What Do You Know about Barcelona’s Nou Barris District?

The district of Nou Barris is extensive, encompassing 800 hectares and thirteen neighborhoods: Vallbona, Ciutat Meridiana, Torre Baró, Trinitat Nova, Roquetes, Canyelles, Verdún, La Prosperitat, Guineueta, Porta, Can Peguera, El Turó de la Peira and Vilapicina i Torre Llobeta. Streets like Passieg de Fabra i Puig, Passeig de Verdún and Via Júlia—also known as the Rambla de Nou Barris—are three main epicenters of the local community, and traditional bars, shops and restaurants maintain the district’s historically working-class character. 

Nou Barris is located in the far northern section of the city, sandwiched between Horta-Guinardó, Sant Andreu and the Collserola mountains. It’s one of the least-explored parts of Barcelona, thanks to its distance from the busy city center and its lack of tourist attractions. It is known for its green spaces—such as the Parc Central de Nou Barris, which covers 17 hectares and is home to the district’s central office, as well as a courtyard often used for concerts and other activities—and for its emphasis on fomenting activities within local community, thanks to the remarkable number of cultural and social associations that exist within each neighborhood. 

Many of these associations have existed for decades, such as the Ateneu Popular 9 Nou Barris, which is one of the most important centers for the circus arts in the city. The district is also home to the Barcelona Blues Festival, which is organized by yet another cultural association, Capibola Blues.

In general, Nou Barris is known for the diversity of its inhabitants, as its population is due in large part to the immigration waves of the 1950s and 1960s, followed by many more newcomers from various countries in the latter half of the 20th century and in recent years. Before the landscape of the district was changed by the construction of low-cost housing, the hilly terrain was covered in fields and orchards; today, only a few old country houses from the past centuries still remain. The district’s current mix of history (such as the Torre Barró castle, the Rec Comtal, and other historic landmarks) and modernity (the Technological Park and the huge Can Dragó sports complex) combined with its generally down-to-earth character makes the district unique.

Vallbona

This neighborhood sits on the mountainous northern border between Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac; it was largely untouched by human development until the mid-20th century, when people started to build small houses around the Rec Comtal: one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the history of Barcelona. Constructed in the 10th century, this canal fed water to the city of Barcelona for hundreds of years. It also powered the mills and textile factories of Sant Andreu during Catalunya’s industrial revolution in the 19th century. While most of the canal has been covered by urbanization, a small part of it is still exposed and visible, and is used to water the local gardens.

The presence of the canal and the Besòs river means that Vallbona always had access to water, which was the life’s blood of the residents’ agrarian lifestyle centuries before the neighborhood was even founded; today, the Besòs river still provides irrigation for La Ponderosa, the largest (and one of the last) urban orchards in the city.

When more people moved in to the neighborhood with the first immigration waves of the 1950s, Vallbona was separated from the areas around it by natural or man-made barriers (the river and the railroad, for example, which had been built in the late 1800s, and then the highways starting in the late 1960s) which kept it relatively isolated, but also helped to prevent overcrowding. During the last few decades, however, more houses and new infrastructure were built, including the Congost bridge in 2006, which crosses the highway and connects Vallbona with the other neighborhoods in the district. 

Vallbona is fighting to maintain its connection with its past by preserving historic landmarks, such as La Ponderosa and el Rec Comtal, as well as the Ritz farm, a historic property that once supplied the food for Barcelona’s Ritz Hotel (now called the Hotel El Palace). The same associative spirit that once drove its residents to demand basic services and communication facilities to be built in the last part of the 20th century also drives the community organizations today, which are the engine behind the preservation movement.

Ciutat Meridiana

Until the 1960s, this entire area was farmland; at that time, the City Council planned to put a cemetery on the land where Ciutat Meridiana is now located, but the ground was found to be too wet and therefore unsuitable. After that, a development group headed by the entrepreneur Joan Antoni Samaranch came up with an urbanization plan, and big blocks of apartment buildings were rapidly thrown up to help house the massive influx of immigrant workers. The construction started in 1963 and took only four years to complete. However, just like in Vallbona, the neighborhood’s new residents weren’t supplied with basic community facilities such as medical centers, schools and effective sanitation until the next decade.

