Barcelona, barri a barri A living atlas of the 73 neighbourhoods

Sant Andreu · 59

el Bon Pastor

El Bon Pastor grew around 784 single-storey cases barates built in 1929 beside the Besòs; a remodelling begun in 2002 has been replacing them with apartment blocks, and a block of sixteen houses is now a museum.[1][2][3][4][5]

At MUHBA Bon Pastor, at Carrer de Barnola 22, step into the block of sixteen preserved houses: the originals mostly measured no more than 40 square metres. Then look at the new blocks around it.[1][2][4][5]

The first settlement was the Sanchis quarter, beside the factories of the early twentieth century. In 1929 the Milans del Bosch estate of cases barates was added, the largest of four in the area, housing immigrant workers who came mostly from southern Spain and inland Catalonia.[1][2][3][4]

The remodelling, which began with the plan approved in 2002 and the agreements of 2003, has replaced the houses with apartment blocks in five phases. Residents played a major role in it, but it also produced a dispute over compensation and costs that reached the courts.[1][2][3][4]

el Bon Pastor (neighbourhood 59) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sant Andreu: la Trinitat Vella, Baró de Viver, Sant Andreu, la Sagrera, el Congrés i els Indians, Navas.

Where the name comes from

Etymology: certain[1][2][6][7]

Bon Pastor is not an old rural place-name: it comes from the Bon Pastor (Good Shepherd) parish, which Bishop Irurita blessed in 1935 and whose rector from 1940 was Joan Cortinas, known as «pare Botella».[1][2][6][7]

Before that the estate was called Milans del Bosch, after the general, and during the Republic Bonaventura Carles Aribau, after the writer.[1][2][6][7]

The Besòs separates it from Santa Coloma de Gramenet; factories and fields once separated it from Sant Andreu del Palomar.[1]

Before the neighbourhood

Before the houses there was alluvial land beside the Besòs, then in the municipality of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, and the first factories: Can Sala, dated 1906, and Enric Sanchis, dated 1907.[1][2]

The site was far from the rest of the city and threatened by river floods; until well into the 1970s no bridge joined the two banks here.[1][2]

How the streets were made

The cases barates were terraced single-storey houses; most measured no more than 40 square metres and about a hundred, of «type A», measured 80. They formed a set of low streets, very unlike today's blocks.[1][2][3]

The new blocks have risen on the same ground. Building H3, at the corner of Passeig de Mollerussa and Carrer de Novelles, handed over in 2025, has a ground floor plus six storeys and large cantilevered terraces.[1][2][3]

Dates that changed it

  1. 1906-1907 factories: Can Sala (1906) and Enric Sanchis (1907).[2]
  2. 1929 the Milans del Bosch estate of 784 cases barates is built.[1][2]
  3. 1935 Bishop Irurita blesses the Bon Pastor parish, which will give the neighbourhood its name.[1][2][6][7]
  4. 1945 the neighbourhood is annexed to Barcelona.[1][2][6][7]
  5. 2002-2003 the Pla General Metropolità modification is approved and rehousing agreements are signed with the residents' associations.[3][1]
  6. 2006 the first phase of the remodelling ends with the first 152 new flats.[3]
  7. 2010 the residents' association starts the museum project in the cases barates; 190 flats of the second phase are delivered.[4][5][3]
  8. 2023 MUHBA Bon Pastor opens in sixteen restored houses.[4][5]
  9. 2024 demolition of the last cases barates, about 200, begins.[8]
  10. 30 April 2025 the fourth phase closes with the handover of the last 50 rental flats.[3]

People and collective life

Joan Cortinas, «pare Botella»

Rector of the Bon Pastor parish from 1940; he mediated the neighbourhood's annexation to Barcelona, and the parish gave the neighbourhood its name.[1][2][6][7]

Associació de Veïns i Veïnes del Bon Pastor

It started the museum project in the cases barates in 2010 and worked with IMHAB on the fourth phase of the remodelling.[3][4]

Institutions

MUHBA Bon Pastor

At Carrer de Barnola 22, it occupies a block of sixteen cases barates, ten of them museum spaces; it opened in 2023.[4][5]

Struggles that left a mark

Remodelling: consent and dispute

Demand: In 2003 the agreement with the residents' association set the rehousing terms, but the Avis del Barri group disputed its referendum, the compensation and the cost of the new flats.[3][1]

Outcome: The courts delayed the plan; the last families of the first phase were evicted on 19 October 2007 and the remodelling went on.[3][1]

What can still be seen

Cases barates on Carrer de Barnola

Two groups of sixteen original houses have been kept; one is MUHBA Bon Pastor and the other, opposite, keeps the look of the street.[4][5][3]

What disappeared

The cases barates

Of the 784 cases barates only two groups of sixteen remain; the rest were demolished in the phases of the remodelling, the last batch of about 200 in 2024.[1][2][8]

The neighbourhood today

In 2026 el Bon Pastor had 15,871 residents, a density of 85 people per hectare, a mean census-section income of €18,735 in 2023, 186.8 hectares and 30.4% of residents holding non-Spanish nationality.

