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

Sants-Montjuïc · 13

la Marina de Port

La Marina de Port is not one workers' district beside the harbour but a mosaic of nuclei — the Port of the medieval castle, Can Clos, the Polvorí, SEAT's Sant Cristòfol — tied together by Passeig de la Zona Franca.[1][2]

The Casa del Rellotge, now a civic centre, began as a textile mill planned in 1853-56 and later became a galvanising works; in the late 1970s its owners wanted flats on the site and neighbours fought for public space. It opened as a civic centre in 1984.[3][4]

La Marina de Port occupies the strip between Montjuïc and Passeig de la Zona Franca, in the old Marina de Sants, a mainly agricultural plain until the early twentieth century, when fields, farmhouses and the fishermen's quarter of Can Tunis gave way to the port, industry and several urban nuclei.[1]

Passeig de la Zona Franca is today the main street and ties together a collection of smaller neighbourhoods, most of them very small and born at different times and in different circumstances: Port, Can Clos, Polvorí, Ferrocarrils Catalans, Sant Cristòfol, Estrelles Altes, la Vinya and Plus Ultra.[1]

la Marina de Port (neighbourhood 13) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sants-Montjuïc: el Poble-sec, la Marina del Prat Vermell, la Font de la Guatlla, Hostafrancs, la Bordeta, Sants - Badal.

Where the name comes from

Etymology: certain[1][2]

The name Port comes from the primitive harbour that once lay here: the City Council says the barri de Port recalls it, and Viquipèdia adds that the place name is already documented in 970 and that the harbour, thought to have been active until the early Middle Ages, ended up as a marshy lagoon because of silt from local streams and the Llobregat. La Marina is the name of the whole plain, la Marina de Sants.[1][2]

La Marina de Port lies between the neighbourhoods of la Bordeta, la Font de la Guatlla, la Marina del Prat Vermell and Montjuïc, and borders l'Hospitalet de Llobregat.[2]

Before the neighbourhood

In the early nineteenth century livestock mattered here: large herds of cows, goats and sheep grazed the marshy ground, and small fishing quarters lived off the beach. The Canal de la Infanta, opened in 1819, replaced dry-farmed crops with irrigation.[1]

At the end of the tenth century the castle of Port and the chapel of the Mare de Déu de Port were raised; the chapel appears in the will of viscountess Ermengarda in 1029. Much later, the 1846 ban on building factories inside the city drove industry onto the land of the Marina.[2][1]

How the streets were made

The new neighbourhoods of the 1950s were built in one go, which gives each a uniform look, and most were born isolated: Can Clos, far from the other nuclei; the Polvorí, half-way up the slope of Montjuïc; Sant Cristòfol, planned as a self-sufficient unit with services, so that its residents had little contact with their neighbours.[1]

The houses were made with poor materials and many blocks suffered aluminosis: they were demolished and rebuilt at Can Clos and Sant Cristòfol, and at the Polvorí a neighbourhood redevelopment plan of the 1990s produced a new neighbourhood. Parks and gardens, which the area entirely lacked, have also been built.[1]

Dates that changed it

  1. Late 10th century the castle of Port and the chapel of the Mare de Déu de Port are built.[2]
  2. 1819 the Canal de la Infanta opens and irrigation replaces dry-farmed crops.[1]
  3. 1846 factories are banned inside the city and industry moves onto peripheral land such as the Marina.[1]
  4. 1916 the barri de Port already has the Colònia Industrial de Port, which takes in children and older people.[1]
  5. 1952 Can Clos is built to house shanty dwellers from the Diagonal provisionally.[1]
  6. 1953 the first blocks of the Polvorí, sponsored by the Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, are occupied.[1]
  7. 1955 on 5 October the SEAT workers' housing is inaugurated: 1,062 dwellings at Sant Cristòfol.[1]
  8. 1960-1961 the 400 dwellings of Foment are raised, without urbanisation.[1]
  9. 1984 the Casa del Rellotge opens as a civic centre.[3][4]
  10. 2005 Philips, a presence in the barri de Port since the 1960s, closes.[1]
  11. 2018 on 8 September Foneria station on L10 Sud opens.[5]
  12. 2026 on 14 May the City Council presents the Pla de Barris singular de la Marina, with 50 million euros of public investment to 2028.[6]

People and collective life

Francesc (Paco) Candel

A writer, author of Els altres catalans; in the 1960s and 70s he lived in a flat of little more than 50 m² in la Marina de Port. The neighbourhood's library bears his name.[7][8]

Institutions

Biblioteca La Marina de Port – Francesc Candel

The neighbourhood's public library, at Carrer de l'Amnistia Internacional 10; it is named after the writer Francesc Candel.[7][8]

Casa del Rellotge

The Centre Cívic la Marina, at Passeig de la Zona Franca 116, opened in 1984 in the former Can Farrero factory; the Guia BCN lists it as accessible for people with physical disabilities.[3][4]

Struggles that left a mark

Public space instead of flats

Demand: In the late 1970s the owners of Can Farrero meant to demolish the factory buildings for flats; neighbours demanded public space and laid out the park themselves.[3][4]

Outcome: The City Council restored the building and it opened as a civic centre in 1984.[3][4]

What can still be seen

Masia Can Mestres

Viquipèdia presents it as the only farmhouse left in the city of Barcelona; its grounds hold a municipal urban garden and a small farm.[9][2][10]

Casa del Rellotge (Can Farrero)

It is what remains of the first textile industrial complex, La Auxiliar de la Industria, planned in 1853-56 by Josep Oriol Mestres.[3][4]

