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

Horta-Guinardó · 43

Horta

Horta was an independent municipality until 1904 and still has a centre of its own: a square that began as a market, a street of washerwomen's houses with wells and washhouses, a farmhouse turned into a library, and a market awaiting rebuilding.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

In Plaça d'Eivissa, look at the sculpture Eivissenca, a woman of Ibiza in traditional dress, unveiled in 1965, and at the bar Quimet, on a corner of the square since 1927. The square was planned in 1889 as Plaça del Progrés, was called Plaça del Mercat when 28 stalls were built round it, and took its present name in 1907, after Horta was annexed to Barcelona.[1][2][3]

Until 1904 Horta was the independent municipality of Sant Joan d'Horta, about six kilometres from old Barcelona, in the valley between the slope of Collserola and the hills of la Peira, la Rovira, the Carmel and the Creueta del Coll. It was larger than today's neighbourhood: it reached as far as Vallcarca and took in Sant Genís dels Agudells, Montbau, la Vall d'Hebron and much of the Carmel.[1][8]

The old core keeps its structure around Plaça d'Eivissa, with a residential extension. The neighbourhood also holds the Parc del Laberint d'Horta, the oldest surviving garden in the city.[1][2][3][8][9][10]

Horta (neighbourhood 43) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Horta-Guinardó: el Baix Guinardó, el Guinardó, Can Baró, el Carmel, la Teixonera, Sant Genís dels Agudells.

Where the name comes from

Etymology: certain[1][11]

According to Catalan Wikipedia, the name comes from the Horta family, who owned the territory from 1036 to 1260. The first written document to name the parish of Sant Joan d'Orta explicitly is dated 18 March 1095, and the first parish church was consecrated on 12 June 1260; the valley of Horta is already mentioned in 965.[1][11]

Before the neighbourhood

Horta has always been rich in water and was a rural settlement from Roman times. Cultivation was the main activity, hence the more than fifty farmhouses, many now gone; many were later turned into manor houses because Barcelona families spent their summers here.[1]

Plentiful water favoured industries that depended on it: tanneries, such as can Fontaner, the largest; laundries; the starch factory of the Oliver family; brickworks; and trades such as water-carrier or well-digger.[1]

How the streets were made

The streets around Can Mariner were laid out around 1870, when the owners divided the estate into small building plots. Other groups of low houses in Horta, such as those of the Torrent de Carabassa and can Travi, disappeared under modern urban remodelling.[11][1][3]

Dates that changed it

  1. 965 the valley of Horta is documented for the first time.[1][11]
  2. 1260 the first parish church of Sant Joan d'Horta is consecrated.[1][11]
  3. c. 1791-94 work begins on the Laberint garden for the Desvalls family.[8][9][10]
  4. 1886 the first market is set up in the square, with 28 stalls.[4][2]
  5. 1901 the electric tram arrives from Barcelona.[1][2][3]
  6. 1904 Horta is annexed to Barcelona.[1][2][3]
  7. 1951 the Mercat d'Horta on Carrer del Tajo is inaugurated, on 25 January.[4][2]
  8. 1967 Horta metro station opens, with an exit onto Plaça d'Eivissa.[1][2][3]
  9. 2023 the temporary market opens at the junction of Carrer de Porto and Carrer de Lisboa, on 28 November.[4][5][6][7]

People and collective life

Horta's washerwomen

From the early seventeenth century until well into the twentieth, much of the linen of Barcelona's well-off families was washed in Horta; the women, who besides their housework washed other people's clothes in their own washhouses for extra income, collected it on Monday and returned it clean on Saturday.[3][1]

Institutions

Mercat d'Horta

A building at Carrer del Tajo 75-79 by municipal architect Ramon Termes i Mauri, inaugurated on 25 January 1951 to replace the stalls in the square; the remodelling will keep the reinforced-concrete structure with glazed walls and a large skylight.[4][2][5][6][7]

Biblioteca Horta–Can Mariner

A public library housed in the Can Mariner farmhouse, at the junction of Carrer d'Horta and Carrer del Vent.[11]

What can still be seen

Carrer d'Aiguafreda

A group of washerwomen's houses, each with its own well, that still keep their washhouses; it is one of the few places where a housing type once found also at the Torrent de Carabassa and can Travi survives.[3][1]

Can Mariner

A farmhouse known in 1200 as the mas de Fàbrica and later can Ferrer; owned by the Mariner family from the early sixteenth century, who divided the estate into plots around 1870. Restored in 1949, it has a ground floor, two storeys and an attic.[11]

Parc del Laberint d'Horta

A historic garden of the Desvalls family, begun in the 1790s and finished in its first phase in 1808 by the architect Domenico Bagutti, with an eighteenth-century neoclassical garden and a nineteenth-century romantic one. Opened to the public in 1971.[8][9][10]

What disappeared

The farmhouses of Horta

Of some fifty farmhouses, many have disappeared; the houses of the Torrent de Carabassa and of can Travi were also lost to urban remodelling.[1][3]

