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

Horta-Guinardó · 35

el Guinardó

El Guinardó takes its name from a farmhouse on a small hill, the Mas Guinardó, whose lands were laid out for housing from 1897 and, from the 1960s, filled with apartment blocks around a park begun in 1916.[1][2][3]

The Mas Guinardó still stands on the small hill where it was built, in Plaça de Salvador Riera. Catalan Wikipedia notes that the 2007-2011 works for the Casal d'Entitats added new volumes at the back that hide the hill: walk round the house and judge how much of it is left.[2][1][4][5]

El Guinardó spreads over the eastern slopes of the Muntanya Pelada, inside the former municipalities of Sant Andreu de Palomar and Sant Martí de Provençals, along their boundaries with Horta and Gràcia.[1]

In the 1960s apartment blocks raised the density enormously and left few green spaces, concentrated mostly in Parc del Guinardó.[1][3]

el Guinardó (neighbourhood 35) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Horta-Guinardó: el Baix Guinardó, Can Baró, el Carmel, la Teixonera, Sant Genís dels Agudells, Montbau.

Where the name comes from

Etymology: certain[1][2]

Guinardó comes from the Mas Guinardó, the farmhouse that gave the neighbourhood its name. A popular legend, spread by tradition and by at least one historian, links the house to the bandit Perot Rocaguinarda; Catalan Wikipedia presents it as a legend, not a documented fact.[1][2]

Passeig de Maragall, opened in 1911, marks the boundary with the former municipality of Sant Andreu de Palomar; Ronda del Guinardó and Avinguda de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat, opened in 1913 and linking to Gràcia, are the main roads.[1]

Before the neighbourhood

For many centuries the place was farmland, mostly vines; phylloxera ruined the crops in 1881 and the land was left half abandoned. There were also quarries, in what is now Can Baró, and pasture.[1][2][3]

Among the farmhouses was the Mas Guinardó: the first documents, from the late fourteenth century, mention a dovecote on the small hill of el Cogoll. The Mas Viladomat was another that stood on the slope.[1][2][3]

How the streets were made

In 1894 Salvador Riera bought the Mas Guinardó. The urbanisation project, by the master builder Pere Bosch i Cardellach, was approved on 19 February 1897 together with that of the Mas Viladomat. Riera turned the farmhouse into a hotel in 1904, without success, and in 1906 it became the seat of the Associació de Propietaris del Guinardó.[2][1]

In the 1930s many families already lived in a small house with a vegetable plot, and until the 1950s the neighbourhood remained one of farmers and craftsmen. Then the building fever changed its face: in the 1960s apartment blocks raised the density and eased the arrival of immigrants. The neighbourhood still has no industry.[1]

Dates that changed it

  1. Late 14th century the first documents on the Mas Guinardó mention a dovecote on the small hill of el Cogoll.[1][2][3]
  2. 1881 phylloxera ruins the vine crops on the slope.[1][2][3]
  3. 1894 Salvador Riera buys the Mas Guinardó.[2][1]
  4. 19 February 1897 the urbanisation project for the Mas Guinardó and the Mas Viladomat is approved.[2][1]
  5. 1904–1906 the Mas Guinardó is an unsuccessful hotel (1904) and the seat of the Associació de Propietaris del Guinardó (1906).[2][1]
  6. 1911 and 1913 Passeig de Maragall (1911) and Avinguda de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat (1913) are opened.[1]
  7. 1916 construction of Parc del Guinardó begins, to Forestier's design.[3]
  8. 1954 Mercat del Guinardó is inaugurated.[6][7]
  9. 1982 the Centre Cívic del Guinardó opens, the first of its kind in Barcelona.[1]
  10. 1985–2011 the council acquires the Mas Guinardó (1985) and the Casal d'Entitats opens there (2011).[2][4][5]
  11. 2014 the refurbishment of Mercat del Guinardó is completed.[6][7]
  12. June 2025 works begin on the Torre Garcini.[8]

Institutions

Casal d'Entitats Mas Guinardó

Municipal centre in the farmhouse, at Plaça de Salvador Riera 2, opened in 2011 after the council acquired the building in 1985.[2][4][5]

Mercat del Guinardó

Municipal market opened in 1954 at Carrer de Teodor Llorente 10; its refurbishment, completed in 2014, folded it into a block with a primary care centre, a youth centre, a care home for the elderly and a nursery school.[6][7]

Parc del Guinardó

A park of about 16 hectares, begun in 1916 to Forestier's design and carried out by Rubió i Tudurí, one of the city's first municipal parks.[3]

Struggles that left a mark

Torre Garcini

Demand: Residents had long called for the Can Garcini farmhouse to be restored and its gardens opened.[8]

