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

Sarrià-Sant Gervasi · 27

el Putxet i el Farró

El Putxet i el Farró are two neighbourhoods inside one administrative name: uphill, an urbanised hill of villas, apartment blocks and a panoramic park; downhill, squares, passages and small houses around Saragossa. Ronda del General Mitre is boundary, cut and connector.

Take two photographs without leaving the official neighbourhood. One in Passatge de Mulet or Plaça de Mañé i Flaquer, at the scale of doorway, balcony and bench. The other in Parc del Putxet after a climb that changes your breathing and opens the city beneath the trees. They look different because historically they are. Start with the seam: General Mitre accelerates traffic and interrupts movement between two fabrics with different rhythms.

The administrative neighbourhood combines el Putxet, around the hill and above the ring road, and el Farró, downhill toward Lesseps and Gràcia. The official 2006 union simplifies administration but does not remove differences in topography, grain, identity and everyday centre.

Putxet grew largely through nineteenth-century summer villas later densified with blocks. Farró retains a lower network of streets, squares and passages around Saragossa and Mañé i Flaquer, with facilities won or defended through resident organisation.

Where the name comes from

Putxet is a diminutive of puig, a small hill. At roughly 178 metres, the hill still determines routes, views and bodily effort.

Farró is locally associated with Silvestre Farró and early houses in the sector; support the final wording with property and gazetteer evidence. Keeping both names preserves two urban histories.

Between Sant Gervasi, Gràcia's Vallcarca and hill streets.

Before the neighbourhood

Estates, vines, fields, paths and streams lay between Gràcia and Sant Gervasi. Putxet’s air, distance and views attracted summer villas from the later nineteenth century.

In Farró, estates were divided into smaller units and paths became streets. Passatge de Mulet retains this shift from private property to an intimate residential passage.

How the streets were made

Putxet’s slope produces curves, retaining walls, stairs and adapted plots. Apartment blocks replaced many villas and gardens, but level changes still reveal the earlier structure.

Farró is smaller-grained and porous: Saragossa, Mañé i Flaquer, passages and party-wall houses. General Mitre imposed a traffic corridor and broke continuity. Crossings and gradients determine whether the administrative union is walkable.

Dates that changed it

  1. Before the nineteenth century: estates, vines, paths and streams.
  2. Around 1870 onward: summer villas and Putxet urbanisation expand.
  3. Around 1868: Antoni Mulet's estate opens as a residential passage.
  4. 1889 / 1906: Casa Tosquella is built and substantially remodelled.
  5. 1906: Casa Ramos is built at Lesseps.
  6. Late nineteenth–early twentieth century: Farró consolidates.
  7. Twentieth century: apartment blocks replace villas and gardens.
  8. 1970: Parc del Putxet opens as a public park.
  9. Late twentieth century: General Mitre consolidates the barrier.
  10. 2006: Putxet and Farró are combined administratively.
  11. Twenty-first century: Vil·la Urània and Casa Tosquella enter resident, purchase and public-use processes through distinct phases.

People and collective life

Farró has a strong associational tradition because meeting spaces were not guaranteed. The defence of Vil·la Urània turned domestic heritage into a civic facility. Festival, shops, schools and squares produce an identity independent of the hilltop view.

Putxet life is vertical

Putxet life is vertical. Older people, children, couriers, carers and people with limited mobility experience the same street differently. Lifts, escalators, benches, shade and transport are equality infrastructure.

People behind the buildings

Vil·la Urània was astronomer Josep Comas i Solà’s home, but its present story includes residents who prevented loss and demanded a civic centre. Science, bequest and mobilisation all made the facility.

Casa Ramos includes occupants and shops as well as Jaume Torres i Grau. Casa Tosquella joins an 1889 house, Balcells’s 1906 remodelling and a long campaign to rescue it. Passatge de Mulet should be told through residents, not only its original owner.

Institutions

Vil·la Urània is a neighbourhood cultural and science facility. Parc del Putxet provides public green and viewpoints but requires a real gradient warning. Casa Tosquella is intended for public use; function, works and opening need dates.

Schools, civic spaces, squares and Saragossa retail sustain Farró. FGC at el Putxet and Pàdua and the nearby Lesseps metro connect the area but do not remove vertical distance from platform to home.

