New ideas with views of the sea

Names like, La Farinera and Ca l’Aranyó, which refer to old factories, give you an idea of what Sant Marti used to be like. The chimneys, some hidden in a trail of clues that are worth discovering, speak of an industrial past that turned these neighbourhoods into the city's factory district. A district that turned its back on the sea for many years but which has now recovered its true Mediterranean essence.

Poblenou and El Clot still preserve a lot of this working-class and revolutionary past, but the neighbourhoods of narrow alleyways and tiny, hidden squares, now open up into big boulevards, wide streets that look towards the sea, reclaiming it for the people. The old factories have given way to human capital, and the Catalan Manchester has become Barcelona's Silicon Valley. Sant Martí is the city's innovation district, with new cutting-edge technology companies reflected in forward-looking buildings designed by the most daring architects. The Torre Agbar, the Fòrum building and Vila Olímpica are all examples of efficiency, sustainability and design.

A district with beaches

The privilege of having the sea lapping its edges is one of the charms of the new Sant Martí, which extends to the shore and a seafront promenade that leads to the beaches and Port Olímpic. It is a district that has managed to turn itself into the most innovative and cosmopolitan part of Barcelona, without losing the heart of the town it used to be along the way, a district that has fully opened up to the sea.