We're going to take you on a walking tour through the little back lanes of Barcelona
exploring a neighborhood that many visitors miss.
We' re going into La Ribera, and El Born.
Only a few blocks east of the Cathedral and the famous Gothic Quarter, Ribera, is a local
neighborhood – residential with shops, restaurants, bars, and it's a great place to visit.
You will find many pedestrian lanes with no cars to upset the tranquility – it's an
authentic slice of local life.
The route that we' re following brings you from one end to the other over to the big
park and then back into the center of this walking zone.
You don't really need a map but we've got some practical suggestions for you to help
show you how to explore La Ribera and we will visit a Gothic church, and starting out at
the concert hall, Palau de la Musica Catalana.
From Palau de la Musica we will take you along Carrer Sant Pere over to the church and place
of Sant Pere and then down, around and over into the park and returning back over along
Princesa to a couple of lovely pedestrian streets with malls and outdoor cafes, and
continuing along back into the heart of this district, and then we'll do some meandering
– kind of get lost a little bit, going this way that way to the Gothic church of Santa
Maria Del Mar, and then back into the center of the Gothic Quarter.
The Palace of Catlan Music, or as they call it the Palau de la Musica Catalana, a concert
hall designed in the Modernista style, or Art Nouvea, built at the start of the twentieth
century.
This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the exterior is encrusted with statues of
musicians and mythological characters in the Modernista style expressing the distinct Catalan
identity through its architecture.
The Palau is busy as an active venue for performing arts.
It's a wonderful concert hall.
There are events staged here every week, or you could just pay to go inside during the
day for a guided tour.
The interior is far more elaborate than the outside, with its dizzying display of dynamic
shapes.
There's no straight lines in here, just a rich decoration.
Continue east from the Palau de la Musica, go over a few blocks through the district
of Sant Pere.
The neighborhood is named after the former convent monastery of Sant Pere an ancient
church on a small Plaza of Sant Pere.
This is a quieter part of town and it enjoys a slow pace of life in a world of its own,
so you can hang out here for a while and just simply meander.
And as you walk along you're going to see the locals going about their business, shopping,
talking, hanging out.
Here you can enjoy an ordinary working-class neighborhood set with an old-fashioned atmosphere
a little bit off of the beaten track out from the center of Barcelona.
It's fair to say that most tourists never get here, except for me and my small group
on a walking tour with Sandra, our local guide.
We have several movies featuring Sandra's Barcelona tours that you can find in our collection.
A couple blocks south the Sant Pere neighborhood opens up, wider pedestrian lanes and more
people.
There's some shops and restaurants nearby.
A lively neighborhood and it is just another block over to the big park where we find the
Arc de Triomf.
It was the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World's Fair, built in a redbrick Neo- Mudéjar
style.
This is the Parc de la Ciutadella.
Today it's the major park of Barcelona, a very popular spot, especially on a weekend.
The families come out in big numbers.
There are not that many little neighborhood parks in the Old Town and so this is where
you come for some green space and fresh air, quite a contrast with those narrow pedestrian
alleys of the Gothic Quarter.
There is generally some kind of food service available here in the park, especially during
the nice weather and on certain holidays there are big festivals.
We were there for the Merce Festival, which happened to be a major weekend with a lot
of things going on – so much that we made a separate movie all about fun in the park
in Barcelona.
Here's a quick sample.
(Music plays) Look for that one in our collection.
The park is also home to a zoo, a science museum a giant water fountain, a small lake
and the Catalan Parliament.
Nearly everybody that you see in the park are local residents because tourists just
somehow don't seem to be able to find this place.
It is only 800 meters east of the Cathedral.
So when you're strolling around in the Ribera neighborhood come on over and have a look
at the park.
Returning to the Old Town neighborhood of La Ribera visiting couple of lively little
plazas.
We' re going to find that even though the residents don't have green parks, they do
have lovely plazas and gathering places and pedestrian lanes and wide sidewalks along
the streets, and with many big trees to enhance the environment.
You'll always see young families out with their kids, the local people walking the dog,
and folks doing a little shopping, a little talking and doing a lot of sitting around
at these cafes.