Outcome: The council began work in June 2025; the senior citizens' centre is expected in early 2027.[8]

What can still be seen

Mas Guinardó

A farmhouse with elements of interest, listed in the Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya (IPAC30249); excavations during the works identified several building phases, from the medieval dovecote to the hotel of 1904.[2][1][4][5]

Parc del Guinardó

Part of Catalonia's cultural heritage (IPAC51066): stone walls and channels that carry water down in cascades, the Font del Cuento with its 1739 lintel, and the Nen de la Rutlla sculpture (1961).[3]

What disappeared

The vineyards of the slope

For centuries the slope was mostly vineyard. Phylloxera ruined the crops in 1881 and only a few carob trees and oaks survived on the shadier side; the pine wood in the park is later replanting, begun around the 1960s.[1][2][3]

The neighbourhood today

El Guinardó had 39,144 residents in 2026, a density of 299.0 people per hectare, mean census-section income of €24,270 in 2023, 130.9 hectares, and 21.5% non-Spanish nationality.

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 21.5%

What is changing

The Torre Garcini, the eighteenth-century farmhouse at Carrer del Xiprer 40, is being converted into a centre for older people: the council began work in June 2025, at a cost of 4 million euros and lasting about 19 months, and the gardens will open to the public. The latest official schedule we found puts completion in early 2027 (as of October 2026 we found no later update).[8]

In June 2024 Betevé reported that the redesign of Passatge de Llívia, 450 metres between Plaça del Guinardó and the Torre Garcini, would be a single-platform street costing 2.8 million euros, but would not start until late 2027 at the earliest, once the Torre Garcini has been converted; we found no later update.[9]

Read it on foot

Start: Guinardó | Hospital de Sant Pau (L4) · End: Font del Cuento (Parc del Guinardó)[3]

Walking (excluding stop time): 13 min · 1000 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 51 min

The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the four 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 Guinardó (neighbourhood 35) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Horta-Guinardó: el Baix Guinardó, Can Baró, el Carmel, la Teixonera, Sant Genís dels Agudells, Montbau.

1
Mercat del Guinardó
Mercat del Guinardó, Carrer de Teodor Llorente 10
Find the tower of the old market, kept at the corner of Passatge de Llívia and Carrer de l'Oblit, and the newer market hall around it.[6][7]
The 1954 market replaced an open-air market; the refurbishment, completed in 2014, folded it into a block with a health centre, a youth centre, a care home and a nursery school, and the old tower now holds the market offices.[6][7]
Coordinates
41.41905, 2.17904 · OpenStreetMap
2
Mas Guinardó
Mas Guinardó, Plaça de Salvador Riera 2
480 m · 6 min
Walk round the farmhouse and compare the part that rises on the small hill with the new volumes added at the back in the 2007-2011 works.[2][1][4][5]
The excavation during the works revealed a medieval dovecote, a seventeenth-century farmhouse enlarged in the nineteenth and the 1904 hotel; the council bought it in 1985 and the community centre opened in 2011.[2][1][4][5]
Coordinates
41.41845, 2.17475 · OpenStreetMap
3
Plaça del Nen de la Rutlla
Plaça del Nen de la Rutlla
320 m · 4 min
Look for the Nen de la Rutlla sculpture in the small square that serves as the entrance to the park.[3]
The sculpture is by Joaquim Ros i Bofarull (1961) and the square by Joaquim Maria Casamor i d'Espona; the park was begun in 1916 to Forestier's design and remodelled in 1977.[3]
Coordinates
41.41879, 2.17164 · OpenStreetMap
4
Font del Cuento
Font del Cuento, Parc del Guinardó
200 m · 3 min
Look for the year 1739 carved on the lintel of the Font del Cuento.[3][1][2]
The spring is almost two centuries older than the park, which was laid out on land that had long been vineyard.[3][1][2]
Coordinates
41.41943, 2.17019 · OpenStreetMap

Sources for this page

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

  1. [1] Viquipèdia (2026). El Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  2. [2] Viquipèdia (2026). Mas Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  3. [3] Viquipèdia (2026). Parc del Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  4. [4] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Memòria democràtica (2026). Casal Mas Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  5. [5] Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2011). Pla de futur del Guinardó (April 2011). Accessed: 2026-10-09.
  6. [6] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Mercats de Barcelona (2026). Mercat del Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  7. [7] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Mercats de Barcelona (2026). Refurbishment of the Mercat del Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  8. [8] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Servei de Premsa (2025-06-29). Comencen les obres de rehabilitació de la Torre Garcini per ubicar-hi un casal de persones grans per al barri del Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  9. [9] Betevé (2024-06-21). Passatge de Llívia, eix de vianants. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  10. [10] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  11. [11] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  12. [12] 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 · 12 sources consulted

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