieval inspiration – with trilobal lintel, some of them with handrails and iron railings. The building is topped with French-style attics and a running stone balustrade that completes the tower area with pinnacles.

The façade of Carrer de Gràcia makes use of the exposed metal structure and austere elements in the decoration, more characteristic of his first architectural works. Of particular note is the great variety and richness of the materials used, especially the red marble of the shaft of the columns on the ground floor which contrasts with the white of the façade.

It is a question of a construction with seven levels of elevation: ground floor, first or main, four floors and passable flat roof in addition to a level of basement. The basement of the building, where there used to be a ballroom called El Danubio Azul, has become the Domènech i Montaner event hall. This room is located just below the Viennese Café – which will be discussed later – and has a very similar structure. It is a very large space with large columns with smooth wood and an abstract floral capital that support the brick vaults covered with gold leaf and which contrasts with the floor of black tiles that take on a circular shape.

On the ground floor, we find the lobby with the hotel reception; it is a space of great transparency thanks to its hypostyle structure with large columns of fluted red marble and floral capitals that collect the large arches that support the brick vaults. This structure is maintained in the space known as Cafè Vienès – which recovers the name of the old café that was located in the same place, very popular among Barcelonans during the forties to be a meeting point for social gatherings- but in this case the brick vaults are painted with golden bread. There are two staircases in the lobby that give access to the upper floors, one of which – the one facing Carrer de Gràcia – is now closed by a metal structure. The whiteness of the walls contrasts with the plinthpainted yellow, one of the few colorful elements of the building in addition to the columns. It currently also has two elevators.

Finally, on the main floor is the hotel restaurant, called Galaxó, in reference to the hill where Mariano Fuster had a house in Mallorca. It is a room with views of Passeig de Gràcia, with three areas only separated by stone arches and where the columns that make up the porch gallery are incorporated into the interior of the room. The original ceiling is currently covered with a panel of wavy shapes decorated with tin bread that reinterprets in a more contemporary key the vaults of the ground floor. The other levels are occupied by the hotel rooms and other recreational areas such as the gym or bar among others. Of note in this regard is the covered walkable floor, now occupied by the bar terrace and a swimming pool.

Casa Joan Baptista Rubinat
The Casa Joan Baptista Rubinat is a modernist work in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The residential building located at Carrer Or, 44 is located in the District of Gràcia, on an island of houses delimited by the streets Torrijos, Torrent d’en Vidalet, Sant Lluís and Or, with the main access facing the Plaza Virreina. It is a residential building that Joan Baptista Rubinat i Planas commissioned from Francesc Berenguer Mestres at the beginning of the 20th century. Rectangular in plan with a courtyard at the back, it has the stairwell in the center and, aligned with it, two small light courtyards.

The elevated structure has a ground floor and five floors, with a passable flat roof closed by a wrought iron railing. The façade has a flat and symmetrical composition, with their openings arranged in four vertical and five horizontal axes of regular rhythm.

On the ground floor there are four identical portals, all formed by gently molded stone masonry where they unload four angular brick arches. The access portal to the lobby of the estate, located in the westernmost part, has the back door of the aplomb of the façade. On the other floors there are four balconies with slabs, with a sinuous profile, which show at the bottom the iron beams that support the arches, decorated with trencadís. These balconies have a meticulous wrought iron enclosure, with corrugated and linked bars. They also mark the four vertical axes, being crowned on the roof by sharp pinnacles of exposed brick and a worked wrought iron support to hold the pulley. From the first floor, except for the brick frames that surround the openings and the crowning of the building, the façade is covered with mortar and decorated with two- tone sgraffito of floral and geometric motifs.

Can Tusquets
Can Tusquets is a baroque farmhouse in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Can Tusquets is located in a garden area, in contact with the gardens of Menéndez Pelayo, on the corner between Avinguda del Santuari de Sant Josep de la Muntanya and Travessera de Dalt, in the district of Gràcia. It is a detached building consisting of a square farmhouse with ground floor and two floors, with an enclosed courtyard on the side and back.