The outdoor ambience of the place is really quite wonderful.
One reason for this human scale and busy outdoor activity scene is that the people live here
generally do not have cars.
There is just no room, there's no room to park the car, there's no room to drive the
car and so therefore people walk, they ride bicycles, they'll take the bus, they'll take
the Metro and get around just fine without a car.
Also, most of the apartments in this older part of town are quite small and therefore
people are quite eager to get out and onto the streets, especially in the early evening
as we are seeing here.
This is where the kids play soccer, skateboarding, and with some well-organized playgrounds,
which makes this a great time and place for the visitor to wander around.
Another advantage of this kind of neighborhood is that things are pretty nearby.
You've got your apartment and you can walk down the corner store, there's a supermarket
not far away.
Everything can be done on foot.
This vibrant social life where everybody seems to know their neighbors and have interesting
conversations, with the generations all getting along together, is really quite typical of
Spanish culture.
You'll find something similar in every town and city of the country.
Another typical aspect of this joyful life in the street are the pop-up craft booths
selling all manner of handmade and locally produced items, the kind of serendipity shopping
experience that'll catch you by surprise and attract you to something that you weren't
even looking for, but turns out you really wanted it.
There are dozens of these little pedestrian lanes in La Ribera section of town just as
you find in the Gothic Quarter as well, and it could take you many days to explore them
all.
Now some days are better than others.
There might be cold weather.
It might be raining – there won't be much going on out there, or might be wintertime,
or maybe it's just a weekday and there's hardly anybody out, the cafes are not even open outdoors,
but most of the time during the year, say from April right through the end of October,
you're going to find lots of outdoor activity.
Crossing again north of Princesa Street into yet another little lovely tangle of alleys
lined with apartments, typical of the Old Town.
People are living upstairs on every street and the housing nowadays is very expensive
because you're in the center of town.
Heading for one of the main pedestrian lanes Carrer dels Corders.
It's one of the only lanes that goes all the way through the Old Town from one end to the
other, changing names several times along the way, making this one of the best pedestrian
foot paths in town.
We'll show you this small section now.
A couple of the main activities along this lane are people-watching and shopping.
It's a busy retail zone, with very few shop vacancies, but you'll notice some shutters
are down because of siesta.
The stores often close from 12 o'clock until 2:30 or even 3 o'clock for lunch.
The small specialty boutiques usually offer goods that are made in Spain, so here you're
going to get some high-quality at a fair price, something special to bring back home while
helping the local economy.
The upstairs apartment usually have little balconies – give the residents a chance
at some fresh air and grow some plants.
Plaça de la Llana is a nice part of the street where it widens and there's intersection with
several other little lanes coming all together here, and some very good values on food.
Instead of eating at an expensive restaurant you can get some cheap take away.
Is it good?
Quiche?
Very good.
And in Notice the clever use of a backpack as a seat
on the sidewalk.
While.
Sam's Club.
There is just something quite pleasing about the way the lane widens out at this point.
it's more like a little plaza, that's why they call it, Plaza de la Llana, and yet it's
really not more than a wider street – got little steps leading up to a higher level,
there's a parking lot for bicycles and motor scooters, lots of activity around here.
It's a lively place.
You'll find a nice variety of stores here, all of them quite small, even that supermarket,
it's pretty tiny.
Or how about the Cat Bar.
It's not a cat café, there's no cats here, here just vegan food, including burgers and
beer, plain service.
Everybody is treated equally.
Wondering a block north through some more narrow alleyways, you've got the balconies
and laundry hanging out.
There's real people up there.
Want to show you another typical tiny plaza, Santa Catarina.
We are on our way to the great food market of Santa Catarina.
The market has a restaurant with outdoor tables and a large indoor space and a bar.
For more details about this wonderful spot, Look for Our Other Movie on the Restaurants
of Barcelona.
At lunch you can walk right in, but it's so popular for dinner you'll need reservation.
In the same building you'll find a local food market for the residents of the area.
