Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Barcelona
Sant Pau, Gràcia and the Bunkers in six hours
The concert hall of stained glass, the modernista hospital, lunch in Gràcia's squares and sunset from the civil-war gun battery on the hill.
The Gaudí route is modernisme's most famous architect; this is the other one, Domènech i Montaner, whose two masterpieces are both UNESCO sites and both less crowded. After them the route walks up into Gràcia, a village swallowed by the city that still behaves like one, and finishes on the Turó de la Rovira, where the anti-aircraft battery of the civil war is now the city's favourite place to watch the sun go down.
The route, stop by stop
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Palau de la Música Catalana
Seen on the guided tour: a concert hall of 1908 lit through walls of glass and an inverted dome of stained glass in the ceiling. Better still, come to a concert in it.
60 min here Walk here → -
Hospital de Sant Pau
Arrive by metro from the previous stop
A hospital built as a garden city of mosaic-roofed pavilions linked by tunnels, which treated patients until 2009. The restored wards show what a building designed to heal looked like.
75 min here Walk here → -
Plaça del Sol
Down into Gràcia for lunch on the terraces of its liveliest square, which fills again at night.
60 min here Walk here → -
Plaça de la Virreina
A few streets on, the quietest of Gràcia's squares, with the church at one end and the plane trees at the other.
15 min here Walk here → -
Bunkers del Carmel
Uphill to the concrete gun emplacements of 1938, with the whole city from the mountains to the sea spread below. It is Barcelona's favourite sunset and it is busy; bring something to drink.
60 min here Walk here →
More in Barcelona
Every walking route in Barcelona, or the full Barcelona guide for where to stay and what a day costs.