Places to disconnect in Barcelona

Tuesday, 17 November 2020

Barcelona is a densely populated city, especially in certain neighborhoods. It is also a city with a lot of traffic and, therefore, a lot of background noise. Like any active and commercial city, Barcelona can generate stress for those who live in it and those who visit it. That is why it is important to find corners in the city where you can relax and escape. In this post we are going to recommend some of those places to relax in Barcelona. It will be enough for you to drop by one of them to regain your calm and enjoy a time of peace and quiet.

Barceloneta Beach

La Barceloneta is the fishing district par excellence of Barcelona. Or it was in his time, when fishing was still part of the daily life of the city. Built on a triangular spit of land that juts out into the waters of the Mediterranean, this neighborhood was built in the 18th century to accommodate the people of Barcelona who, in the Ribera neighborhood, had lost their houses when the town was built. Ciutadella.

This Barcelona neighborhood to relax is a neighborhood of narrow and straight streets and is flanked on one side by the boats that are docked in the Port and by the beaches. Barceloneta Beach, once full of beach bars, is today an excellent place to relax contemplating the sea or strolling along it after having eaten or tapas in some of the many restaurants and tapas bars in the neighborhood.

The Barceloneta

Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden, located in the Montjuïc Park, is another of the ideal places to disconnect in BCN. A good number of the plant species typical of the Mediterranean climate are present in it. Visiting this place to forget the stress in Barcelona is visiting a landscape in full change. The management of the Barcelona Botanical Garden tries, every year, to reproduce new species in its nursery to incorporate them into the garden's plant wealth. Sometimes these species are perfectly adapted and survive. In others, no. But this disciplined work has served to show that the landscapes of the Mediterranean basin can become very similar to some South African, Chilean, Australian or Californian landscapes.

In this fantastic garden, which has an area of 14 hectares, around 1,350 plant species are represented. The goal, however, is to represent 4,000 species from around the world. All the species that are part of the garden are grouped according to their origin. Trying to artificially recreate the different natural ecosystems is one of the great tasks carried out by the team at this fantastic place to walk in Barcelona.

Guell park

Anyone who wants to relax watching a fantastic sunset in Barcelona can do so in one of the most emblematic and photographed corners of Barcelona: Park Güell.

The author of this park, the famous and brilliant architect Antoni Gaudí, initially planned it as a city-garden in the purest English style. Finally become the most famous public park in Barcelona and the most visited by tourists, Park Güell is a magnificent example to see how Gaudí tried to combine nature and architecture in many of his works.

Of the forty single-family houses that were to be built on the 15 hectares of the property, which belonged to the millionaire patron Eusebi Güell, only two were built. One of them, where the architect came to live, is today the Gaudí House-Museum. The park includes viaducts, porches, paths, etc. all of them designed by the Catalan architect, who worked on it between 1900 and 1914.

Among all the corners of this fantastic place to relax in Barcelona we can highlight its staircase with its famous and colorful ceramic dragon, the wavy and ceramic bench in the great square and the hypostyle room formed by 86 columns that support the weight of the aforementioned square.

Park Güell was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.

Guell park

Citadel Park

The Parque de la Ciudadela (Parc de la Ciutadella) is one of the lungs of Barcelona. It receives its name because it occupies the place occupied by the military citadel that Felipe V ordered to be built in Barcelona after the War of Succession. To build this military fortress it was necessary to demolish all the houses that occupied that space in the Ribera neighborhood. The 4,500 people who were evicted were transferred, as we have indicated previously, to a newly built neighborhood: Barceloneta.

After the Revolution of 1868, the citadel was demolished. Of it, at present, only the Governor's Palace, the chapel and the arsenal remain. In the building that used to act as arsenal is where the headquarters of the Parliament of Catalonia is currently located.

In 1888, and on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition, the park was built. In it, two very striking constructions stand out: its beautiful and monumental waterfall and the so-called Castle of the Three Dragons, which currently functions as a Museum of Zoology. Its extensive landscaped areas, its groves, its lake, its greenhouse and the fact that it is home to the Barcelona Zoo make the Ciudadela Park an ideal corner to disconnect in Barcelona.

Horta Labyrinth Park

The Labyrinth Park, located in the north of the city, in the Horta-Guinardó district, is the oldest park in the city. Designed in 1792 by an Italian engineer, it occupies the land that was once owned by the Marquis de Llupià and Alfarràs, Joan Desvalls.

