Free walking tours in Barcelona

1. Morning

   Essential Barcelona: from La Rambla to the Sagrada Família

   Essentials · 4.2 km · 2 h 30 min

   1. La Rambla and the Miró mosaicAn old stream bed turned into Barcelona's most famous promenade, with a Miró under your feet.
   2. La Boqueria MarketEight centuries of buying and selling beside La Rambla, under an iron roof from 1914.
   3. Plaça de CatalunyaThe hinge between the old city and the Eixample, born on wasteland outside the walls.
   4. Casa BatllóAn ordinary house that Gaudí turned into scales, bones and masks, on the Block of Discord.
   5. La Pedrera (Casa Milà)A house without a single straight line, mockingly nicknamed «the quarry» by the people of Barcelona.
   6. Sagrada FamíliaA church begun in 1882 that Gaudí knew he would never see finished, and today the tallest church in the world.

2. Afternoon

   From Barcino to the Crown of Aragon

   History · 1.4 km · 1 h 35 min

   1. Plaça Nova and the towers of BarcinoTwo towers that guarded the gate of the Roman town and a frieze drawn by Picasso, face to face.
   2. Barcelona CathedralA Gothic cathedral begun in 1298 that had to wait almost six centuries for its front.
   3. Plaça de Sant JaumeFor centuries, the government of Catalonia and the city council have faced each other across this square.
   4. Temple of AugustusFour nine-metre Roman columns hidden in the courtyard of a medieval building.
   5. Plaça del ReiThe courtyard of the palace from which the counts of Barcelona and kings of Aragon ruled a Mediterranean empire.
   6. Santa Maria del MarThe church built stone by stone by sailors and dock porters, in just 54 years.

3. Early evening

   Hidden Barcelona: skulls, martyrs and stone faces

   Mysteries & legends · 1.3 km · 1 h 30 min

   1. The Carrer del Bisbe BridgeIt looks medieval, it's less than a hundred years old and, so the story goes, it hides a skull pierced by a dagger.
   2. Plaça de Sant Felip NeriThe quietest square in the quarter still bears the scars of a bomb that killed dozens of children.
   3. Baixada de Santa EulàliaA short slope and a small niche that recall Barcelona's most famous martyrdom.
   4. El Call, Barcelona's Jewish QuarterA stone with Hebrew letters on a corner is almost all that remains in sight of a community wiped out in 1391.
   5. Plaça del ReiOn these steps a peasant tried to kill King Ferdinand, and tradition places Columbus's triumphant return here.
   6. La Carassa of Carrer dels MirallersA stone face with wide-open eyes that, so they say, pointed the way to a brothel.

Where to eat. Try Pa amb tomàquet and cured meats at Mercat de la Boqueria.