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

Sants-Montjuïc · 14

la Font de la Guatlla

La Font de la Guatlla is a small neighbourhood at the foot of Montjuïc named after a spring that no longer runs, and around it stand a modernist factory, cooperative villas built by municipal workers and rental blocks on the Gran Via.[1][2][3][4]

At the end of Carrer de la Font Florida, in 1930 the Cooperativa d'Obrers i Empleats Municipals bought land and built a row of small houses with English-style gardens; each June during the Republic they held a street festival that now belongs to the whole neighbourhood.[1]

La Font de la Guatlla fills the strip under Montjuïc between Plaça d'Espanya, the Gran Via and the riera de Magòria. The most sheltered sector under the mountain is la Font de la Guatlla proper; the one nearest Plaça de Cerdà is Magòria, and Carrer de Trajà is the line between them.[2][1]

For such a small place, many worlds sit side by side: a former rural area, two big factories, a hillside of small houses the workers built themselves, cooperative villas and the Gran Via blocks. Its streets climb towards Montjuïc with the names of flowers.[1][2]

la Font de la Guatlla (neighbourhood 14) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sants-Montjuïc: el Poble-sec, la Marina del Prat Vermell, la Marina de Port, Hostafrancs, la Bordeta, Sants - Badal.

Where the name comes from

Etymology: certain[1][2]

The name comes from a natural spring, the font de la Guatlla, which stood at the end of Carrer del Rabí Rubèn, inside the Butsems factory, beside an oak. Pollution from industrial use and from rubbish dumped on Montjuïc in the 1960s ended it: what remains is the memory, a monolith and the neighbourhood's anthem, which says the quail cried out while the spring sang.[1][2]

The neighbourhood lies on the north-west slope of Montjuïc, along Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes between Plaça d'Espanya and Plaça de Cerdà. Its western end, between Carrer de Trajà and Carrer de la Mineria, is part of Magòria, a small Sants neighbourhood with no administrative recognition.[2][1]

Before the neighbourhood

Before Plaça d'Espanya was laid out in 1908 and the Gran Via began to take shape, this was a rural area sometimes attributed to Hostafrancs and sometimes to la França in Poble-sec. In 1910 it had a few farmhouses growing alfalfa, wheat and fruit trees, and eighty-two houses in eight streets around Carrer de Sant Fructuós.[1]

Despite its size, the associative tradition is old: Els Hereus (1889), El Recreo (1890), the choir La Nova Lira d'Hostafrancs (1910) and Panxeta (1912). Much of this activity came from the workers of the neighbourhood's two big factories.[1]

How the streets were made

The low houses with gardens nearest the mountain contrast with the tall buildings of the Gran Via sector. After the war the nine streets opened up the slope towards Montjuïc were named after flowers — Dàlia, Gessamí, Crisantem — and in 1949 the parish of Santa Dorotea was built on a former wheat field.[1][2]

Dates that changed it

  1. 1889 Els Hereus, the neighbourhood's first recreational association, is founded in Carrer de Sant Fructuós.[1]
  2. 1908 Plaça d'Espanya is laid out and the Gran Via begins to take shape.[1]
  3. 1910 the area has a few farmhouses and eighty-two houses in eight streets around Carrer de Sant Fructuós.[1]
  4. 1912 the Casarramona textile factory opens in Carrer de Mèxic, in a modernist complex by Puig i Cadafalch.[1][3][2]
  5. 1929 during the works for the Exposition, Can Butsems employs about a thousand workers making artificial stone.[1]
  6. 1930 the Cooperativa d'Obrers i Empleats Municipals buys land at the Font Florida and builds its small houses with gardens.[1]
  7. 1949 the parish of Santa Dorotea is built on a former wheat field.[1][2]
  8. 1978 Can Butsems closes.[1]
  9. 2002 the former Casarramona factory opens as CaixaForum.[3]
  10. 2026 reurbanisation works begin on the hill, with an investment of four million euros.[5][6]

People and collective life

Pau Forns

The ragpicker who became wealthy who had six blocks of flats raised at Gran Via 272-282, the Cases del Drapaire.[1][4]

Josep Puig i Cadafalch

Architect of the Casarramona factory; Viquipèdia adds that he also designed the Font del Gat restaurant and landscaping works in the mountain park.[1][3][2]

Institutions

Font de la Guatlla (Centre Cívic)

At Carrer del Rabí Rubèn 22-26; listed as accessible for people with physical disabilities.[7]

CaixaForum Barcelona

A cultural centre at Avinguda de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia 6-8, in the former Casarramona factory; la Caixa bought the building in 1963 and opened it in 2002.[1][3][2]

Struggles that left a mark

A neighbourhood centre and a school won by residents

Demand: In late Francoism the cooperativa escolar Magòria, Veïns i Amics de Magòria and the Associació de Veïns Font de la Guatlla kept social and protest activity alive.[1]

Outcome: Once democracy came, residents won the neighbourhood centre and the La Muntanyeta school, without giving up the other public school, Pau Vila.[1]

What can still be seen

Fàbrica Casarramona

A modernist complex by Puig i Cadafalch in Carrer de Mèxic; it ran as a factory until 1920, was later police barracks and has been CaixaForum since 2002.[1][3][2]

