Horta-Guinardó · 42
la Clota
La Clota is one of the oldest settlements in the Horta-Guinardó district: a hollow of low houses, workshops and vegetable gardens, ringed by major roads and now about to receive a park, public housing and a health centre.[1][2][3]
Go to Carrer de Bragança and look for the well: about eight metres deep, with a brick curb and a wooden beam carrying a pulley. It belonged to the farmhouse of Ca l'Oriol, long gone, and is the only well in the neighbourhood on public land. Until 2021 it was boxed in by an enclosure that has since been removed.[4]
La Clota is a small neighbourhood in a depression between the Carmel and the Passeig de la Vall d'Hebron, south-west of Horta, bounded by Carrer de Lisboa, Avinguda del Cardenal Vidal i Barraquer and Avinguda de l'Estatut de Catalunya. Low houses and farmhouses with gardens sit beside a small cluster of self-built dwellings and a few carpentry, marble and metalwork workshops.[1][2][3]
Its residents are, in the City Council's words, the children and grandchildren of farmers, of Horta's famous washerwomen and of artisans. The neighbourhood grew little, which left it a semi-rural air uncommon in today's Barcelona.[1][2][3]
la Clota (neighbourhood 42) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Horta-Guinardó: el Baix Guinardó, el Guinardó, Can Baró, el Carmel, la Teixonera, Sant Genís dels Agudells.
Before the neighbourhood
The settlement grew from can Tarrida, a thirteenth-century farmhouse that no longer exists, and spread across the plain as a hamlet of small villas and farmhouses with gardens.[3][2]
The streams of Sant Genís, Les Catorze Plomes and La Genissa met here. That made it possible to build wells, fountains and irrigation channels that supported farming, supplied the city and encouraged public laundries.[3][2]
How the streets were made
The neighbourhood has stayed as if frozen in time: it was affected for fifty years by planning schemes. For the Olympics new roads wrapped around la Clota, but residents resisted redevelopment schemes that wanted to demolish many houses.[3][1]
Streets stayed unpaved, without sewers or public lighting until well into democracy. The work of the residents' association made up for those gaps and turned the neighbourhood into a comfortable place to live.[3][1]
Dates that changed it
- 13th century the farmhouse of can Tarrida, origin of the settlement, already stands.[3][2]
- 1992 with the Olympic Games new roads surround the neighbourhood and residents resist projects that would demolish houses.[3][1]
- 2010 the District publishes “La Clota: una aproximació al barri”, a diagnosis of territory and services.[3][1]
- 2021 the well on Carrer de Bragança is restored and the enclosure that hid it removed.[4]
- 2023 the handover of 105 public homes on Avinguda de l'Estatut de Catalunya begins.[5]
- 2026 the participatory process for the 4.6-hectare Parc Central opens; conclusions are expected in 2027.[6]
People and collective life
Associació de Veïns de la Clota
It organises the July Festa Major and defended the retention of part of the houses; in 2024 the District acknowledged that, thanks to residents, the facility planned at the entrance of the future park was placed on Avinguda de l'Estatut. In 2015 it published Oriol González Corsellas's “Història de la Clota”.[3][7][1]
Institutions
Torre Jussana
Home of the Centre de Serveis a les Associacions since 1995, at Avinguda del Cardenal Vidal i Barraquer 30, in a French-inspired Neoclassical residence; its name refers to a vanished watchtower, and in the fifteenth century the site belonged to the Hieronymite monks of the Vall d'Hebron monastery.[8]
Struggles that left a mark
Keeping the houses standing
Demand: Residents resisted redevelopment schemes that wanted to demolish many houses and would have ended the neighbourhood's rural spirit.[3][1]
Outcome: The neighbourhood keeps a semi-rural air today; in 2024 the facility planned at the park entrance was moved to Avinguda de l'Estatut.[3][7][1]
What can still be seen
Pou del carrer de Bragança
A traditional well of the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, about 8 metres deep, lined with cut stone inside, with a brick curb and a wooden beam for the pulley. Listed in the inventory of Petits paisatges de Barcelona, it was restored in 2021; the remains of a washhouse lie buried beside it.[4]
What disappeared
The neighbourhood today
In 2026 la Clota had 1,123 residents, 63.1 residents per hectare, a mean census-section income of €24,289 in 2023, an area of 17.9 hectares, and 16.4% of residents held non-Spanish nationality.[12]
Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 16.4%
What is changing
On 16 July 2026 a preliminary session opened a participatory process to design the Parc Central of la Clota, a long-standing demand of residents: about 4.6 hectares of green space between Avinguda del Cardenal Vidal i Barraquer, Avinguda de l'Estatut and Carrer de Lisboa, meant to integrate streams, gardens, trees, medieval paths, farmhouses, wells and stone walls. Debate sessions begin this autumn and conclusions are to be set in the first quarter of 2027; the same group will review the area called “la Clota Conservació”, where an urban plan has existed for two decades. Status as of October 2026.[6][7]
Public housing has already arrived: a development of 105 flats on Avinguda de l'Estatut de Catalunya, run by the cooperative Fem Ciutat on land ceded for 75 years, began to be handed over in November 2023. The CAP-CUAP Horta-la Clota, 7,000 m² with an initial budget of €18 million, is planned on the southern plot in front of the plaça de l'Estatut, now regulated parking; in minutes of May 2025 residents and associations of Horta asked to keep it in la Clota. No works start date was found as of October 2026.[5][9][10][11]
What the guides leave out
A well that outlived its house
The well on Carrer de Bragança is the only one in the neighbourhood on public land precisely because the farmhouse that owned it ceded land to open the street.[4]
The monks of Vall d'Hebron
In the fifteenth century the Torre Jussana site passed to the Hieronymite monks of the Vall d'Hebron monastery, the same one that gives its name to the neighbouring neighbourhood.[8]
Read it on foot
Start: Vall d'Hebron (L3/L5) · End: Carrer de Lisboa 122[7]
Walking (excluding stop time): 9 min · 690 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 33 min
The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the three marked points, but it has not been verified as step-free; Carrer de Bragança has flights of steps. The approach from public transport is not included in the stated distance.
la Clota (neighbourhood 42) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Horta-Guinardó: el Baix Guinardó, el Guinardó, Can Baró, el Carmel, la Teixonera, Sant Genís dels Agudells.
Coordinates
Coordinates
Coordinates
Sources for this page
Dates, figures and historical claims are linked to the records used for this page.
- [1] Viquipèdia (2025). La Clota. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [2] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Barcelona.cat (n.d.). La Clota neighbourhood. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [3] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2010). La Clota: una aproximació al barri (gener 2010). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [4] Viquipèdia (2025). Pou del carrer de Bragança. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [5] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2024-01-02). El parc públic d'habitatge creix amb 746 pisos nous, 105 dels quals a Horta-Guinardó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [6] Carla Stavraky, Metrópoli Abierta (2026-07-16). Barcelona compleix amb una reivindicació històrica de La Clota i dissenyarà el futur Parc Central juntament amb els seus veïns. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [7] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2024-07-09). Acta del Consell de Barri de la Clota, 9 de juliol de 2024. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [8] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Barcelona.cat (n.d.). Torre Jussana. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [9] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2023-12-13). Acta del Consell de Barri de la Clota, 13 de desembre de 2023. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [10] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Districte d'Horta-Guinardó (2025-05-29). Acta del Consell de Barri d'Horta, 29 de maig de 2025. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [11] Betevé (2025). Els barris d'Horta i la Clota tindran un CAP i CUAP nous a partir del 2026. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [12] Ajuntament de Barcelona — padró (2026). Population and density stats (barri 42). Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [13] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [14] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [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