Casa Gustà
The House Gusta is a modernist building made by James Bond Gustà 1910 the Gracia district. It is listed as a cultural asset of local interest in the municipality of Barcelona. Located in the district of Gràcia, Casa Jaume Gustà is located at the southern end of the island of houses bounded by Passeig d’Amunt and the streets of Ca l’Alegre de Dalt, Balcells and Pau Alsina. It has three façades facing the first three roads mentioned, and divides it with the neighboring plot. The main access takes place from Ca l’Alegre de Dalt street, although it also has an entrance to the Garden from Passeig d’Amunt.

Can Sert
Can Sert is a monument in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Set that occupies an entire island in the 6th district, Gràcia. It was a large typical farmhouse, although due to the uses given, it is now much renovated.

Masia Can Trilla
Masia Can Trilla is an old farmhouse in Gràcia protected as a cultural asset of local interest, located at 177 Carrer Gran de Gràcia, in Barcelona. This pairalia, which is still preserved, boxed between new constructions, has a rectangular floor plan, formed by two fairly symmetrical bodies, with a ground floor, two floors and an attic. There is also a vaulted basement.

Bell tower of Grace
The Campanar de Gràcia or Clock Tower was built around 1870 in the Plaza de la Vila de Gràcia. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The clock tower is located in the center of the Plaza de la Vila de Gràcia and, with a height of almost 33 meters, is configured as the tallest public tower in the district. Although it is mostly built of stone ashlars, brick was used to build the windows that open, the vertical strips that decorate it and the angles of the structure. The tower has a solid square stone base, which is topped on each side with the coats of arms of the town of Gràcia, Barcelona, the Principality of Catalonia and the arms of Queen Isabel II.. In the lock of the base facing the City Hall building there is a fountain – framed by a large arch – which has two sculpted faces in the shape of a face that expel water from the mouth. At the top of the fountain, also framed by the arch, is a commemorative plaque commemorating the year of its construction (1864), the damage suffered during the popular uprising of the fifths of 1870 and its restoration of 1882.

La Caixa de Barcelona branch
The La Caixa de Barcelona Branch is a historicist work in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The building that houses the former Caja de Ahorros de Barcelona, located at 18 Carrer Gran de Gràcia in Barcelona, was designed by the architect August Font i Carreras in 1906. The property is located on the block of houses delimited by Jesús, Sant Pere Màrtir, Carrer de Gràcia and Gran de Gràcia streets, where the façade opens. The building is part of a regular polygonal plot and is developed in three levels of elevation: ground floor and two floors, all covered with a passable flat roof.

Casa Vilaró
The Casa Vilaró is a single character rationalist district Health Barcelona protected as a cultural asset of local interest. It is considered one of the first works to be directly influenced by rational architecture. It is a building located on the slope of a hill. The house is organized on different levels to suit the terrain, so the structural elements take on importance. The profile of the house is reminiscent of a ship and is a feature of the first stage of the GATCPAC.

Convent of Pompeii
The Convent of Pompeii is a historicist church in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The church and convent of Pompeii is a monastic complex designed by the architect Enric Sagnier i Villavechia and built between 1908-1915. The building is located on the island of houses bounded by the streets of Riera de Sant Miquel, Séneca, Minerva and Avinguda Diagonal. The building rises on the plot on the corner between Avinguda Diagonal (number 450) and Carrer Riera de Sant Miquel. The church -built in a peprendicular on Avinguda Diagonal- is the easternmost building in the complex. Attached to one of its sides, the monastery itself is developed with a series of constructions that, while delimiting the angular shape of the plot, are located around a wide triangular open space that, in some way, recalls the traditional monastic scheme centered by a cloister.

Casa Bonaventura Ferrer
The Casa Bonaventura Ferrer is a building modernist located at number 113 of the Passeig de Gracia, in the district of Gracia in Barcelona. It is currently used as a hotel, known as El Palauet. It is a project by the architect Pere Falqués i Urpí made in 1906 and consists of a floor plan and four floors. On the façade, with three vertical bodies, the grandstand stands out in the first place, with a sculpture carved in stone and a large gap in its base, with a counterpoint between the empty and full spaces. The door and balconies are wrought iron, and its crowning is of baroque inspiration. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The building known as Casa Bonaventura Ferrer is a modernist building located at 113 Passeig de Gràcia (in the Jardinets), designed by the architect Pere Falqués i Urpí and built between 1905-1906.