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 30.4%

What is changing

As of October 2026 the remodelling of the cases barates, begun in 2002, has four of its five phases finished: 152 flats in 2006, 190 in 2010, 167 in March 2017 and 244 in the fourth phase, which closed on 30 April 2025 with 753 flats delivered in all.[3][8][4][5]

According to the city's latest announcement, of 30 April 2025, the fifth and last phase will consist of four blocks with 188 rental homes and services for older people. In 2024 machines began to demolish the last cases barates, about 200 of the original 784.[3][8][4][5]

Two groups of sixteen houses have been kept: the one that has been a museum since 2023 and the one opposite, whose interior use was still to be defined.[3][8][4][5]

Read it on foot

Start: Bon Pastor (L9 Nord/L10 Nord) · End: Passeig de Mollerussa / Carrer de Novelles

Walking (excluding stop time): 9 min · 680 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 54 min

The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the three marked points, but it has not been verified as step-free. The approach from public transport is not included in the stated distance.

el Bon Pastor (neighbourhood 59) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sant Andreu: la Trinitat Vella, Baró de Viver, Sant Andreu, la Sagrera, el Congrés i els Indians, Navas.

1
Església del Bon Pastor
Església del Bon Pastor, Passeig d'Enric Sanchis
Read the parish name on the church: Bon Pastor, the name that passed to the neighbourhood.[1][2][6][7]
Bishop Irurita blessed the parish in 1935, Joan Cortinas, the «pare Botella», became its rector in 1940, and the church's first stone was laid in 1944.[1][2][6][7]
Coordinates
41.43559, 2.20443 · OpenStreetMap
2
MUHBA Bon Pastor
MUHBA Bon Pastor, Carrer de Barnola 22
350 m · 5 min
Notice the low row of preserved single-storey houses and how its scale differs from the apartment blocks nearby.[4][5][1][2]
Sixteen cases barates, ten turned into museum spaces; the project began in 2010 at the residents' association's initiative and opened in 2023. The original houses mostly measured no more than 40 m².[4][5][1][2]
Coordinates
41.43726, 2.20589 · OpenStreetMap
3
Passeig de Mollerussa / Carrer de Novelles
Passeig de Mollerussa amb Carrer de Novelles
330 m · 4 min
Look at the large cantilevered terraces of the corner building, ground floor plus six storeys.[3]
This is building H3, handed over on 30 April 2025 with 50 public rental flats: it closed the fourth of the remodelling's five phases, which total 753 flats delivered.[3]
Coordinates
41.43895, 2.20738 · OpenStreetMap

Sources for this page

Dates, figures and historical claims are linked to the records used for this page.

  1. [1] Viquipèdia (2025). Bon Pastor (Sant Andreu). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  2. [2] Universitat de Barcelona (projecte Escult, Bon Pastor) (2019). Breu història del Bon Pastor: cronologia 1885-2018. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  3. [3] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Servei de Premsa (2025-04-30). Barcelona lliura les claus de 50 habitatges públics de lloguer al barri del Bon Pastor. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  4. [4] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Setmanes d'Arquitectura (2025). MUHBA Bon Pastor. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  5. [5] 3Cat (2023-03-13). Les Cases Barates del Bon Pastor, un museu per conservar la memòria d'un barri obrer a Barcelona. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  6. [6] MUHBA — Museu d'Història de Barcelona (2024). Llibrets de sala 41: Bon Pastor (chronology). Accessed: 2026-10-09.
  7. [7] Boletín Oficial del Estado (1944). Decreto de 17 de diciembre de 1943 (BOE no. 4, 4 January 1944, p. 119). Accessed: 2026-10-09.
  8. [8] betevé (2024). Les màquines tiren a terra les últimes cases barates del Bon Pastor. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  9. [9] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  10. [10] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  11. [11] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2023). Renda disponible de les llars per persona. Seccions censals. Accessed: 2026-07-17.

Last reviewed: 3 October 2026 · 11 sources consulted

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