Gràcia · 29
el Coll
El Coll is a neighbourhood that grew in the shelter of a Romanesque sanctuary in a pass between hills, and that today can be read in a comics publisher turned civic centre, a Jujol estate with radium-bearing water and a park made in a quarry.[1][2][3][4]
Go down to El Coll | La Teixonera station and time how long it takes to reach the street: it has the longest lift on the metro network, 63 metres. Then go to the Parc de la Creueta del Coll and look at the quarry wall: two voids, a metro shaft and a quarry hole, explain the neighbourhood better than a photograph of Park Güell.[5][2][4]
El Coll is a small, steep neighbourhood at the north-eastern end of Gràcia, between the turó del Coll and the turó del Carmel. Until 1904 it was part of the municipality of Horta, and its first nucleus grew around the sanctuary of the Mare de Déu del Coll.[1][2]
Through the twentieth century a comics publisher, a spring of radium-bearing water, a quarry and, later, a park with a sculpture by Chillida left their mark. Park Güell is close, but el Coll has a history of its own.[2][3][1][6][4]
el Coll (neighbourhood 29) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Gràcia: Vallcarca i els Penitents, la Salut, la Vila de Gràcia, el Camp d'en Grassot i Gràcia Nova.
Where the name comes from
El Coll takes its name from the sanctuary of Nostra Senyora del Coll, also called Font-rúbia (a spring of ferruginous, or red, waters). The sanctuary stands in the natural pass between the hills of the Coll and the Carmel, and coll means just that: a pass between two heights.[1][2]
El Coll lies at the north-eastern end of the district of Gràcia, in the valley formed by the turó del Coll and the turó del Carmel, on both sides of the upper course of the old riera de la Farigola.[1]
Before the neighbourhood
The sanctuary is a small church of Romanesque origin, already mentioned in documents of August 1098 as Santa Maria de Font-rúbia; it housed a monastery dependent on Sant Cugat. After the 1835 disentailment it was abandoned until 1928, when it reopened for worship with the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts. It was burnt at the start of the Civil War; the image of the Virgin, which had been hidden, was put back on 24 October 1948, and soon afterwards the church became a parish.[2]
Until 1904 the Coll belonged to the municipality of Sant Joan d'Horta. The built-up nucleus grew in the shelter of the sanctuary, with farmhouses and later manor houses; according to Viquipèdia the first urbanised streets date from the 1860s, on land of the Baron de la Barre de Flandes.[2][1]
How the streets were made
Any trip in el Coll, even to buy a packet of salt, means going up and down; escalators, handrails and public transport have eased access for those who live there.[2][1]
The Coll hill is 245 metres high and used to be known as the turó d'en Falcó. Along Passeig de la Mare de Déu del Coll, villas of special beauty were built between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some by Josep Maria Jujol: Casa Sansalvador, the Casa dels Metges or Villa Conxita, and the Torre Queralt (Carrer de la Pineda 1, of 1917).[2][1]
Dates that changed it
- 1098 documents of August mention the church of Santa Maria de Font-rúbia, the future sanctuary of el Coll.[2]
- 1835 disentailment leaves the sanctuary abandoned until 1928.[2]
- 1904 Sant Joan d'Horta, and with it el Coll, is annexed to Barcelona.[2][1]
- 1909 Antoni Sansalvador commissions Josep Maria Jujol to build his estate on Passeig de la Mare de Déu del Coll.[2][1][6]
- 1910 Joan Bruguera Teixidó founds El Gato Negro, the origin of the publisher Bruguera.[2][3]
- 1915 the Societat d'Aigua Radial is founded at the Sansalvador estate.[2][1][6]
- 1928 the sanctuary reopens for worship with the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts.[2]
- 1931 the Casal Català Republicà del Coll opens in one of the sanctuary's large houses.[2]
- 1948 the image of the Mare de Déu del Coll returns to the church, which soon becomes a parish.[2]
- 1958 Mortadelo y Filemón first appear in Bruguera's Pulgarcito.[2][3]
- 1986 the publisher Bruguera closes.[2][3]
- 1987 the Parc de la Creueta del Coll opens on the quarry.[2][4]
- 2009 works to recover the Sansalvador estate are completed.[2][1][6]
- 2010 El Coll | La Teixonera station on line 5 opens.[5]
- 2025 the city presents the plan to renaturalise the Tres Turons park.[7][1]
People and collective life
Josep Maria Jujol
Architect of Casa Sansalvador, the Casa dels Metges or Villa Conxita and the Torre Queralt, three Modernista buildings in the neighbourhood.[2][1][6]
Salvador Sansalvador
A physician who had the estate's well dug, founded the Societat d'Aigua Radial and was the first president of the Casal Català Republicà del Coll.[2][1][6]
Institutions
El Coll - La Bruguera (Centre Cívic)
The publisher Bruguera began in 1910 as El Gato Negro, founded by Joan Bruguera Teixidó; in 1921 it launched the weekly Pulgarcito and in 1940 it took the name Bruguera. Francisco Ibáñez's Mortadelo y Filemón first appeared in its pages on 20 January 1958. The company closed in 1986; many neighbours had worked for it, and the building is now the Centre Cívic El Coll - La Bruguera, a public facility.[2][3]
Escola Mare de Déu del Coll