Now we are heading back south of Princesa Street into the Born neighborhood, which is
part of the greater La Ribera district, but Born has a special character of its own.
It's become very popular very hip and trendy, with many more tourists than we notice just
earlier in the eastern neighborhood of La Ribera.
It's another ideal place to wander.
In the Born neighborhood you can also easily detour into those little side alleys where
it's a lot quieter, with their colorful laundry hanging up above.
There is a historical paradox here because this neighborhood, which is now so nice and
desirable with a safe environment enjoyed by many young families, but in the previous
century it had a much worse reputation.
It was considered quite the opposite.
In the early twentieth century this was thought by many to be a slum – dangerous, dark,
narrow, torturous.
Guidebooks encouraged people to stay away from this area, but later in the twentieth
century it was getting rejuvenated, and of course lately it is spectacular.
It's one of the finest urban neighborhoods in Europe, so fascinating because it exemplifies
the contrasts of plain old down-to-earth charm, a bit of graffiti here and there, some buildings
in need of renovation, all part of the authentic character of El Born.
These little back lanes really don't have any great historical landmarks to look at,
but there are restaurants, there's a few shops tucked away.
After our meander through the little alleys we come upon the main street of the Born,
Carrer de Montcada.
back in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries this street was a deluxe area, home to many
rich merchants who built their palaces along here, some of which are still standing.
Barcelona at that time was a very important trading center, equal to Genoa, or Marseilles,
with trade along the Mediterranean shores, and La Ribera was a coastal part of the city
– Ribera means shore, with many fishermen and sailors and working-class people living
in this quarter.
By the late medieval period the city expanded out from what is now the old Gothic Quarter
into La Ribera, which prospered for many centuries.
The most important of these surviving mansions now houses the Picasso Museum, one of the
main visitor attractions of Barcelona.
Love him or not, Pablo Picasso was the major artist of the twentieth century and he lived
in Barcelona during his formative years from ages fourteen through twenty-three until his
career and fame really got started.
Now if you don't want to pay the admission to go inside, by all means, at least have
a look at the series of interconnected courtyards and you're welcome to go into the gift shop,
naturally.
Montcada does get pretty busy.
It's the most popular lane in El Born.
It can does have a few other art galleries associated with that street, you've got some
former mansions and their courtyards with sculpture on display, wonderful architecture
in these well-preserved buildings, many of them dating back 500 years.
The oldest stores in Barcelona are honored with bronze plaques on the sidewalk out front,
such as here for Casa Gisbert, a food store that was founded in 1851 and is still operated
by the same family.
Their specialty is roasting nuts on a wood fire, lending a delicious smoky flavor to
their almonds or hazelnuts, pistachios and more.
They also roast their own coffee and have dried fruits and other food delicacies.
As soon as you walk in the store you will notice the aroma of the roasted nuts.
That woodfired oven is unique in all of Europe, burning oak wood right inside the store.
It's located next to the largest Gothic church in the city, Santa Maria Del Mar, second in
size only to the Cathedral.
Santa Maria del Mar.
A traditional Gothic front door, with pointed arches and statues.
A beautiful façade.
The church itself is really, really impressive, with its huge nave, its soaring column, it's
Gothic vaulted arches.
Now this was all built during the Gothic pereiod, particularly in the thirteenth through fourteenth
centuries, and so the architectural form is 100 percent Gothic.
It's not influenced by the later period of the Renaissance or the Baroque.
There's no fancy flourishes to its style.
Leaving the church, we've now got one more lovely street to walk along in El Born, Carrer
de l'Argenteria, another fine spot for shopping and eating, in particular, there are several
tapa bars along the way that we will have a stop at, take a little break after our extensive
walking tour.
We are in restaurant Sagardi in the Born neighborhood of the Gothic Quarter, one of the most popular
spots in town.
We'll show you a lot more of this and some other great restaurants in our other movie
about the restaurants of Barcelona.
Look for that in our collection.
And now we are done with the walking tour.
We have made it back all the way around through La Ribera Into the Gothic Quarter.
Look for the rest of our many movies about Barcelona in our collection.
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