What disappeared

The original port

The harbour that gave the neighbourhood its name is thought to have been active until the early Middle Ages; silt from local streams and the Llobregat turned it into a marshy lagoon.[1][2]

The Philips factory

It was a fixture of the barri de Port from the 1960s until it closed in 2005; the site is now a zone of public facilities.[1]

The original houses of Can Clos

The 1952 houses, made with very poor materials, were demolished from the end of the 1970s to make way for new blocks.[1]

The neighbourhood today

In 2026 la Marina de Port had 31,768 residents, a density of 250.3 people per hectare, average census-section income of €19,717 in 2023, an area of 126.9 hectares, and 22.3% of residents held non-Spanish nationality.[11][12][13][14]

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 22.3%

What is changing

What is changing (as of 3 October 2026)

On 14 May 2026 the City Council presented the Pla de Barris singular de la Marina, covering la Marina de Port and la Marina del Prat Vermell: 50 million euros of public investment to 2028, 9 million of it directly from the Pla de Barris. It plans to turn Passeig de la Zona Franca into a civic axis, to build subsidised housing (more than twenty buildings in study, design or construction, mostly in the Prat Vermell) and to roll out a rehabilitation strategy that will reach the homes of la Marina de Port. L10 Sud has served the neighbourhood since 8 September 2018, with Foneria station.[6][5]

Read it on foot

Start: Foneria (L10) · End: Plaça del Mig de Can Clos

Walking (excluding stop time): 30 min · 2200 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 71 min

The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the five marked points, but it has not been verified as step-free. The Can Mestres garden is open only at weekends and on public holidays, 10 to 14.

la Marina de Port (neighbourhood 13) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sants-Montjuïc: el Poble-sec, la Marina del Prat Vermell, la Font de la Guatlla, Hostafrancs, la Bordeta, Sants - Badal.

1
Biblioteca Francesc Candel
Biblioteca Candel, Amnistia Internacional 10
Find the library's inner terrace, where a 33 m² mural by Cinta Vidal, the artist behind this year's Mercè poster, was painted this summer.[7][8]
The library is named for Francesc (Paco) Candel, author of Els altres catalans, who lived in the 1960s and 70s in a flat of little more than 50 m² in la Marina de Port.[7][8]
Coordinates
41.36172, 2.13621 · OpenStreetMap
2
Carrer del Bronze (Sant Cristòfol)
Carrer del Bronze
600 m · 8 min
Look along the rows of Sant Cristòfol's blocks: they were planned at once as a self-contained settlement, and some are later, built after blocks hit by aluminosis were demolished.[1]
Sant Cristòfol is the Viviendas de la SEAT: 1,062 dwellings begun in 1953 and inaugurated on 5 October 1955, the first neighbourhood in the area built with finished streets and services.[1]
Coordinates
41.35801, 2.13519 · OpenStreetMap
3
Casa del Rellotge
Casa del Rellotge, Passeig de la Zona Franca 116
830 m · 11 min
Note the square block of ground floor plus two storeys under a flat roof, and picture the factory's clock tower that gave the building its name.[3][4]
It is what remains of La Auxiliar de la Industria (1853-56, Josep Oriol Mestres), later the Farrero factory until 1965; neighbours resisted its replacement by flats and it opened as a civic centre in 1984.[3][4]
Coordinates
41.35806, 2.14158 · OpenStreetMap
4
Masia Can Mestres (hort urbà)
Masia Can Mestres, Camí de Can Clos
560 m · 8 min
On weekend mornings (10-14) you can see the 300 m² farm with sheep, goats, ducks, rabbits, geese and hens among the garden plots.[9][2][10]
Viquipèdia presents Can Mestres as the only farmhouse left in Barcelona; in 1997 it became the first garden of the Xarxa d'Horts Urbans, now with about 50 plots for residents over 65.[9][2][10]
Coordinates
41.36016, 2.14541 · OpenStreetMap
5
Plaça del Mig de Can Clos
Plaça del Mig de Can Clos
210 m · 3 min
Look at the blocks around the square: they postdate the 1952 barriada and went up from the end of the 1970s where the provisional houses stood.[1]
Can Clos was born in 1952 to house shanty dwellers from the Diagonal provisionally; it sat far from the other neighbourhoods and isolated.[1]
Coordinates
41.36089, 2.14665 · 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 Marina de Port. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  2. [2] Viquipèdia (2025). La Marina de Port. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  3. [3] Pobles de Catalunya (2016). Casa del Rellotge (Can Farrero) - Barcelona. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  4. [4] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Guia BCN (2026). Centre Cívic la Marina – Casa del Rellotge. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  5. [5] Wikipedia (2026). Foneria (Barcelona Metro). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  6. [6] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Premsa (2026-05-14). Barcelona impulsa el Pla de Barris singular de la Marina amb una inversió de 50 M€ fins al 2028. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  7. [7] Biblioteques de Barcelona (2026). Biblioteca La Marina de Port – Francesc Candel. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  8. [8] betevé (2025). L'Ajuntament descarta comprar el pis de l'escriptor Paco Candel per fer-hi un museu. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  9. [9] Ajuntament de Barcelona, Guia BCN (2026). Hort Urbà Masia Can Mestres. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  10. [10] Ajuntament de Barcelona (2025). Xarxa d'Horts Urbans Municipals 2025 (leaflet). Accessed: 2026-10-09.
  11. [11] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  12. [12] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  13. [13] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2023). Renda disponible de les llars per persona. Seccions censals. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  14. [14] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Població per nacionalitat i sexe. Barris. Accessed: 2026-07-17.

Last reviewed: 3 October 2026 · 14 sources consulted

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