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7
What to see
M
ost sights of historic
interest are in the
old town, with the
modern city beyond a
late nineteenth-century addition,
part of a vast project conceived
to link the small core of the old
town with the villages around it.
Barcelona itself has a
popula-
tion
of 1.6 million (metropolitan
population 4.8 million,Catalunya
7.1 million) but remains, in effect,
a series of self-contained neigh-
bourhoods stretching out from
the harbour, flanked by a brace of
parks and girdled by the wooded
Collserola mountains. Much of
what you’ll want to see in the
city centre – Gothic cathedral,
Picasso museum, markets, Gaudí
buildings, history museums and
art galleries – can be reached on foot in under twenty minutes from the
central Plaça de Catalunya, while a fast metro system takes you directly to
the more peripheral attractions and suburbs.
The
Ramblas
– a kilometre-long tree-lined avenue mostly given over
to pedestrians, pavement cafés and performance artists – splits the
ciutat
vella
, or old town, in two. On the eastern side of the avenue is the
Barri
Gòtic
(Gothic Quarter), the medieval nucleus of the city – a labyrinth
of twisting streets and historic buildings, including La Seu (the cathedral)
and the palaces and museums around Plaça del Rei. Further east lies the
Sant Pere
neighbourhood, set around its terrific market, which adjoins the
fashionable boutique-and-bar
barri
of
La Ribera
to the south, home to the
Picasso museum. Over on the western side of the Ramblas is the edgier,
artier neighbourhood of
El Raval
, containing both the flagship museum of
contemporary art (MACBA) and the pick of the latest designer shops, bars
and restaurants.
At the bottom of the Ramblas is
the waterfront
, whose spruced-up
harbour area is known as
PortVell
(Old Port).Walking east from here takes
you past the aquarium and marina, through the old fishing and restaurant
Volleyball on the beach
| INTRODUCTION |
WHAT TO SEE
| WHEN TO GO