Today, Ciutat Meridiana is one of the most vibrant parts of the entire Nou Barris district. The lower part of the neighborhood is well-connected to the rest of Barcelona, with metro and train stations nearby, and the Zona Nord Library and the Zona Nord Civic Center functioning as intergenerational social and cultural hubs. Associations form an important part of the neighborhood; for example, La Indomable is an institution that works to help integrate individuals and families at risk of social exclusion, including and especially immigrants, young people and women. The Cruïlla Center is another example: it assists young adults with learning disabilities or trouble in school with finding work, often in the hospitality industry. 

Ciutat Meridiana is located right next to the Collserola mountains, which gives its inhabitants access to fresh air and a place to exercise or relax. However, the steep terrain can make it difficult for older inhabitants to get around the neighborhood. Although there are a number of escalators and elevators installed throughout the Nou Barris district to help deal with this issue, the residents of Ciutat Meridiana say that they need more specifically in their neighborhood. 

Torre Baró

Even though Torre Baró is a part of Barcelona, it can feel like its own little world. It has the atmosphere of a small town, removed from city life. The neighborhood sits on land where two towers were built by the wealthy Pino family in the 16th and 18th centuries, at the top of a steep hill. In the 20th century, small houses were built on the slopes of this hill, which was the unofficial beginning of Torre Baró. The rocky terrain made construction as well as day-to-day living challenging, especially as the neighborhood was cut off from the urban communication networks and had few community facilities or public services. 

This meant that fewer members of the incoming wave of immigrant workers chose to settle here than in certain other parts of the district; however, of those who did, many of their descendants remain in the modest houses built on the mountain by their ancestors in the 1950s and 1960s. The streets are winding and irregular, partly due to the neighborhood’s geography and partly due to the lack of an official urban plan as the area’s population grew. This can make getting around difficult for the neighborhood’s increasingly aging population: over one in ten of its residents is over 65 years old. 

In the second half of the 20th century, buses and metros reached the neighborhood, but the overall small-town character of the isolated area hasn’t changed much over the years and the castle tower that gives the neighborhood its name still stands guard. The centers of community life in Torre Baró are Plaça dels Eucaliptus—the Pablo R. Picasso Institute is located on the square, as is the neighborhood office and the Oficina d’Atenció Ciutadano de Zona Nord—and the Campillo de la Virgen on Carrer de Vilatorta. The “campillo” is where the neighborhood’s highly active petanque club plays and practices, and other local sporting events are held.

In the last two or three decades, immigrants of a newer generation often hailing from Pakistan or Morocco have also arrived in Torre Baró, and the working-class neighborhood has a reputation for being relatively welcoming.

La Trinitat Nova

This region is located between the mountains and the city, and its name probably rings a bell because it’s the final station at the north-western end of both the green (Line 3) and yellow (Line 4) metro lines and the southernmost station of the much newer Line 11. Its location near the Collserola mountain range means that there are sweeping views of Barcelona from the top of the inclined streets in the neighborhood. While Trinitat Nova’s distance from the center used to pose a problem for residents when it came to transportation, these days the presence of the metro has significantly changed the residents’ quality of life. 

Like the other neighborhoods in the district, most of the land that makes up Trinitat Nova today was dedicated to agriculture until the 1950s, but unlike other nearby areas, it also relied on the nearby stone quarries to employ its residents. An aqueduct to help supply the city with water was built in La Trinitat Nova in in 1825, railway lines were built soon after; later, the first industries arrived in the neighborhood in the early part of the 20th century, which brought with it people in search of work.

These workers lived in no-frills apartment blocks separated by small gardens, constructed by the official organizations dedicated to housing immigrant workers: the Municipal Housing Board, the National Housing Institute and the Union Housing Works outfit. However, as with the private contractors who built up Ciutat Meridiana, for example, these organizations also neglected to provide basic services or public spaces for the new residents. As a result, just like in pretty much all the other neighborhoods in Nou Barris, people had no choice but to come together to fight to improve their community’s circumstances.

The neighborhood’s history of immigration has resulted in an ethnic diversity of which Trinitat Nova is proud. Cultural associations, such as the Casa Infantil, have launched internet campaigns to de-stigmatize the area, claiming that the media has historically painted the neighborhood in a negative or dangerous light, stemming partly from racism aimed at the neighborhood’s significant Roma gypsy population.

