Sant Martí · 73
la Verneda i la Pau
La Verneda i la Pau is a neighbourhood of layers: farmland and farmhouses until the 1950s, then housing for incoming migrants, the La Pau estate inaugurated in 1966, and a square won for the city at the start of municipal democracy.[1][2][3][4]
Begin in Plaça de la Palmera. Find the chimney of the old factory and Richard Serra's long concrete sculpture El Mur, from 1984, and notice the pines and the setts laid around it. The square was one of the first spaces won for the city when municipal democracy began.[1][3][4]
La Verneda i la Pau is one of the ten neighbourhoods of the Sant Martí district. Until the 1950s it was mostly farmland with a few farmhouses; the present neighbourhood was born in that decade from the huge demand for housing created by the mass arrival of immigrants.[1]
It was built dense and with almost no facilities or services. Continued neighbourhood campaigning won, among much else, the Institut Salvador Seguí, the Rambla de Prim, the Parc de Sant Martí and, in 1997, the L2 platforms at La Pau metro station.[1]
la Verneda i la Pau (neighbourhood 73) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sant Martí: el Camp de l'Arpa del Clot, el Clot, el Parc i la Llacuna del Poblenou, la Vila Olímpica del Poblenou, el Poblenou, Diagonal Mar i el Front Marítim del Poblenou.
Where the name comes from
Etymology: certain[1]
Verneda refers to the verns, alders, trees that grow on river margins.[1]
La Pau comes from the estate built by the Obra Sindical del Hogar and inaugurated by Franco in 1966, during the campaign “25 años de paz” marking the years since the end of the Civil War. Despite that origin, the name is identified today with the positive meaning of peace.[1]
The neighbourhood joins the La Pau estate, between Rambla de Guipúscoa and Gran Via, with the areas around la Palmera, la Verneda Alta and la Verneda Baixa. It lies north-east of Sant Martí de Provençals and is closely tied to the neighbouring municipality of Sant Adrià de Besòs, especially the Via Trajana-Montsolís area.[1]
Before the neighbourhood
Until the 1950s the land held fields and farmhouses such as Can Planes, Ca l'Arnó, Can Riera and Can Cadena. In the late nineteenth century a group of painters known as the colla del Safrà, among them Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Mir, Juli Vallmitjana, Ricard Canals, Ramon Pichot and Adrià Gual, came to paint the fields of the Verneda de Sant Martí.[1]
The place is older than the farmland. In August 2011 large remains of a Roman villa, in use until at least the fourth or fifth century, came to light at the Pont del Treball Digne, and Roman remains lay under the now demolished Can Nyau farmhouse at the Rambla de Prim.[1]
How the streets were made
There is no single urban grammar. The first group of homes, promoted by the Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge in the 1950s, stood at Via Trajana; the largest estate, la Pau, was built by the Obra Sindical del Hogar between Rambla de Guipúscoa and Gran Via. Around them came the areas of la Palmera, la Verneda Alta and la Verneda Baixa.[1][2]
The crossing of the renovated Rambles de Prim and Guipúscoa, beside La Pau metro station, is a centre of commerce and civic life. The station opened for the L4 in 1982, as its terminus until 1985, and the L2 platforms followed in 1997.[1][2]
Dates that changed it
- 1st c. BC Roman settlement on this land; a villa found in 2011 remained in use until at least the fourth or fifth century.[1]
- 1952–1953 the Via Trajana housing is occupied: 19 two-storey blocks with courtyards, 656 homes.[5][1]
- 1966 the La Pau estate, built by the Obra Sindical del Hogar, is inaugurated by Franco during the campaign “25 años de paz”.[1]
- 1971 a tower in La Pau is built that now houses associations and an art centre.[1][6]
- 1976 the Plaça de la Verneda is symbolically inaugurated after residents fought to stop church-owned buildings going up on the plot.[1]
- 1982 La Pau station opens on the L4, as the line's terminus until 1985.[1][2]
- 1984 Richard Serra's El Mur is installed in Plaça de la Palmera.[1][3][4]
- 1997 the L2 platforms open at La Pau, after years of delay; the original Via Trajana blocks are demolished the same year.[1][5]
- 2011 large remains of a Roman villa are found in August at the Pont del Treball Digne.[1]
- 2024 in November the Generalitat awards the drafting of the construction project for the L4 extension to La Sagrera.[7][8]
- 2026 in July the city council gives definitive approval to the Prim sector; in September the second phase of works on Plaça de la Palmera begins.[9][1][3][4]
People and collective life
Colla del Safrà
Group of painters including Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Mir, Juli Vallmitjana, Ricard Canals, Ramon Pichot and Adrià Gual, who painted the fields of the Verneda de Sant Martí in the late nineteenth century.[1]
Richard Serra
American sculptor, author of the concrete sculpture El Mur (1984) in Plaça de la Palmera.[1][3][4]
Associació de Veïns de la Verneda Alta
Residents' association that organised the first stage of the neighbourhood struggle, from 1975, with the demands typical of a peripheral neighbourhood of the time.[1]
Institutions
Casal de Barri Comunitari La Pau
Public neighbourhood centre at Carrer de Pere Vergés 1, open on weekdays and Saturday mornings, with a multipurpose room, sports rooms and a youth information point.[10]
Struggles that left a mark
Facilities won street by street
Demand: From the 1970s residents campaigned for what the new estates lacked: the Plaça de la Verneda, a secondary school, a day centre for older people, the Rambla de Prim, a school, a park and a metro station.[1]