Church of the Josepets de Gràcia
The church of the Virgen de Gracia and Sant Josep, popularly known as the Josepets de Gràcia, is the church of the old convent of the Barefoot Carmelites of Santa Maria de Gràcia, located at the top of the modern square. de Lesseps in the district of Gràcia, in Barcelona, where it is the oldest building. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The church of the Virgen de Gracia and Sant Josep, popularly known as the Josepets de Gràcia, was built between 1658 and 1687 and designed by Friar Josep de la Concepción, called the Thracian. It is currently the only preserved building in the old convent of the Barefoot Carmelites in Santa Maria de Gràcia.

Freedom Market
The Mercat de la Llibertat is a food market located in the Vila de Gràcia district, in the Gràcia District of Barcelona. The building, which was remodeled in 2009, occupies an island between Oreneta, Milton, Sant Gabriel and Sant Cristòfor streets, next to Plaça Gal•la Placídia in Barcelona. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Food Market in the Vila de Gràcia district is located in the middle of the island of houses bounded by the streets of Oreneta, Milton, Sant Gabriel and Sant Cristòfor, very close to Plaça Gal•la Placídia.

Gràcia City Council
The City of Grace is an eclectic town hall Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Gràcia City Council is located in the current number 2 of Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia, in a building from the second half of the 19th century that has undergone numerous construction campaigns, including that of the architect. Francesc Berenguer i Mestres in 1905.

Comas d’Argemir House
The House of Argemir Comas is a building modernist, designed by architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas (1904), located on Avenida Argentina, 92 in the neighborhood of Vallcarca and Penitents of the Gracia district of Barcelona. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. La Comas d’Argemir is located on the narrow island of the district of Gràcia delimited by the streets Bolívar, Agramunt, Avinguda de la República Argentina and Avinguda de Vallcarca. It is a building built in 1904 as a detached house by the architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas.

Building of the Moral Center of Gràcia
The Building of the Moral and Instructive Center of Gràcia is a modernist work in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. It is the headquarters of the Moral and Instructive Center of Gràcia. The Moral Center of Gràcia is located on the island of the district of Gràcia delimited by the streets Ros de Olano, Gran de Gràcia, Montseny and Pere Serafí. It is the headquarters of a 19th century cultural association. It has a single exterior façade facing Ros de Olano Street from where the main access takes place. The property has a floor plan in the shape of an “ela” and has a long corridor that connects the side rooms on the right and with the bottom of the plot where there is a small theater. The building consists of ground floor plus two floors.

La Farigola school group
The La Farigola school group is a Noucentista building in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. It hosts the La Farigola de Vallcarca school. The La Farigola School Group is located on the island of the Gràcia district, delimited by Sant Camil, Sant Eudald, Balears and Farigola streets. It is a school building separated from the street by the school yard. The entrance is along Carrer Sant Camil through a porch that gives access to both the building and the school yard.

Sant Jordi Tower
The Torre de Sant Jordi is a building in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Torre Sant Jordi is located on the island of the district of Gràcia, delimited by the streets of Sant Eudald, Balears, Rubens and Avinguda de la Mare de Déu del Coll. It is a modernist detached house with garden. The property has a single façade facing Carrer de Sant Eudald, where the entrance to the garden is located. From this space, formed by two wooded beams connected by stairs, the house is accessed.

Sanctuary of Sant Josep de la Muntanya
The Sanctuary of Sant Josep de la Muntanya is a neo-Romanesque building with modernist elements located in the neighborhood of La Salut (Gràcia, Barcelona), the work of Francesc Berenguer i Mestres from the beginning of the 20th century. Commissioned by the Congregation of Mothers of the Abandoned and Sant Josep de la Muntanya, it is a center of worship and pilgrimage, it was the first in the world dedicated to Sant Josep. It also houses the social work started by Beata Petra de Sant Josep, and is currently a reception center for children at risk of social exclusion. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Sanctuary of Sant Josep de la Muntanya is located on the island of the district of Gràcia delimited by the streets Sant Cugat del Vallés, Maignon and the avenues Coll del Portell and Sant Josep de la Muntanya. It was built between 1895 and 1914 by the architect Francesc Berenguer i Mestres.