Today, the modernist complex called the Casa de l’Aigua (built in 1927) and the much more recently constructed neighborhood office (built in 2017) are two main focal points of community life, offering workshops, classes, meeting spaces and space for cultural events. The Institut Escola Trinitat Nova facility is a third nerve center for the neighborhood: it’s the result of two primary schools consolidated into one, plus the addition of the Technological Institute of Barcelona, a library, and a gym on-site. The new combined facility is an educational space that aims to serve young people in Trinitat Nova and the surrounding area. 

Les Roquetes

Les Roquetes is also sandwiched between the Collserola mountains and the Ronda de Dalt, resulting in the steep streets that are characteristic of the neighborhood. Before urbanization transformed Les Roquetes in the 1950s, the area was mostly forests with a few mines and small quarries scattered throughout. 

When urbanization came, it was fast and cheap, with over 1,000 houses constructed as quickly as possible by the Union Housing Works organization. Not only were these small dwellings insufficient in number when it came to meeting the housing demand, but the houses also experienced serious structural and humidity problems. As a result, many new arrivals to the area ended up building their own houses in the mid-1960s, especially in the northern part of the neighborhood, with no official services such as sewage or electricity available. These residents eventually built their own infrastructure in a haphazard plan, until complaints of unsanitary conditions resulted in the local authorities taking the building of infrastructure, including public health facilities and schools, into their own hands. 

The public bus system reached the neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s. The arrival of the metro (Line 3) in 2008, the installation of elevators and escalators to help residents navigate the steep streets, as well as the construction of an increased number of public parking garages has made access to Les Roquetes as well as mobility within the neighborhood easier. La Calle de la Mina de la Ciutat has become one of the most important local commercial areas, and a number of neighborhood associations thrive. Like Trinitat Nova or Torre Baró, Les Roquetes has continued to attract immigrants; the fabric of the community is built on integration and a blending of cultures.

Les Roquetes has always had an independent spirit, as demonstrated by the number of localized cultural and social initiatives like independent radio station Radio Bronka, Pineapple Day and Roquetes Fashion Week. Activities ranging from cooking and sewing workshops to live concerts take place both in outdoor spaces as well as the “Kasal de Joves” (Youth Center) and the Ton i Guida Center.

Porta

The area that would become the neighborhood of Porta was once a part of the largely uninhabited, rural area of Santa Eulàlia de Vilapicina. At the time, the land belonged to the village of Sant Andreu de Palomar. The 13th-century road that was built between Horta and Sant Andreu was the main route between these lands and the adjacent populations.

The first houses built on this land were pre-17th-century farmhouses such as Can Verdaguer, Can Valent and Can Porta—which is the house that gave the village its name when the first small houses were built on its land. Streams running down from Collserola provided water for the fields of grape vines, vegetables, grains and livestock that were cultivated in the area, as well as for the people who cultivated them.

As Sant Andreu de Palomar expanded, more and more one-story houses continued to be built around the hub that was Can Porta, as well as a few workshops, stores and small orchards. A new cemetery was built on the land that was the former site of yet another farmhouse, Can Sales. This overflow from Sant Andreu was the beginning of what would become the neighborhood of Porta.

During the latter part of the 19th century, traveling from Porta to nearby villages was made easier by improved infrastructure. In 1862 the railway line was opened, which marked a border between Porta and Sant Andreu de Palomar. In 1877, the Santa Eulalia Boulevard was built, which would be renamed Passeig de Fabra i Puig in 1918. Manicomi Road (later Doctor Pi i Molist) and the Passeig de Verdun were built in 1914 and 1919, respectively, on Porta’s border with the Guineueta neighborhood. More houses were built around the railway and along these larger avenues. The neighborhood continued to expand, and the church of Santa Eulàlia de Vilapicina (1885) created a new social nucleus around the parish. 

Porta experienced a boom in population between 1957 and 1966, which is when the massive apartment blocks that characterize the southern part of the neighborhood were built, as was Plaça Sóller. In order to try to maximize the amount of housing as well as their profit margins, the contractors built the apartment buildings higher than they were legally permitted to, which later resulted in problems with construction in the area.

