Updated October 2026. Check opening hours, booking requirements and transport notices before travelling.
Barcelona: a city of secrets
Roman columns hidden inside a courtyard. A medieval hospital where Gaudí spent his final days. A tiny opening in a wall with a heartbreaking story. Barcelona rewards anyone prepared to step away from its headline attractions and look a little closer.
The Sagrada Família and Gaudí’s colourful creations deserve their fame, but leave room for the city’s smaller surprises. A weekend gives you time to explore a few neighbourhoods, pause for lunch and discover the layers of history beneath your feet.
Getting there from the Pyrénées-Orientales
By car
Coming by car? Book a hotel with parking if you can then explore on foot or by the excellent public transport system.
You may find street parking for short stops: blue and some green spaces allow visitors, usually with a two-hour limit during regulated periods; residents-only spaces do not. Always check the signs.
You could compare full-day prices and check height limits at aparcamentsbsm.cat/en.
French-registered car? Barcelona’s low-emission-zone restrictions normally apply Monday–Friday, 7am–8pm. Register your vehicle before entering during these hours, even if it meets emissions standards: Crit’Air alone is insufficient. Allow up to 15 working days and wait for approval. A parking reservation does not authorise entry. Details: zberegistre.ambmobilitat.cat/fr/VehiclesEstrangers.
By train
Direct high-speed trains connect Perpignan with Barcelona Sants in roughly an hour and a half, depending on the service. If you’re travelling on the slower regional R11 from Figueres, or Girona, you can instead get off at Passeig de Gràcia, one stop before Sants and considerably more central.
The slower coastal route is another possibility. The train rattles along a scenic coastline of sandy coves and inlets to Figueres, where it leaves the slower coastal line and continues more swiftly to Barcelona, taking a couple of hours. Check both the French and Spanish timetables, connections and service notices before setting out; this is a journey to plan carefully rather than a guaranteed quick hop across the frontier.
Train information: SNCF Connect and Rodalies R11.
Start with a market
Begin around Sant Antoni, where the handsome iron market building, first opened in 1882, reopened after its major refurbishment in May 2018.
The food market is a good place to enjoy the everyday business of Barcelona: shopping bags, fish counters, fresh produce and neighbours catching up. On Sundays, the book and collectors’ market offers a different reason to visit, with second-hand books, comics, magazines and stamps. Don’t confuse the Sunday market with the food market’s opening days.
Choose somewhere nearby for breakfast, then leave time to browse. Markets are working places: buy something if it takes your fancy, keep entrances clear and ask before photographing stallholders.
Visitor information: Sant Antoni Market.
A cat, a courtyard and a poignant little window
In the Raval, Fernando Botero’s enormous bronze cat presides over the Rambla del Raval. Its rounded body and splendid whiskers make it an irresistible meeting point.
For a quieter discovery, head to the old Hospital de la Santa Creu, reached from Carrer de l’Hospital. Founded in 1401, this Gothic complex served as the city’s general hospital for centuries and now houses the Library of Catalonia and other cultural institutions. The Jardins de Rubió i Lluch occupy its courtyard: a lovely place to pause among the surrounding historic buildings.
Did you know? Gaudí was taken to this hospital after being struck by a tram in June 1926. He died there three days later.
There is a lot to see in the Raval, but you have to look carefully. For instance, on the wall of 17 Carrer de les Ramelleres is a small hole, actually a pivoting window, known as el torn dels orfes (the orphans’ hole), where unwanted babies used to be left in the care of the nuns. It was in use until 1931. Babies could be placed in the revolving mechanism and passed inside anonymously, to be cared for by the institution.
It is a sobering reminder of the poverty and difficult choices hidden behind the city’s grander history.
Visitor information: Old Hospital de la Santa Creu.
Find Roman Barcelona
Cross La Rambla into the Gothic Quarter and explore around the cathedral. Roman Barcelona, known as Barcino, survives in fragments woven into later buildings.
Look for the gateway towers at Plaça Nova and the stretches of wall around Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran. They offer a striking view of a city built upwards and outwards over many centuries.
The most surprising Roman stop is at 10 Carrer del Paradís. Inside a medieval building, four substantial columns survive from the Temple of Augustus, dating to the late first century BC.
Their setting is part of the attraction. You approach through an ordinary-looking doorway and suddenly find yourself beside the remains of a Roman temple.
Three columns survived together; the fourth was reconstructed from ancient remains and joined them in 1956, after previously standing in Plaça del Rei. Check the opening hours before making a special journey.
Visitor information: Temple of Augustus.
The old Jewish quarter
Nearby lies El Call, Barcelona’s medieval Jewish quarter. Explore its narrow lanes around Carrer de Marlet and Carrer de Sant Honorat, where the closely packed buildings give a sense of the old neighbourhood.
For historical context, seek out MUHBA El Call, in Placeta de Manuel Ribé, which introduces the history and heritage of Barcelona’s Jewish community.
The city’s medieval Jewish community thrived as a vital cultural and economic hub until the 14th century, when rising scapegoating culminated in the devastating 1391 pogrom. This violent massacre effectively destroyed organized Jewish life in the city, forcing survivors to convert under threat of death and setting the stage for centuries of Inquisition persecution and eventual total expulsion from Spain in 1492.
The small visitor site known as the Sinagoga Major also offers visits. Claims about its precise origins and identification vary, so sweeping descriptions such as “a first-century synagogue” should be treated cautiously.