Struggles that left a mark

Demand: Vil·la Urània is a resident victory against heritage loss and the lack of facilities. Casa Tosquella represents another chain: halt decay, secure public purchase, define use and complete restoration.

Outcome: Some installations become a citywide model

Demand: Farró traffic calming and safer General Mitre crossings dispute who controls streets. Putxet accessibility demands answer a physical injustice: a sloping distance is not equivalent to the same distance on level ground.

Outcome:

What can still be seen

Farró retains Mañé i Flaquer, Saragossa, passages, low houses, Vil·la Urània and Casa Tosquella. Casa Ramos marks the Lesseps gateway at a larger architectural scale.

Putxet’s curved streets and walls reveal former estates. The park preserves the summit as public space, with broad views from specific points. Some villas and gardens survive, though many remain private.

What disappeared

Vines, open streams, many villas and gardens disappeared. Densification increased housing but erased much green continuity.

General Mitre weakened local connections. A single official name can produce another disappearance if Farró becomes a footnote to a route entirely centred on Parc del Putxet.

The neighbourhood today

El Putxet i el Farró had 30,795 residents in 2026, a density of 363.1 residents per hectare, a census-section mean income of €34,779 in 2023, 84.8 hectares, and 20.5% held non-Spanish nationality.

It is small and very dense on demanding terrain. The mean conceals villas, blocks, renting, older residents, young households and homes beside traffic corridors. Both identities remain active.

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 20.5%

What is changing

Traffic calming, heritage reuse and retail change Farró. Distinguish approved, under construction and open. Housing pressure can preserve façades while replacing residents.

Putxet changes through accessibility works, park maintenance and plot-by-plot replacement. Every General Mitre crossing can alter the relationship between the two sectors.

What the guides leave out

Guides climb to the park and leave Farró out, or describe Sant Gervasi as a uniform villa zone. They omit passage culture, campaigns for facilities and the bodily cost of gradient.

The useful story is an incomplete union: two urban forms, a traffic corridor between them and one administration. A boundary is the time and effort needed to cross it.

Read it on foot

Start: El Putxet (FGC) · End: El Farró and El Putxet

Walking (excluding stop time): 10 min · 770 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 50 min

The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the three 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.

1
Sloping streets
Carrer del Marquès de Santa Ana 2
Observe how curves, steps and walls adapt streets to the hill
41.40631, 2.14834
2
Parc del Putxet
Carrer de Ballester 15 - 17
leg: 340 m · 5 min
Read views, shade and park paths as infrastructure for a steep neighbourhood
41.40603, 2.14481
3
El Farró urban fabric
Avinguda de la República Argentina 47 - 49
leg: 430 m · 6 min
Compare El Farró's passages, facilities and houses with the more open scale of El Putxet
41.40896, 2.14676

Sources for this page

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

  1. [1] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: pad-sexe-2026. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  2. [2] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: densitat-2021. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  3. [3] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2023). Renda disponible de les llars per persona. Seccions censals. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: renda-2023. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  4. [4] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Població per nacionalitat i sexe. Barris. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: pad-nac-2026. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  5. [5] Joan Busquets (2005). Barcelona: the urban evolution of a compact city. Type: book. Locator: busquets-barcelona. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  6. [6] MUHBA / Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). MUHBA — Museu d'Història de Barcelona (publicacions i jaciments). Type: museum. Locator: muhba. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  7. [7] AHCB / Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona — fons i cartografia. Type: archive. Locator: ahcb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  8. [8] Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Catàleg de patrimoni arquitectònic de Barcelona. Type: heritage_catalogue. Locator: heritage-catalog. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  9. [9] FAVB (n.d.). Federació d'Associacions de Veïns i Veïnes de Barcelona. Type: civil_society. Locator: favb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  10. [10] AMCB / Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Arxiu Municipal Contemporani de Barcelona. Type: archive. Locator: amcb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  11. [11] Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Nomenclàtor dels carrers de Barcelona. Type: gazetteer. Locator: nomenclator-bcn. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  12. [12] TMB (n.d.). Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona — xarxa de metro. Type: transport. Locator: tmb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.

Last reviewed: 17 July 2026 · 12 sources consulted

Return to top