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

Sant Martí · 72

Sant Martí de Provençals

Sant Martí de Provençals is the neighbourhood that keeps the old parish centre of the municipality that once covered much of eastern Barcelona: a church on a small square, farmhouses and former fields now inside a park, all surrounded by dense housing.[1][2][3][4]

Stand in Plaça d'Ignasi Juliol and look at the flamboyant-Gothic doorway on the west façade of the church, with the rose window above it. Then find the rectory beside it, joined to a farmhouse by a narrow volume that lets the street pass underneath through a round arch: the church stood at the centre of a farming settlement.[2]

Sant Martí de Provençals was a municipality created after Philip V's Nueva Planta decree, in the north-east of the Barcelona plain; the village of the same name was one of its three main centres. The decree annexing it to Barcelona was signed on 20 April 1897, and since the 1984 division the district of Sant Martí largely coincides with its territory.[1]

The neighbourhood is the part that kept the old name: the parish centre and the housing around it. The Viquipèdia places it between Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, el Clot, la Sagrera and la Verneda i la Pau.[1]

Sant Martí de Provençals (neighbourhood 72) 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: disputed[1]

Sant Martí refers to Saint Martin of Tours, to whom the parish church is dedicated.[1]

For Provençals the Catalan Wikipedia reports two theories: the Latin phrase agri provintialis, fields inhabited and farmed since Roman times, which it calls the most learned but least reliable, or settlers from Provence who may have come after the Frankish conquest of Barcelona in 801. The name is first recorded in 989.[1]

The Viquipèdia places the neighbourhood between Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes to the south-east, el Clot to the south-west, la Sagrera to the north-west and la Verneda i la Pau to the north-east.[1]

Before the neighbourhood

The first record of people here dates from 989, under the name Provençals. Settlement grew thanks to the Rec Comtal, the canal that carried water from the Besòs to Barcelona and allowed mills and farmhouses to be built; a fortification appears in the records as oppidum in 995 and as fortitudo in 1097.[1][2]

The church began as a small private chapel of Saint Martin of Tours that in 1052 passed into the demarcation of Santa Maria del Mar and so acquired public use. It was rebuilt from the late fifteenth century and the work was not finished until 1688.[1][2]

How the streets were made

The Parc de Sant Martí was begun in 1979 on old crop fields around the church, with a project by Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí that Antonio Armesto, Carles Martí and Miquel Sodupe finished; the first phase was completed in 1985 and the second in 1992.[3][4]

Three farmhouses survive inside it: Can Cadena, Can Planas and Ca l'Arnó. The largest part of the park is an irregular triangle of grass with a lake, sparse trees and little paving, with a football pitch, a market and a secondary school along the Carrer de Menorca side.[3][4][5][6]

Dates that changed it

  1. 989 the name Provençals is first recorded for the territory.[1][2]
  2. 1052 a private chapel of Saint Martin passes into the demarcation of Santa Maria del Mar and acquires public use.[1][2]
  3. 1432 Joan Sellerer contracts the sculptor Joan Aymerich to make the church façade.[2]
  4. 1688 the rebuilding of the church is finished, with baroque touches.[1][2]
  5. 1897 the decree annexing Sant Martí de Provençals to Barcelona is signed on 20 April.[1]
  6. 1979 works begin on the Parc de Sant Martí; the first phase is completed in 1985 and the second in 1992.[3][4]
  7. 1982 the city council buys the farmhouse Ca l'Arnó, whose last tenant farmer had worked its land until then.[7]
  8. 1991 Can Cadena is restored and becomes a workshop school of the city council.[5][4][6]
  9. 2022 the Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez opens on 28 May.[8][9][10]

People and collective life

Joan Aymerich

Sculptor contracted in 1432 by Joan Sellerer to make the church façade, with the donors at the feet of Saint Martin on the tympanum.[2]

Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí

Author of the original project for the Parc de Sant Martí, begun in 1979 and finished by other architects after his death.[3][4]

Isidre Crusens

Last tenant farmer of Ca l'Arnó, who worked the land until 1982, watered it from the Rec Comtal and sold his vegetables at the Mercat del Clot.[7]

Francesc Rodó

Canon and rector of Sant Martí, who died in 1902; residents erected a monument to him in 1916 that was destroyed in 1936 and rebuilt after the Civil War.[2][7]

Institutions

Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez

District library opened on 28 May 2022, the third largest in Barcelona, specialised in Latin American literature and holding a local collection on the old municipality.[8][9][10]

Can Cadena

Farmhouse in the Parc de Sant Martí with an urban allotment of 16 plots worked by older residents, farm animals and a classroom on organic farming, used for school environmental education.[5][4][6]

Ca l'Arnó

Farmhouse in the Parc de Sant Martí that houses a municipal play centre.[7]

Struggles that left a mark

A central library for the district

Demand: Residents of Sant Martí asked for years for a central library; the only one was a library on the fourth floor of the Centre Cívic, dating from the 1960s.[10]

Outcome: The works were tendered in 2015 and the Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez opened on 28 May 2022.[10]

What can still be seen

Església de Sant Martí de Provençals

A local cultural asset with a flamboyant-Gothic west doorway, a rose window and a bell tower roofed in polychrome glazed tiles, standing beside a rectory joined to a farmhouse.[2]

Can Cadena

A local cultural asset: a plain rural Catalan farmhouse with ground floor, one storey and attic under a gabled roof, ringed by terraced growing plots.[5][4][6]

Ca l'Arnó

A local cultural asset: a farmhouse with a date stone of 1689 and a Gothic window probably taken from an older building.[7]

