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

Nou Barris · 53

la Trinitat Nova

La Trinitat Nova began in the 1950s as a public-housing estate on farmland at the edge of Barcelona, and since 2001 its blocks affected by aluminosis have been replaced in phases.[1][2]

Step out of the Trinitat Nova metro, where lines L3, L4 and L11 all end: the neighbourhood's two ages lie a few streets apart, with the blocks raised since 2001 on one side and, on the other, two places of 1977, the Mercat de la Trinitat and the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris.[3][4][2][5][6][7][8]

The Trinitat Nova estate was built in phases between 1952 and 1969 by three public promoters: the Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, the Obra Sindical del Hogar and the Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge. It put 3,367 homes on about 37 hectares of mostly agricultural land handed over by the City Council, on a slope in the last foothills of Collserola near the Besòs. First-phase flats measured about 50 m², those of 1959 under 39 m².[1]

In the 1990s the blocks were diagnosed with aluminosis, a defect of the cement used in the Franco years. In 1997 a redevelopment plan was approved under the European Union's URBAN programme and, since 2001, new public housing has gone up in phases while the old blocks disappear and green spaces are laid out. The planning instrument is the PERI approved definitively in 2002.[2][9]

The neighbourhood is bounded by the streets Aiguablava and Garbí, Via Favència and Avinguda Meridiana, and borders les Roquetes, Trinitat Vella, Torre Baró and la Prosperitat. Trinitat Vella, across the Meridiana, is a different neighbourhood in the district of Sant Andreu, and the two are often confused.[2][10]

la Trinitat Nova (neighbourhood 53) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Nou Barris: Vilapicina i la Torre Llobeta, Porta, el Turó de la Peira, Can Peguera, la Guineueta, Verdun.

Before the neighbourhood

Until the 1950s this slope was an area of farming and small quarries; industrialisation then arrived, and with it immigrants. It lay far from the built-up city and, until the Rondes of 1992, a gap holding high-tension pylons cut it off from the centre.[6][1]

How the streets were made

The first-phase blocks of the Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge had a ground floor and three storeys, with flats opening onto a shared outer walkway and stairs in towers at the ends; a central square with a clock tower gave the estate a focal point. Most of these buildings have been demolished, and only the prefabricated block, the “American block”, has held out.[1]

The new developments are grouped by block within the remodelling sector, UA 3: according to the municipal sheet of May 2024, blocks B, C, D, G1 and I were finished and block E was under construction.[9]

Dates that changed it

  1. 1952–1969 The estate goes up in phases: the Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, the Obra Sindical del Hogar and the Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge build 3,367 homes.[1]
  2. 1977 residents occupy and dismantle an asphalt plant, which becomes the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris; the Mercat de la Trinitat opens on 15 March.[6][7][8]
  3. 1997 a redevelopment plan for the neighbourhood is approved under the European Union's URBAN programme.[2]
  4. 1999 L4 reaches la Trinitat Nova.[2][5]
  5. 2001 new public housing begins to be built in phases to replace the old blocks.[2]
  6. 2002 on 22 March the PERI for the Trinitat Nova remodelling sector is definitively approved.[9]
  7. 2003 L11 reaches la Trinitat Nova.[2][5]
  8. 2006 on 28 July the second addendum is signed to the agreement between the Institut Català del Sòl, the City Council and the neighbours' association.[4]
  9. 2008 L3 reaches la Trinitat Nova (4 October) and the Parc del Metro opens.[2][5][11]
  10. 2018 the Casal de Barri Comunitari de Trinitat Nova opens on Carrer de Garbí.[2][11]
  11. 2025 on 30 June a municipal report opens the lottery allocation of the 44 affordable-rent homes in block E.[3][4]

Institutions

Mercat de la Trinitat

Opened on 15 March 1977 at Carrer de la Pedrosa 21, it was the first market in Barcelona with a childcare service; it was fully refurbished in 2001.[6]

Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris

A self-managed sociocultural centre in a former asphalt plant, municipally owned and run by the association Bidó de Nou Barris; circus is its signature, with the Escola de Circ Rogelio Rivel since 1999.[7][8]

Casal de Barri Comunitari de Trinitat Nova

A public facility at Carrer de Garbí 3, opened in 2018 for residents' cultural and leisure activities.[2][11]

Struggles that left a mark

Services won by the neighbourhood movement

Demand: Better public transport, street lighting, a residence for older people and a market.[6]

Outcome: The market opened in 1977, the first in Barcelona with a childcare service.[6]

An asphalt plant turned into an ateneu

Demand: In January 1977, after many demonstrations, a large group of residents occupied and dismantled the plant that polluted the neighbourhood.[7][8]

Outcome: In June 1977 the nave began its new life as the Ateneu Popular with the Trenta Hores de Cultura Popular.[7][8]

Rehousing within the neighbourhood

Demand: That families already living in la Trinitat Nova could stay: the second addendum of 2006 reserves at least 25% of surplus homes for residents of the neighbourhood.[4]

Outcome: In the 2025 allocation for block E, 15 of the 44 affordable-rent homes carry a territorial reserve.[4]

What can still be seen

Prefabricated block (“American block”)

It is the only one of the Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge buildings that, according to Maribel Rosselló, has withstood time; it is a compact block with a single window module.[1]

Nave of the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris

A long, low former asphalt plant, extended in 1990 by Carles Bel with a stage tower and refitted in 2011-12 by Fornari + Rojas Arquitectos, with a black and red façade of twenty-three modules.[7][8]

What disappeared

The blocks of the Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge

Most of the blocks of the early phases of the Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge, arranged around a square with a clock tower, have been demolished because, despite their urban merits, the construction was poor.[1]