Outcome: Many were won after long demonstrations and negotiations: the Institut Salvador Seguí after ten years, the Rambla de Prim built in 1992, a day centre for older people in 1995 and the L2 platforms at La Pau in 1997.[1]
What can still be seen
El Mur, Richard Serra
Concrete sculpture of 1984 in Plaça de la Palmera, beside the chimney of the old factory; the council's 2026 works are designed to keep the relation between the sculpture, the trees and the original paving.[1][3][4]
Roman villa of La Verneda
Large remains of a Roman villa, in use until at least the fourth or fifth century, were found at the Pont del Treball Digne in August 2011.[1]
What disappeared
The first Via Trajana blocks
The 19 two-storey blocks with 656 homes occupied in 1952-53 were demolished in 1997 because of the poor quality of the concrete, and the families were rehoused in rebuilt blocks.[5][1]
Can Nyau farmhouse
The farmhouse Can Nyau, at the Rambla de Prim end towards the mountain, has been demolished; Roman remains lay beneath it.[1]
The neighbourhood today
In 2026, la Verneda i la Pau had 30,938 residents, a density of 273.8 residents per hectare, a mean census-section income of €20,083 in 2023, 113 hectares, and 21.8% of residents held non-Spanish nationality. The density combines 2026 residents with 2021 area data, so the indicators do not share one reference year.[11][12][13][14]
Two of the neighbourhood's own pieces differ sharply: Via Trajana, whose first blocks were rebuilt after 1997, and the La Pau estate, with its blocks of the 1960s and a tower of 1971.[5][1][2]
Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 21.8%
What is changing
The extension of the L4 metro from La Pau to La Sagrera is not yet a service. In November 2024 the Generalitat awarded the drafting of the construction project for €2 million, due in the first quarter of 2026. Only 320 m of tunnel and the new Santander station remain to be built, at €98 million; the rest of the route exists and is used by the L9/L10 Nord. In April 2026 the 15-month deadline had expired and the Government forecast service for 2032.[7][8]
On 3 July 2026 the city council gave definitive approval to the Prim sector, between Rambla de Prim, Via Trajana and the Sagrera works. It allows 3,359 homes, 2,041 of them public. Demolitions are planned for 2027 and construction for 2029, with 21,656 m² of facilities and a public square around the Can Riera farmhouse.[9]
Since September 2026 Plaça de la Palmera is being renovated in a second phase costing €1 million, which renews its setts and street furniture until the first quarter of 2027 while keeping the relation between El Mur, the trees and the original paving.[1][3][4]
What the guides leave out
A Roman villa under a bridge
The neighbourhood is older than its blocks: a Roman villa came to light at the Pont del Treball Digne in August 2011, and Neolithic finds still await study.[1]
Painters in the fields
Late nineteenth-century painters of the colla del Safrà came to the Verneda de Sant Martí to paint its fields, long before the estates.[1]
A name taken back
La Pau was named after a Francoist propaganda campaign, “25 años de paz”, yet today the name is identified with the positive meaning of peace.[1]
Read it on foot
Start: La Pau (L2/L4)[1][2] · End: Via Trajana[5][1]
Walking (excluding stop time): 21 min · 1530 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 60 min
The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the three marked places, but it has not been verified as step-free. Paving works in Plaça de la Palmera continue until the first quarter of 2027. The approach from La Pau metro station is not included in the stated distance.[1][3][4]
la Verneda i la Pau (neighbourhood 73) highlighted. Other neighbourhoods in Sant Martí: el Camp de l'Arpa del Clot, el Clot, el Parc i la Llacuna del Poblenou, la Vila Olímpica del Poblenou, el Poblenou, Diagonal Mar i el Front Marítim del Poblenou.
Coordinates
Coordinates
Coordinates
Sources for this page
Dates, figures and historical claims are linked to the records used for this page.
- [1] Viquipèdia (n.d.). La Verneda i la Pau. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [2] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Estació de la Pau. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [3] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Richard Serra. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [4] Districte de Sant Martí, Ajuntament de Barcelona (2026). Es renova el paviment de la plaça de la Palmera de Sant Martí. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [5] Wikipedia (n.d.). La Verneda y la Paz. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [6] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Piramidón. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [7] betevé (Roger Torres i Liñán) (2024). Territori adjudica la redacció del projecte per culminar el perllongament de l'L4 fins a la Sagrera. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [8] Línia Sant Martí (2026). Crítiques veïnals pel retard en l'ampliació de l'L4 del metro. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [9] Metrópoli Abierta (Carla Stavraky) (2026). Barcelona dona llum verda a la construcció d'un nou barri al costat de la futura estació de la Sagrera. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [10] Barcelona Cultura, Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Casal de Barri Comunitari La Pau. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
- [11] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [12] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [13] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2023). Renda disponible de les llars per persona. Seccions censals. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
- [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