Barcelona City

La Rambla (popularly called Las Ramblas) is a tree-lined pedestrian boulevard packed with buskers, living statues, mimes and itinerant salespeople selling everything. The noisy bird market on the second block of La Rambla is worth a stop, as is the nearby Palau de la Virreina, a grand 18th-century rococo mansion, with arts and entertainment information and a ticket office. Next door is La Rambla's most colourful market, the Mercat de la Boqueria. Just south of the Boqueria the Mosaic de Miró punctuates the pavement, with one tile signed by the artist.

The next section of La Rambla boasts the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the famous 19th-century opera house. Below the Plaça Reial, La Rambla becomes decidedly seedy, with strip clubs and peep shows. La Rambla terminates at the lofty Monument a Colom (Monument to Columbus) and the harbour. You can ascend the monument by lift. Just west of the monument, on Avinguda de les Drassanes, stand the Reials Drassanes (Royal Shipyards), which house the fascinating Museu Maritim.

The word Raval, which comes from the Arabic Rabad, means neighbourhood or district. Once home to a cluster of convents and hospitals in Barcelona, the Raval has become a multicultural mosaic where the mix of modernity and the past of the former Barrio Chino, have made it a pole of attraction for people from all over the world.

La Ribera neighbourhood is a must for anyone taking a walk through Barcelona. Whether you get there from the Via Laietana or the Arc de Triomf, as you explore the maze of narrow streets in this neighbourhood where merchants, artisans and guilds once, you’ll discover the city of design, leisure and fashion. Small, intimate, friendly and funky, El Born is where just about everything fashionable in Barcelona is happening now. Off all the usual tourist tracks, has been transformed almost overnight into the stylish, in-vogue heart of the city. Just imagine Soho, Covent Garden and Notting Hill all rolled into one. El Born is sandwiched between Via Laietana and La Barceloneta.

The heart and soul of this area is the wide open, tree-lined Passeig de El Born. Many street names remind us of the ancient trades and skills: Mirallers (mirror makers), Sombrerers (hatters), Argenters (silversmiths), etc. Streets that grew up around the church of Santa Maria del Mar, which is, without a shadow of a doubt, the masterpiece of Catalan Gothic architecture.

The Barri Gotic contains a concentration of medieval Gothic buildings only a few blocks northeast of La Rambla, and is the nucleus of old Barcelona. It's a maze of interconnecting dark streets linking with squares, and there are plenty of cafes, bars and accommodation in town. Most of the buildings date from the 14th and 15th century, when Barcelona was at the height of its commercial prosperity. Around the Barcelona Cathedral, one of Spain's greatest Gothic buildings, you can still see part of the ancient walls incorporated into later structures. The quarter is centred around the Plaça de Sant Jaume, a spacious square, the site of a busy market and one of the venues for the weekly dancing of the sardana. Two of the city's most significant buildings are here, the Ajuntament and the Palau de la Generalitat.

Across the Via Laietana from the Barcelona Cathedral is a maze of bustling, narrow streets. This is the city’s medieval Santa Caterina and Sant Pere neighbourhood where, among other things, you’ll find the modernista masterpiece: the Palau de la Música Catalana.

There are a hundred different ways to discover the Parc de la Ciutadella. You can explore the history of the former military citadel and the 1888 Universal Exhibition, or simply enjoy the surroundings and take part in one of its many cultural events. Barcelona’s public park par excellence will never let you down.

The streets of La Barceloneta in Ciutat Vella neighbourhood are arranged like corridors running parallel and perpendicular to the Port de Barcelona, and draw us into a world of modest buildings, with balconies displaying clothes hanging out to dry and small ground-floor restaurants and tapas bars, filled with chatter and noise, and permeated by the constant smell of the sea.

Barcelona Cathedral (La Seu) - The Barcelona Cathedral (La Seu) is a beautiful example of Catalan Gothic architecture, started in 1298. The complicated facade was added much later, in the 19th century. The Barcelona Cathedral is dedicated to Santa Eulalia who was killed by the Romans for her Catholic faith. The large bell towers ...

Picasso Museum - The Picasso Museum is in the heart of Barcelona old quarter, on the Carrer Moncada. Since its recent expansion now sprawls over a row of five Gothic palaces once - in late medieval times - home to Barcelona's aristocrats. The Picasso Museum galleries are arranged in date order. They start with ...