The neighbourhood today

In 2026 la Trinitat Nova had 8,128 residents, a density of 140.9 people per hectare, a €15,295 mean census-section income in 2023, 57.7 hectares, and 26% non-Spanish nationality.[12][13][14][15]

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 26%

What is changing

Status as of October 2026, from the most recent documents consulted. According to the Institut Municipal d'Urbanisme sheet of May 2024, the expropriation of UA 3 is complete, the homes of blocks B, C, D, G1 and I are finished and those of block E are under construction; the urbanisation project for the green zone between the streets Palamós, S'Agaró and la Llosa was approved and awaiting tender.[9]

Block E, at Carrer d'Aiguablava 70-72 and Plaça del Centre de Vida Comunitària 4-8, has 95 homes: 44 affordable rent, 20 social rent, 30 for rehousing and 1 for the Mesa d'Emergències Socials. A report of 30 June 2025 opened the lottery allocation of the 44, with 15 homes reserved for residents of the neighbourhood; the report does not give a handover date.[3][4]

Of the Triangle d'Aiguablava, a planning area pending for decades, the district is revising the functional definition (report of July 2025): it foresees multipurpose facilities and possibly a Centre Esportiu Municipal with a pool, a long-standing demand. And in January 2026 a municipal press release placed the new Carrer de Victoria Escrich Vidal, named for a neighbourhood activist once held in the former women's prison of Trinitat Vella, between the streets Palamós and S'Agaró.[16][17]

What the guides leave out

Two Trinitats

La Trinitat Nova is in Nou Barris and Trinitat Vella in Sant Andreu: they share a name, but the Avinguda Meridiana divides them and they belong to different districts.[2][10]

Read it on foot

Start: Trinitat Nova (L3/L4/L11)[2][5] · End: Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris[7][8]

Walking (excluding stop time): 25 min · 1850 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 61 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.

la Trinitat Nova (neighbourhood 53) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Nou Barris: Vilapicina i la Torre Llobeta, Porta, el Turó de la Peira, Can Peguera, la Guineueta, Verdun.

1
Trinitat Nova metro station
Carrer de la Pedrosa (station entrance)
Count the station's three entrances, on the streets Aiguablava, la Pedrosa and Palamós, and remember that the L3 platform lies much deeper than those of L4 and L11.[2][5]
L4 arrived here in 1999, L11 in 2003 and L3 on 4 October 2008; today all three lines end here.[2][5]
Coordinates
41.44925, 2.18329 · OpenStreetMap
2
Casal de Barri Comunitari de Trinitat Nova
Carrer de Garbí 3
680 m · 9 min
Find the point where the streets Palamós, Garbí and S'Agaró meet, next to the community centre, and read their names on the corners.[2][11]
The community centre opened in 2018 at this junction; block G1, one of the finished blocks of the remodelling, stands between the streets Platja d'Aro, Palamós and S'Agaró.[2][11][9]
Coordinates
41.45266, 2.18763 · OpenStreetMap
3
Mercat de la Trinitat
Carrer de la Pedrosa 21
650 m · 9 min
Look at the market as a detached building on Carrer de la Pedrosa, standing apart from the blocks around it.[6]
It opened on 15 March 1977 after two tenders in 1974 drew no bids; it was the first market in Barcelona with a childcare service and was fully refurbished in 2001.[6]
Coordinates
41.44866, 2.18422 · OpenStreetMap
4
Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris
Carrer de Portlligat 11-15
520 m · 7 min
Follow the long, low nave on Carrer de Portlligat: the black and red façade, in twenty-three modules, comes from the 2011-12 refit.[7][8]
It was an asphalt plant that polluted the neighbourhood; in January 1977 residents occupied and dismantled it, and that June it opened as a popular ateneu.[7][8]
Coordinates
41.44857, 2.18000 · OpenStreetMap

Sources for this page

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

  1. [1] Maribel Rosselló (UPC) (s.d.). El Polígono de Trinitat Nova en Barcelona. Primeros ensayos de modernidad en la vivienda social de los años cincuenta. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  2. [2] Viquipèdia (2026). la Trinitat Nova. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  3. [3] Consorci de l'Habitatge de Barcelona (2025). Fitxa del procés d'adjudicació de 44 habitatges de lloguer assequible, Trinitat Nova UA3 Bloc E (exp. 25CHB10). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  4. [4] Consorci de l'Habitatge de Barcelona (2025). Informe relatiu a l'inici del procediment d'adjudicació de 44 habitatges, Trinitat Nova UA3 Bloc E (30 June 2025). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  5. [5] Wikipedia (2026). Trinitat Nova station. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  6. [6] Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona (2026). Mercat de la Trinitat. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  7. [7] Viquipèdia (2026). Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  8. [8] Viquipèdia (2026). Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris (edifici). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  9. [9] Institut Municipal d'Urbanisme (2024). UA 3 - PERI sector de remodelació de Trinitat Nova (fitxa, maig 2024). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  10. [10] Viquipèdia (2026). Trinitat Vella. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  11. [11] GuiaBCN, Ajuntament de Barcelona (2026). Casal de Barri Comunitari de Trinitat Nova. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  12. [12] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  13. [13] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  14. [14] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2023). Renda disponible de les llars per persona. Seccions censals. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  15. [15] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Població per nacionalitat i sexe. Barris. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  16. [16] Districte de Nou Barris, Ajuntament de Barcelona (2025-07-21). Informe del Regidor, plenari ordinari del 21 de juliol del 2025. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  17. [17] Servei de Premsa, Ajuntament de Barcelona (2026-01-13). Barcelona avança en la feminització del nomenclàtor reivindicant quinze figures de dones a l'espai públic (13/01/2026). Accessed: 2026-10-03.

Last reviewed: 3 October 2026 · 17 sources consulted

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