Fountain of Hercules
The Hercules Fountain is the oldest ornamental fountain in the city of Barcelona. Work by the sculptor Salvador Gurri was installed in 1797 on Passeig de l’Esplanada in Barcelona, officially inaugurated in 1802, and was moved in 1929 to its current location, at the confluence of Passeig of Sant Joan with Carrer Còrsega. It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Font d’Hèrcules is located in the center of the junction of Passeig Sant Joan with Carrer Còrsega in the district of Gràcia. It is a monument centered on the carving of a standing typology figure dedicated to the mythological figure of Hercules, which is located at the top of the monument. This is accompanied by other secondary elements in the theme but that make up a compositional set carved in Montjuïc stone.

Weather in Francesc Cama
La Casa Francesc Cama is a work of modernist Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Casa Francesc Cama is located on the block of flats in the district of Gràcia, bordered by Gran de Gràcia, Santa Eugènia, Sant Cristòfol and Travessera de Gràcia streets. It has a main façade facing Carrer Gran de Gràcia from where the main access takes place, a secondary façade facing Carrer Santa Eugènia, and an interior façade facing the island’s courtyard.

Sant Joan de Gràcia
Sant Joan de Gràcia is an eclectic church built between 1878 and 1884 in Plaça de la Virreina in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, on the site of the garden of the palace or summer tower called de la Virreina, built by the viceroy Manuel Amat (the palace building came to occupy the space where the Plaça de la Virreina now stands). It is a work protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Parish of Sant Joan de Gràcia is located in the district of Gràcia, facing the north-west face of Plaça Virreina where it has the main access. It is a set of church and rectory, being the first of a single nave with chapels and transept. It also includes a bell tower and buttresses seen. The building is surrounded by streets and oriented from southeast to northwest following the plot of the neighborhood.

Torre Marsans
The Torre Marsans is an eclectic work in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Torre Marsans is located on the island of the district of Gràcia delimited by the Paseo de Mare de Déu del Coll, Carrer Castellterçol and Passatge Tona. The property faces the Passeig Mare de Déu del Coll where it has the main access.

Roca Barallat building
The Roca Barallat Building is a rationalist work in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Roca Barallat Building is located on a corner in the Gràcia district, at the intersection of Via Augusta and Plaça Narcís Oller. It is a question of a building between medians in a plot of practically rectangular plant, consisting of commercial low (nowadays -2014- a tobacconist), a main floor and 6 residential plants.

Casa Cama i Escurra
The House Bed and Escurra is a work of modernist Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Casa Cama i Escurra is located on Carrer Gran de Gràcia (Gràcia district), at a time when it is still merged with the upper part of the Jardinets de Gràcia. The building is located between medians in a context of large sidewalks that give it virtually the appearance of a square.

House Elisa Bremon of Thorn
The Casa Elisa Bremon d’Espina is a modernist work in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Casa Elisa Bremon in Espina is located on Carrer Gran de Gràcia, on a narrow rectangular plot. It is a question of a building between medians, consisting of a ground floor with two commercial premises located to both sides of the front door of the building, as well as four floors of houses and a terrace on the last plant.

Casa Garriga
The Casa Garriga is an eclectic work of Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Residential building located on one of the main streets of the city. In elevation, it has a rather sober eclectic façade. The façade is made up of a series of symmetrically arranged openings, using decorative moldings that are absent, on a background of bush-cut ashlars. However, on the main floor, where the most important house was located, the grandstand stands out and is where most of the modernist- style decoration is concentrated. This sober style is close to French classicism and gives it a more stately air.

Casa Barangé
The House Barang is a work of rationalist Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Casa Barangé is located in the Putxet district, just off the Vallcarca viaduct. It is a detached and detached house, facing the Mons Square, consisting of a ground floor and two floors for housing.

Set of multifamily homes on the Rambla del Prat
The set of multi-family homes on the Rambla del Prat is a modernist work in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The housing complex on Rambla del Prat 4-6-8-10 is located on the homonymous street, in the district of Gràcia. It is a set of very homogeneous buildings between medians intended almost entirely for housing. Only, number 4 documents a commercial low (dry cleaning in 2014). Above this ground floor are four more floors, as well as an upper roof.

