
Parc del Centre del Poblenou
Shaded, willow-arched park of four garden islands built over reclaimed industrial land, with a preserved brick factory now a history museum.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Parc del Centre del Poblenou in Barcelona opens in 2008, days before bulldozers were due to clear a crumbling 1920s brick factory to finish the new park, when a handful of neighbors who had grown up hearing its looms run refused to let the demolition happen. It follows the heritage fight that made the city council rewrite its plans around the one abandoned building, and the long stretch afterward when the factory simply stood inside the finished park, roofless and empty, while joggers circled past. You'll also hear about Jean Nouvel's design for the willow-arched garden domes around it. Walk the shaded islands first, then find the scarred brick building tucked among them.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Parc de l'Espanya Industrial
Sunken lakeside park on a former textile mill, guarded by a giant iron dragon slide.
CaixaForum Barcelona
Former modernist textile mill of brick towers and vaulted halls, later police stables, now an art center.
Parc de Joan Miró
Grid-planned public park built on a former municipal slaughterhouse, centered on a soaring ceramic sculpture by a Catalan surrealist.
El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria
Iron market hall built over ruins of a neighborhood razed as war punishment in 1714.
Ciutadella Park
Landscaped park laid over a demolished military citadel, centered on a grand cascade fountain shaped by a young Gaudi.
Rambla del Poblenou
Tree-lined promenade running from inland hills to the Mediterranean, lined with modernista buildings and old social clubs.