What disappeared

Farmland of the Verneda de Sant Martí

The park was created on old crop fields, among the last of Barcelona's agricultural past, which covered a good part of the Sant Martí district until the mid-twentieth century.[3][4]

The church's façade sculptures

The tympanum with the donors at the feet of Saint Martin and the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul of 1688 have disappeared from the doorway.[2]

The neighbourhood today

In 2026 it had 27,035 residents, 368.3 residents per hectare, a mean census-section income of €21,756 in 2023, 73.4 hectares, and 20.7% of residents held non-Spanish nationality.[11][12][13][14]

Beside the dense blocks, the Parc de Sant Martí gives the neighbourhood a large green space on former fields. Since May 2022 the Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez has also served as a district library with a local collection on the old municipality.[3][4][8][9][10]

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 20.7%

What is changing

As of October 2026, tram works are the main change under way. Work to double the Trambesòs track and rebuild Gran Via suspended services on the T4, T5 and T6 between 3 July and 13 September 2026. Since 14 September the T4 has been running normally; the T5 and T6 were cut between Glòries and Sant Martí de Provençals until 30 September, and from 1 October only the stretch between Glòries and Can Jaumandreu stays closed until the works end, expected in spring 2027.[15][16]

What the guides leave out

Roman stones in a farmhouse window

In 1989 Josep de la Vega recorded two reused Roman ashlars in a Gothic window of Ca l'Arnó, now buried under lime mortar after a restoration, and three more fragments in the paving of the church forecourt.[7][1]

The saint who warmed the autumn

A legend collected by Joan Amades says Saint Martin lodged in a villager's house here on a cold autumn day and eased the cold, which gave rise to the estiuet de Sant Martí; the house later became the church.[1]

A fountain like a village pump

Antoni Roselló's fountain-sculpture, almost 5 m high, in copper, Roman travertine and limestone, recalls the water pumps of the rural area this part of the city once was.[3]

Read it on foot

Start: Sant Martí (L2)[17] · End: Església de Sant Martí de Provençals[2]

Walking (excluding stop time): 9 min · 650 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 53 min

The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the four marked places, but it has not been verified as step-free. The approach from Sant Martí metro station (L2) is not included in the stated distance.

Sant Martí de Provençals (neighbourhood 72) 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.

1
Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez
Plaça de Carmen Balcells Segalà 1
Look at the six-storey building whose outline recalls a pile of open books, and at the large glazed walls that let daylight into the open reading floors.[8][9][10]
Designed by Elena Orte and Guillermo Sevillano of SUMA Arquitectura, it opened on 28 May 2022 after years of neighbourhood demands for a central library, and is the third largest in Barcelona.[8][9][10]
Coordinates
41.41714, 2.19988 · OpenStreetMap
2
Parc de Sant Martí
Carrer de Menorca 64
370 m · 5 min
Cross the irregular triangle of grass with its lake and sparse trees, and look for Antoni Roselló's copper and travertine fountain-sculpture, almost 5 m high, shaped like a village water pump.[3][4]
The park was begun in 1979 on old crop fields, with phases finished in 1985 and 1992, and keeps the church and three farmhouses within it.[3][4]
Coordinates
41.41969, 2.19807 · OpenStreetMap
3
Can Cadena
Carrer de Menorca 27
110 m · 1 min
Find the plain farmhouse with ground floor, one storey and attic under a gabled roof, and the terraced growing plots and farm-animal area around it.[5][4][6]
Probably a stable for the carters of the inn beside the rectory, it was restored in 1991; its allotment has 16 plots worked by older residents and the gardens open to visitors on weekend and holiday mornings.[5][4][6]
Coordinates
41.42055, 2.19754 · OpenStreetMap
4
Església de Sant Martí de Provençals
Plaça d'Ignasi Juliol
180 m · 2 min
Look at the flamboyant-Gothic doorway on the west façade, with its three archivolts and pinnacles, the rose window above it and, on the right, the bell tower roofed in polychrome glazed tiles.[2][1]
It stands on the site of an eleventh-century chapel of Saint Martin; the façade was contracted to Joan Aymerich in 1432 and the rebuilding was finished in 1688. It is a local cultural asset.[2][1]
Coordinates
41.42081, 2.19703 · OpenStreetMap

Sources for this page

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

  1. [1] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Sant Martí de Provençals. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  2. [2] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Església de Sant Martí de Provençals. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  3. [3] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Parc de Sant Martí. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  4. [4] Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Parc de Sant Martí (Barcelona.cat). Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  5. [5] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Can Cadena. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  6. [6] Ajuntament de Barcelona (2022). Hort Urbà Masia Can Cadena. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  7. [7] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Ca l'Arnó. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  8. [8] Biblioteques de Barcelona (n.d.). Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  9. [9] 3Cat Info (ACN) (2022). Obre als lectors la Biblioteca García Márquez, la tercera més gran de Barcelona. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  10. [10] Viquipèdia (n.d.). Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  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.
  15. [15] Districte de Sant Martí, Ajuntament de Barcelona (2026). La línia T4 de tramvia recupera la normalitat el 14 de setembre. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  16. [16] Districte de Sant Martí, Ajuntament de Barcelona (2026). Interrupción parcial del Trambesòs durante el verano. Accessed: 2026-10-03.
  17. [17] Wikipedia (n.d.). Sant Martí (Barcelona Metro). Accessed: 2026-10-03.

Last reviewed: 3 October 2026 · 17 sources consulted

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