Today, this romantic garden to relax in Barcelona occupies 55 hectares. These are partially landscaped following the stylistic guidelines of the neoclassical gardens of the time. In the garden we find small squares, flower beds, large trees and a waterfall.

The park also has a heavily wooded area. This area gives the Parque del Laberinto a markedly romantic air and full of corners where you can forget everything. Some of these corners are decorated with sculptures of a mythological nature. In the park we can also find the so-called "Torre Soberana". This building is nothing more than an old 14th century farmhouse that, in the 19th century, was redecorated in an arabesque style.

This park to de-stress in Barcelona gets its name from the plant labyrinth that, made with cypress trees, serves as an entertainment and game area.

Cervantes Park

Right next to the entrance to Barcelona on Avenida Diagonal is one of the least known and most attractive parks in Barcelona: Parque Cervantes or, popularly, Parque de la Rosaleda.

This green space to relax in BCN is popularly called this way because around 250 varieties of roses are exhibited in it. In this Barcelona park there are roses and rose bushes of all kinds, sizes and colors: red, yellow, blue ...

The Cervantes Park, located in the exclusive Pedralbes neighborhood, occupies around 9 hectares of surface. Of these, 4 are occupied by the rose garden itself. Around 10,000 rose bushes grow there. The rest of the space is ideal for jogging, cycling, gymnastics, yoga outdoors, etc.

Royal Palace of Pedralbes

Close to Parque Cervantes, and with entrance through Avenida Diagonal, is the Royal Palace of Pedralbes, an ideal corner to forget everything in Barcelona.

Located in the District of Les Corts, this building was originally a rural estate in which there was a farmhouse (Can Feliu). Once the estate and another adjacent one were bought by Count Eusebi Güell, it was he who commissioned the architect Joan Martorell to build a Caribbean-style mansion. This one, accompanied by a neo-Gothic chapel, was surrounded by splendid and beautiful gardens. Some time later, Güell commissioned the renovation of the house to its head architect: Antoni Gaudí.

The Catalan genius was in charge of this reform and built a fence wall, as well as the goal pavilions. He was also partially in charge of designing the gardens that surround the palace. Various types of Mediterranean plants (eucalyptus, pine, cypress, magnolias, palm trees ...), two fountains and a pergola were planted in them. Between 1919 and 1931, the Pedralbes Palace was the residence of the Spanish Royal Family when they visited the city. Today, the Palace only houses the secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean. Of course: walking through its gardens is still a good way to relax in Barcelona.

Magic Fountain of Montjuïc

Montjuïc whole is a magnificent space to escape in BCN. Full of places to visit (the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, the Castle, the Fundació Joan Miró, the Spanish Village, the Caixaforum, the Museum of Archeology of Catalonia, the Botanical Garden, the Lluís Companys Stadium, the Palau Sant Jordi, the Teatre Grec ...) and gardens and corners to enjoy the open air, there is a place, however, that acquires, due to its undeniable tourist attraction, a special relevance: the Magic Fountain.

The Magic Fountain of Montjuïc offers those who can contemplate it in operation a wonderful and magical show of light, music and water. Designed by the engineer Carles Boïgas and inaugurated on the occasion of the 1929 Universal Exhibition, the fountain has nothing more and nothing less than 7,000 million viable combinations of water and electricity.

To offer this wonderful show, ideal for letting your imagination fly and forgetting about stress in Barcelona, the fountain sets 2,600 liters of water in motion that dance and are illuminated to the rhythm of all kinds of songs. Those who wish to enjoy this wonder should check the times in which the shows are offered, as they vary a lot throughout the year.

Without a doubt, any of these corners can be used to relax in Barcelona. Disconnecting from everyday stress in any of them is simple, but there are many more. We could cite, for example, the Búnkes del Carmelo (located at the top of Turó de la Rovira and which are the remains of anti-aircraft batteries used during the Civil War), or the modernist enclosure of the Hospital de Sant Pau (work of the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner), or the Aigües road (an easily accessible path that, located in the Collserola mountain range, becomes a magnificent viewpoint over the city and an excellent place to walk or practice sports).

We could mention all those corners and a few more, but we are going to leave you those eight places to relax in Barcelona so that you can choose one of them and free yourself from the stress and agitation of urban life.

Montjuic Fountains