Monument to Josep Anselm Clavé
The Monument to Josep Anselm Clavé is a historicist style sculpture designed by the architect Josep Vilaseca and crowned with a sculpture by the Barcelona sculptor Manuel Fuxà that represents the Barcelona composer Josep Anselm Clavé, a work by Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The Monument to Anselm Clavé is located in the middle of the last pedestrian section of Passeig de Sant Joan, between Antoni Marià Claret and Travessera de Gràcia streets.

Our Lady of the Coll
La Mare de Déu del Coll, or Font-rúbia, is a church in the Coll district, to which it gives its name, in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. It is a Romanesque church from the 11th century, of which the central body and the bell tower are preserved, being the other current elements of the church from the 20th century. The territory where this temple is located was a passageway from Vallcarca to Horta and was part of the municipality of Gràcia until its aggregation in Barcelona in 1904.

Oratory of Sant Felip Neri
The Oratory of Sant Felip Neri is a historicist church in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. Architectural complex in the Gràcia district of Barcelona between Sol, Montseny and Ros de Olano streets. The set consists of the Oratory building attached to the residential outbuildings of the community that are organized around a central cloister. Work of the Vigo architect Josep Artigas i Ramoneda, this oratory reproduces the church of Sant Felip Neri in Baroque style located in Gothic clay. The façade has three bodies with a semicircular finish in the center; on the main entrance door there is a niche with the sculpture of the Saint and on a rose window. It also has a square bell tower. The interior is alsoside chapels.

Herbalist Llobet
The Herbalist Llobet is a building in Barcelona protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. The property is housed in a mid- 19th-century neoclassical building. It has a single opening to the street. The exterior has folding painted wooden shutters. The two-leaf back door creates a small exterior lobby with side windows. The composition of the set is symmetrical with a paneled plinth, three horizontal sections of glass up to the lintel and an upper body of translucent glass.

Shopping
Commerce is one of the most identifying elements of Gràcia, of its way of being, of its way of understanding the world. It is one of the features that define their economic and social reality, and an example of how men and women have been able to adapt to the changes of the times. In Gràcia, trade means good treatment and innovation, knowing the needs of the community around you, constantly updating yourself. It is also equivalent to work, dynamism and projection. Trade is understanding and being able to deliver. It’s listening and sometimes dreaming. It is a know-how that can only be learned by being behind a counter every day and listening carefully to the needs of the neighbors. Even in Gràcia, the word commerce is also synonymous with something else. It means tradition, cultural heritage, testimony of a past, as in few places in Catalonia.

For Gràcia, trade has been an emblem of a town that became the second city in the country at the end of the 19th century. Today’s Gracia trade is the heir to it all, and that is why it has learned to adapt to new circumstances. Some establishments have done so in search of new values such as sustainability and innovation, and others by offering artisan products. Always in search of excellence and added value.

Living Gràcia through its shops is a unique experience that we invite you to enjoy, step by step. Discover the routes we have prepared for you and let yourself be amazed. Some establishments have done so in search of new values such as sustainability and innovation, and others by offering artisan products. Always in search of excellence and added value. Living Gràcia through its shops is a unique experience that we invite you to enjoy, step by step. Discover the routes we have prepared for you and let yourself be amazed. Some establishments have done so in search of new values such as sustainability and innovation, and others by offering artisan products. Always in search of excellence and added value. Living Gràcia through its shops is a unique experience that we invite you to enjoy, step by step. Discover the routes we have prepared for you and let yourself be amazed.

A route through La Gràcia most innovative and awarded. A route through the shops of Gràcia that have managed to capture the spirit of a territory that has always vindicated creation and social justice, responsible consumption and dynamism as part of its roots. A route through those shops that bear witness to the history of Gràcia, a commercial past that has been able to adapt to the changes of the times and that are proof of the dynamism of the old town. On this route you will find food establishments over 90 years old or included in the category of emblematic E1 and E2 according to the latest update, in March 2016, of Barcelona City Council.

Parks and gardens
Gràcia offers plenty of outdoor spaces ideal for strolling and enjoying nature and the landscape. Explore every corner of the parks and gardens in the area; let yourself be surprised by Park Güell and get to know all kinds of flowers and trees. Breathe fresh air from the viewpoints of the district and contemplate the best views of Barcelona.