The stalls in the square

The 28 stalls of the market in Plaça d'Eivissa, dating from 1886, gave way to the market on Carrer del Tajo, inaugurated in 1951, because the square lacked room for stalls, tram, buses and carts.[4][2]

The neighbourhood today

In 2026 Horta had 31,116 residents, a density of 101.4 people per hectare, a €23,912 mean census-section income in 2023, 307 hectares, and 23% of residents held non-Spanish nationality.[12]

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 23%

What is changing

The Mercat d'Horta, inaugurated in 1951, is due a full rebuilding. Since November 2023 the stallholders have traded from the temporary market, a large timber structure of about 1,400 m² at the junction of Carrer de Porto and Carrer de Lisboa, which the City Council plans to keep as part of a future green space. In March 2025 the municipal government gave initial approval to the special plan, setting the start of works for early 2026 and reopening for 2028; a document reported in October 2025 put the cost at about €15 million with over €3.8 million for 2026. No confirmation that works had begun was found as of October 2026.[4][5][6][7][2]

What the guides leave out

Barcelona's laundry

The houses on Carrer d'Aiguafreda were not simply washerwomen's houses: the women combined housework with laundry for well-off Barcelona families, carrying it along the Horta road into the city through the Portal Nou.[3][1]

A much larger municipality

The municipality of Horta reached Vallcarca and took in the land of la Vall d'Hebron, Montbau and Sant Genís dels Agudells; the parish of Sant Joan d'Horta began as a dependency of Sant Genís.[1][8]

Read it on foot

Start: Horta (L5) · End: Carrer d'Aiguafreda[3][1]

Walking (excluding stop time): 11 min · 820 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 49 min

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

Horta (neighbourhood 43) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Horta-Guinardó: el Baix Guinardó, el Guinardó, Can Baró, el Carmel, la Teixonera, Sant Genís dels Agudells.

1
Plaça d'Eivissa
Plaça d'Eivissa
Look for the sculpture Eivissenca, a woman of Ibiza in traditional dress, and the bar Quimet on a corner of the square.[1][2][3]
Planned in 1889 as Plaça del Progrés and turned into a market with 28 stalls, it took its present name in 1907; the Eivissenca, by Joan Centelles, dates from 1965 and Horta metro station opened here in 1967.[1][2][3]
Coordinates
41.43051, 2.16095 · OpenStreetMap
2
Biblioteca Horta–Can Mariner
Carrer del Vent 1
90 m · 1 min
Notice the farmhouse, with a ground floor, two storeys and an attic standing on the corner of Carrer d'Horta and Carrer del Vent.[11]
It was the mas de Fàbrica in 1200 and later can Ferrer; around 1870 the Mariner family divided its estate, which produced the streets around it. Today it is the neighbourhood's public library.[11]
Coordinates
41.43121, 2.16051 · OpenStreetMap
3
Mercat d'Horta
Carrer del Tajo 75 - 79
320 m · 4 min
Observe the reinforced-concrete structure of the 1951 building, which the remodelling aims to keep with glazed walls.[4][2][5][6][7]
It replaced the stalls in Plaça d'Eivissa. Since November 2023 the stallholders have worked in the temporary market at the junction of Carrer de Porto and Carrer de Lisboa; reopening was planned for 2028.[4][2][5][6][7]
Coordinates
41.42959, 2.15953 · OpenStreetMap
4
Carrer d'Aiguafreda
Carrer d'Aiguafreda
420 m · 6 min
Look at the washhouses and wells of the houses along the street, often called the washerwomen's houses.[3][1]
Each house had its own well and washhouse. From the seventeenth century until well into the twentieth, much of Barcelona's laundry was done here: collected on Monday and returned clean on Saturday.[3][1]
Coordinates
41.42725, 2.16080 · OpenStreetMap

Sources for this page

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

  1. [1] Viquipèdia (2025). Horta (Barcelona). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  2. [2] Viquipèdia (2025). Plaça d'Eivissa. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  3. [3] Viquipèdia (2025). Carrer d'Aiguafreda. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  4. [4] Viquipèdia (2025). Mercat d'Horta. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  5. [5] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2023-11-28). Obre el mercat provisional d'Horta. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  6. [6] Tot Barcelona (2025-03-29). Barcelona aprova el pla inicial per reformar el Mercat d'Horta. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  7. [7] Tot Barcelona (2025-10-25). Mercats invertirà 22 milions d'euros en reformes el 2026, de l'Abaceria a Horta. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  8. [8] Viquipèdia (2025). Parc del Laberint d'Horta. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  9. [9] Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Parc del Laberint d'Horta (parks and gardens). Accessed: 2026-10-09.
  10. [10] Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana (n.d.). Laberint d'Horta. Accessed: 2026-10-09.
  11. [11] Viquipèdia (2025). Can Mariner (Horta). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  12. [12] Ajuntament de Barcelona — padró (2026). Population and density stats (barri 43). Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  13. [13] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  14. [14] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  15. [15] 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 · 15 sources consulted

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