This was my 2 day trip to Barcelona, which I did to visit Sagrada Familia and it was a very successful visit. Next day I had the entire day free before catching a late evening flight to Bologna. This wasn’t my first visit to Barcelona, but this was probably the first one which was unhurried.
I spent an entire afternoon here just walking slow, camera ready, phone tucked away more often than not. I was exploring the old town and had seen lot of Instagram posts about El Born. In my mind it was an area with narrow, dingy streets which looked absolutely dreamy and bohemian. What I didn’t know was that I was going to encounter some very interesting street art.
That’s the thing about this part of Barcelona , you don’t plan your way through it, you just wander and let the streets decide for you. Narrow lanes, stone that’s seen six hundred years of footsteps, washing lines strung between balconies. And then, out of nowhere, a wall covered in colour. A face staring down at you from three storeys up. A tiny stencil tucked behind a drainpipe, so small you’d miss it if you weren’t already looking down at your feet, tired from all the cobblestones.
Where is El Born?
El Born sits in Ciutat Vella, Barcelona’s old town, right next to the Gothic Quarter and just inland from the beach at Barceloneta. It’s a compact, walkable neighbourhood. You could cover it in a couple of hours, or lose an entire day to it.
How to get there
The easiest way in is by metro. Take the L4 (yellow line) to Jaume I station, and you’re basically dropped at El Born’s doorstep
OR
Just walk and enjoy Barcelona. Google Maps will exactly take you to this area from wherever you walk.
El Born does this well . It doesn’t shout about its art the way some cities do. There’s no map, no official trail. You just turn a corner near Passeig del Born or duck into one of the alleys behind Santa Maria del Mar, and there it is. Someone’s leaving a message on a two-hundred-year-old wall, and somehow it fits right in.
I am sure you will agree the art here is very elegant, yet very quirky. And almost each of them compelled me to think what is the story behind them.
And my fav…. for the last!