Museum information: Barcelona History Museum.
Synagogue visits: Sinagoga Major.
A beautiful square with a painful past
Make a short detour to Plaça de Sant Felip Neri, an intimate square gathered around a fountain.
Look closely at the damaged stonework of the church façade. The scars recall an aerial bombardment in January 1938, during the Spanish Civil War, which killed 42 people, many of them children.
It is a place to linger respectfully: one of those corners where a little knowledge completely changes what you see.
Visitor information: Church of Sant Felip Neri.
A concert hall worth going inside
The Palau de la Música Catalana is hardly undiscovered, but it deserves a place in any exploration beyond Gaudí.
Designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and opened in 1908, this UNESCO-listed concert hall brings together mosaics, sculpture, coloured glass and an extraordinary central skylight. Make sure you get there in time for some sunlight to be showing the coloured glass windows to maximum advantage
It stands in the Sant Pere neighbourhood of the old city. Book a guided or self-guided visit, or check the concert programme and experience the building doing what it was made for.
Booking and programmes: Palau de la Música Catalana.
Choose a second-day adventure: Montjuïc or the waterfront
Resist trying to squeeze every corner of Barcelona into one weekend. For a second day, choose the hill or the sea, leaving room for an unhurried lunch.
For views and gardens, choose Montjuïc. The funicular runs from Paral·lel metro station to Parc de Montjuïc and is included in the integrated public transport fare system. From its upper station, the Montjuïc cable car continues towards the castle, with a separate ticket.
The harbour-crossing cable car is a different service. It does not form a continuation of the Montjuïc cable car, and the tickets are separate. Check operating notices before travelling.
You can enjoy Montjuïc’s gardens, viewpoints and many of its outdoor sights without booking ahead. The major attractions, including Montjuïc Castle, the Joan Miró Foundation, MNAC and Poble Espanyol, are separate visits with their own tickets. Allow for slopes and surprisingly long walking distances when choosing your route.
Transport information: Montjuïc funicular and Montjuïc cable car.
For maritime history and a sea breeze, choose the waterfront.
Start at the Museu Marítim, housed in the monumental Royal Shipyards near Drassanes.
A highlight is its full-size reconstruction of the Royal Galley, the flagship commanded by John of Austria at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The building itself is every bit as compelling as the exhibits: give yourself time to appreciate its great halls.
In the garden is a replica of the first submarine, made out of wood by Narcis Monturiol, and resembling a barrel, possibly because his father was a barrel maker.
When you reach the Fish, a massive piece of sculpture by Frank Gehry, designed for the Olympics in 1992 – you can’t miss it – turn inland and take the tram, up past the zoo to the Parc de la Ciutadella. Here you will find the elegant Castell de Tres Dragons among the fountains and waterfalls, plus a statue of a giant mammoth, bubble blowers, a boating lake, acrobats practising, balloon sellers, and on the bandstand – unless you are very unlucky – a tap dance troupe rehearsing their act, or something similar.
Museum information: Museu Marítim.
Finish in El Born
El Born makes an appealing final stop, with lanes to explore and places to sit over a drink. It is part of Ciutat Vella, the historic centre, immediately east of the Gothic Quarter. It’s known for narrow medieval streets, cafés, boutiques, galleries and several important sights.
For another glimpse beneath the modern city, visit the former Born market building, now an El Born site of the Barcelona History Museum. Beneath its iron roof are excavated streets and buildings that reveal the neighbourhood’s life around 1700.
Check the available visits and ticket arrangements: access to the archaeological remains is distinct from simply looking into the hall.
If you have energy left, continue to the Parc de la Ciutadella for its greenery, ornamental cascade and lake. Treat individual buildings as optional stops and check their access before visiting; the Castell dels Tres Dragons is undergoing a restoration programme.
Museum information: Barcelona History Museum.
Getting around and enjoying your visit
Barcelona’s metro and buses make it easy to shorten a walk or return to your hotel.
The old T-10 has been replaced. Two useful options are the T-casual, with ten journeys for one person, and the T-familiar, a shareable ticket offering eight journeys over 30 consecutive days from first use. Each passenger uses a journey when travelling together.
Beware. Neither is valid for the airport metro stations Aeroport T1 and Aeroport T2 on line L9 Sud.
Transport tickets and journey planning: TMB.
Barcelona is beautiful but….
Many P-O visitors start or end their holiday at the busy El Prat airport….but like any big city, it’s a hotspot for street crime.
Crooks and scammers stalk the streets and public transport, constantly on the lookout for new and inventive ways of relieving people of their valuables. In particular, they target tourists, usually relaxed and feeling mellow, putting them right at the top of the hit-list of potential victims.
Unfortunately, Spanish law treats theft worth €400 or less as a delito leve, normally punishable by a small fine, so a poor deterrent compared to the money a clever thief can make in just one day. Although the rules have been tightened for repeat offenders, this relatively light treatment of petty theft is one extra reason not to be complacent: keep an especially close eye on phones, wallets and bags in crowded tourist areas.
Carry your belongings securely, keep bags close on trains and in cafés, and avoid leaving a phone or wallet on a terrace table. Take particular care when distracted by crowds or street entertainment.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT SOME OF THE KNOWN SCAMS ON THE STREETS AND ROADS
Leave space in your itinerary. A courtyard, a doorway or an unexpected view may prove just as memorable as the attraction you came to see. And most important of all, ENJOY!