Barcelona 3.3.5 -- Amazing Poblenou

After arriving in Barcelona, I stayed first in the Eixample at the hostel for digital nomads, not far from Sagrada Familia. Then I left to go to Granada for several days, and then Madrid, before returning to Barcelona. During this second visit I had the good fortune to find a cool place in the neighborhood called Poblenou (new town). Formerly an industrial area, it's now a wild mix of old and new residences, warehouses for artists, and actually for storing wares (!), arty new shops and restaurants, AND it's near the beaches of Nova Icária and Bogatell. IMO PERFECT.

Here's a view from the main commercial street, La Rambla del Poblenou, down the Carrer del Pere IV. On the Rambla cars must use a slow single lane on either side of a wide pedestrian walkway inn the center with benches and vendors and art. It's a really pleasant walk, and unlike the famous Ramblas in the Old City, this one has almost no tourists.

This is a view of the corner of Carrer Pere IV and the Rambla del Poblenou. Note the extra-wide pedestrian crossing lines.

All through Poblenou you find these beautiful old residences which were once tucked between factories, but now are preserved. This is the intersection of the Carrer de Roc Boronat and Carrer dels Almogavers. It's also inside one of the first Superillas (superblocks) which is Barcelona's new plan to improve traffic flow and create more space for people to walk or play or sell stuff of do whatever inn the safety of reduced vehicle speed and numbers. Through traffic is diverted to the edges of the nine-block superblock. Inside the superilla only cars with local destinations are permitted, and they must obey reduced speed limits.

Here's another beautiful old residence in the same superilla, on the corner of the Carrer de Badajoz and the Carrer de Pere IV. More info on superillas? https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en

This is corner of the Carrer de Pamplona and the Carrer de Pere IV. The wild mix of old and new is what makes walking though Poblenou especially fascinating. Nearby is the Placa de les Glories Catalans, the intersection of three of central Barcelona's largest boulevards. It's also the center of 22@ Barcelona, (vint-i-dos arrova) which is a project to create a technological and innovation district in Poblenou, as well as to increase leisure and residential spaces. It's one of Europe's biggest urban regeneration schemes. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22@

This is what Poblenou used to look like before the renovation of the later 1970's and 80's and especially the Summer Olympics of 1992. Hosted by Barcelona, most of the venues were in and around Poblenou. Of course, the artists and craftspeople moved in first to the not-yet-fashionable, and still-without-services neighborhood, willing to put up with inconveniences in order to have space and low rent. Today the rents are skyrocketing, and artists will have to look elsewhere. Does this sound familiar?

Off the Carrer de Roc Boronat, this is a walkway in the first Poblenou superilla, also in the 22@ project area.

More in the same block -- lots of very strange architecture around that part of Poblenou. Barcelona in general is very bold when it comes to architecture. They have loved innovation since the modernista period around 1880 - 1930. But Poblenou in particular has a lot of really unusual buildings with strange surfaces and spaces.

Well, the Sala Beckett certainly caught my eye. The theater company I've been fortunate enough to be a part of since 2006 (PUS or Performers Under Stress) specializes in the work of Samual Beckett. This lovely old building contains a cafe, small theater and rehearsal spaces. In other words, it's what art spaces can look like when supported by a civilized government.