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.
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.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.