In one of the sanctuary's large houses the Casal Català Republicà del Coll opened on 22 September 1931, with a café, theatre and tennis court; Salvador Sansalvador was its first president. Since 1928 the sanctuary had also housed a modest school run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts, which after the war became the Escola Parroquial and is today the school Mare de Déu del Coll, which has absorbed the large house and the theatre.[2]
Estació El Coll | La Teixonera
El Coll | La Teixonera station on line 5 opened on 30 July 2010; its 63-metre lift is the longest on the metro network.[5]
Festa Major del Coll
The Festa Major del Coll is held in June, usually over the second and third weekends.[1]
Struggles that left a mark
Recovering the Sansalvador estate
Demand: In the 2000s the residents' association and the Grup d'Estudis del Coll-Vallcarca pressed the city to recover the estate.[2][1][6]
Outcome: Works ended in 2009 and it is now the seat of the Taller d'Història de Gràcia, which looks after visits.[2][1][6]
A park, not a football ground, in the quarry
Demand: Once the quarry had closed, several projects arose from citizen initiative in 1976; Parcs i Jardins proposed an ornamental garden and a football ground was also considered.[2][4]
Outcome: In 1981 it was decided to build the park, which opened in 1987.[2][4]
What can still be seen
Santuari de la Mare de Déu del Coll
The sanctuary is a small church of Romanesque origin, already mentioned in documents of August 1098 as Santa Maria de Font-rúbia; it housed a monastery dependent on Sant Cugat. After the 1835 disentailment it was abandoned until 1928, when it reopened for worship with the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts. It was burnt at the start of the Civil War; the image of the Virgin, which had been hidden, was put back on 24 October 1948, and soon afterwards the church became a parish.[2]
Finca Sansalvador
In 1909 Antoni Sansalvador commissioned from Josep Maria Jujol the wall, the entrance at Passeig de la Mare de Déu del Coll 79, a porter's pavilion and a house at the top of a very steep plot. His brother Salvador sank a well of nearly 40 metres where water with traces of radium was found, and in 1915 founded the Societat d'Aigua Radial; the well later dried up. After pressure from the residents' association and the Grup d'Estudis del Coll-Vallcarca, the city finished recovering the property in 2009 and it is now the seat of the Taller d'Història de Gràcia.[2][1][6]
Parc de la Creueta del Coll
The quarry on the Coll hill closed in the early 1970s and left a large hole. After citizens' proposals in 1976 and a 1981 decision not to build a football ground there, the Parc de la Creueta del Coll opened in 1987 to a design by Josep Martorell, Oriol Bohigas and David Mackay. At the foot of the cliff, above the pond that serves as a swimming pool in summer, hangs Eduardo Chillida's concrete sculpture Elogi de l'aigua, of more than 50 tonnes, held by four steel cables.[2][4]
What disappeared
The neighbourhood today
El Coll had 8,056 residents in 2026, a density of 228.2 residents per hectare, a census-section mean income of €23,822 in 2023, 35.3 hectares, and 23.3% held non-Spanish nationality.
Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 23.3%
What is changing
Tres Turons (as of October 2026): the renaturalisation plan presented in July 2025 foresees 4.3 million euros for paths, rainwater and planting across the park, which spreads over the Carmel, Rovira and Coll hills; no later announcement of works starting was found.[7][1]
Read it on foot
Start: El Coll | La Teixonera (L5) · End: Parc de la Creueta del Coll[2][4]
Walking (excluding stop time): 17 min · 1300 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 65 min
The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the five marked points, but it has not been verified as step-free. This neighbourhood has steep gradients: check steps, lifts, works and access conditions before setting out. The approach from public transport is not included in the stated distance.
el Coll (neighbourhood 29) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Gràcia: Vallcarca i els Penitents, la Salut, la Vila de Gràcia, el Camp d'en Grassot i Gràcia Nova.
Coordinates
Coordinates
Coordinates
Coordinates
Coordinates
Sources for this page
Dates, figures and historical claims are linked to the records used for this page.
- [1] Viquipèdia (2026). El Coll (barri). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [2] Josep Maria Contel Ruiz (Taller d'Història de Gràcia Centre d'Estudis), Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte de Gràcia (2022). Itineraris per Gràcia 6. Del santuari del Coll a Vallcarca, passat i present d'un territori. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [3] Ajuntament de Barcelona (2026). Centre Cívic El Coll - La Bruguera. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [4] Viquipèdia (2026). Parc de la Creueta del Coll. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [5] Wikipedia (2026). El Coll | La Teixonera (Barcelona Metro). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [6] OpenStreetMap contributors (2026). Finca Sansalvador and Beat Almató metro entrance (Nominatim/Overpass records). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [7] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2025-07-10). Un pla per renaturalitzar el parc dels Tres Turons. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [8] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [9] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [10] 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 · 10 sources consulted