Les torretes de la Font Florida

A row of houses with English-style gardens that the Cooperativa d'Obrers i Empleats Municipals built in 1930 at the end of Carrer de la Font Florida.[1]

Can Cervera

A farmhouse dating from 1801, the only farmhouse to survive in the neighbourhood.[1]

What disappeared

La font de la Guatlla

The spring was polluted by industrial use and by 1960s dumping on Montjuïc; today only a memory, a monolith and an anthem remain.[1][2]

Can Butsems

The artificial-stone factory closed in 1978; part of its site now holds a neighbourhood centre, La Muntanyeta school and a secondary school under construction.[1]

Street trades

After the war the rural atmosphere faded and street figures such as the matonaire, the pellaire, the mitjonaire and the pinyonaire, who sold children five cents' worth of pine nuts while telling them a story, disappeared.[1][2]

The neighbourhood today

In 2026 la Font de la Guatlla had 10,869 residents, a density of 366 people per hectare, average census-section income of €24,528 in 2023, an area of 29.7 hectares, and 28.2% of residents held non-Spanish nationality.[8][9][10][11]

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 28.2%

What is changing

What is changing (as of 3 October 2026)

In 2026 the City Council is reurbanising the hill within a four-million-euro investment, made possible once the planning designation hanging over the low houses was lifted by the 2019 amendment to the Pla General Metropolità. Works on Carrer de la Guatlla and Carrer del Lotus began in April: new paving, undergrounding of overhead lines, new lighting and one-way traffic. Since 29 June work has been under way at Pas de Valls and then on Carrer de la Begònia, Carrer del Gessamí and Carrer de l'Hortènsia (2,075 m², nearly two million euros), due to finish between February and April 2027, according to the June district announcement. The works belong to the Pla de Manteniment Integral of the Pla Endreça.[5][6]

Read it on foot

Start: Espanya (L1/L3) · End: Font de la Guatlla (Centre Cívic)[7]

Walking (excluding stop time): 17 min · 1310 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 52 min

The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the four marked points, but it has not been verified as step-free; the last stretch climbs the hill. Some reurbanisation works on the hill continue until 2027.

la Font de la Guatlla (neighbourhood 14) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sants-Montjuïc: el Poble-sec, la Marina del Prat Vermell, la Marina de Port, Hostafrancs, la Bordeta, Sants - Badal.

1
CaixaForum Barcelona
CaixaForum, Ferrer i Guàrdia 6-8
Look at the exposed-brick walls of the façades: Viquipèdia presents the building as representative of industrial brick architecture.[1][3][2]
Josep Puig i Cadafalch designed the Casarramona textile factory, which operated as a factory until 1920, became police barracks, was bought by la Caixa in 1963 and has been CaixaForum since 2002.[1][3][2]
Coordinates
41.37148, 2.14972 · OpenStreetMap
2
Cases del Drapaire
Cases del Drapaire, Gran Via 272-282
630 m · 8 min
Run your eye along numbers 272 to 282 of the Gran Via and see how the blocks of flats form a wall against the mountain.[1][4]
The rich ragpicker Pau Forns raised six blocks of flats here before the Civil War; an architecture-press description names the architect Modest Feu and counts 240 rental flats.[1][4]
Coordinates
41.37118, 2.14444 · OpenStreetMap
3
Carrer de la Font Florida
Carrer de la Font Florida
320 m · 4 min
Walk up the street and look at the low houses with small front gardens, so different from the Gran Via blocks.[1]
In 1930 the Cooperativa d'Obrers i Empleats Municipals bought the land here from the baron of Esponellà and built the small houses with English-style gardens; the June street festival now belongs to the whole neighbourhood.[1]
Coordinates
41.36946, 2.14435 · OpenStreetMap
4
Font de la Guatlla (Centre Cívic)
Font de la Guatlla, Rabí Rubèn 22-26
360 m · 5 min
Walk to the upper end of Carrer del Rabí Rubèn, where the Butsems factory and the spring stood, and notice how steeply it climbs towards Montjuïc.[1][2][7]
The spring that named the neighbourhood stood inside the Butsems factory at the end of this street, beside an oak; pollution ended it, and a monolith and an anthem remain. Can Butsems closed in 1978.[1][2][7]
Coordinates
41.37050, 2.14745 · OpenStreetMap

Sources for this page

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

  1. [1] Ajuntament de Barcelona, districte de Sants-Montjuïc (2009). Història de la Font de la Guatlla. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  2. [2] Viquipèdia (2026). La Font de la Guatlla. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  3. [3] Viquipèdia (2026). Fàbrica Casaramona. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  4. [4] Arch2O (2020). House Renovation in Cal Drapaire | Parramon + Tahull Arquitectes. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  5. [5] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Info Barcelona (2026-02-02). This year sees the start of the redevelopment of Turó de la Font de la Guatlla. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  6. [6] Ajuntament de Barcelona, districte de Sants-Montjuïc (2026-06-22). Work to reurbanise Pas de Valls. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  7. [7] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Guia BCN (2026). Centre Cívic Font de la Guatlla. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  8. [8] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  9. [9] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  10. [10] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2023). Renda disponible de les llars per persona. Seccions censals. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  11. [11] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Població per nacionalitat i sexe. Barris. Accessed: 2026-07-17.

Last reviewed: 3 October 2026 · 11 sources consulted

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