In the following decades, the land where the Renfe railway line was located gradually fell into disuse. It was recovered and rehabilitated by the neighborhood many years later and transformed into Can Dragó park in the 1990s: it offers space for residents and their families to practice sports, including Porta’s historic Alzamore Football Club and the Alcúdia Petanque Club. Around the same time, a new neighborhood office was created, and what was left of a few of the area’s historic farmhouses were renovated and preserved.

Transforma Porta was the motor behind this transformation; it is a cooperative made up of more than a dozen entities in the neighborhood, which has also headed up the refurbishing of Porta’s Plaça Soller, which contains one of the local community’s main meeting points, the Ateneu La Bòbila. It has also lent its support to the Can Valent gardens initiative, which reclaimed this green space and put the local homeless population in charge of their management. In general, Porta is characterized by the large quantity of non-profit organizations and associations working to improve the neighborhood and support its residents, such as the local food bank.

Another such entity is the “Bank of Movement,” which began in Porta and is now a city-wide organization. It started with creation of the local Orthopedic Material Society, which collected resources for members of the community in need, and later grew exponentially. This Society was one of the many socially- and culturally-oriented projects that are the brainchildren of the Asendi NB non-profit organization, which has its headquarters in the Can Vergadeur Civic Center; this space was another of the original historic farm houses built on the land hundreds of years ago.

Verdun

This wedge-shaped neighborhood took its name from the city where the famous battle by the same name was fought during World War I. Verdun was formed by the construction of two housing developments in the early 1950s on what was once a swathe of 19th-century forests, vineyards and farmland which, like Porta, pertained to the municipality of Sant Andreu de Palomar. 

Around 1904 and 1905, the first summer cottages were built on this land for workers from the factories in Sant Andreu de Palomar, mostly around the streets of Casals i Cuberó, Joaquim Valls, Vildarosa and Batllori. At the same time, two roads were built that connected the neighborhood to nearby Vilapicina: the Verdun promenade and Carrer de Pi i Molist (formerly called Manicomi). However, a more definitive urban transformation occurred between 1952 and 1955, when workers living in makeshift shacks along Diagonal were relocated to 900 cheaply-built houses in order to give the center of town a facelift for the Eucharistic Congress that took place in 1952 in Barcelona. 

These houses were divided up into two blocks: the so-called “Governor’s Housing” block and the Union Housing Works polygon. Later, the 1970s and 1980s saw the residents advocate for better sanitation, street lights, traffic lights, schools and repair the many structural issues that occurred again and again in these houses. Later, The Governor’s Housing was demolished in 2011 to make way for more modern apartments.

In the past 50 years, urban remodeling and renovation has made the Plaça de Charlot and the Plaça de Verdun the two public spaces are the largest centers of community life in the area. Improvements to the area came as a result of the Verdun Community Plan, created in the early 2000s, and involving various community organizations, associations, and administrative bodies, as well as the Barcelona City Council.

The main concerns of neighborhood organizations include the marginalization of youth, families at risk and elderly people. The Casal de Personas Mayores (Elderly People’s Center) works with the latter, the Fundació Pare Manel with the former, and the Els Propis cultural center tries to help strengthen community ties for all residents, especially those living in the northern, more residential part of the neighborhood, away from the busier commercial center near Via Júlia.

La Prosperitat

The neighborhood of La Prosperitat was officially inaugurated in 1919, and continued to grow throughout the second half of the 20th century. It began as the summer resort destination for artisans and craftsmen living in Sant Andreu de Palomar, and got its name from a local cooperative by the same name that was headquartered in the area. Today, it’s one of the busiest neighborhoods in Nou Barris, partly because it’s surrounded by major roads on all sides: the Ronda de Dalt, La Meridiana, Vía Jùlia and Passeig de Valldaura.

Farmhouses and a few chalets owned by the wealthier artisans and businessmen scattered amongst fields and orchards were the only signs of human life in the area until the first wave of migrants arrived in the 1920s, followed by more throughout the 1930s and 1940s. These new arrivals created shantytowns wherever they could, until a partial urban plan in 1957 imposed some kind of order. Over the next decade or two, blocks of apartments and small houses transformed La Prosperitat, though like the rest of the district, many of these workers’ accommodations were built by speculative contractors who were more concerned with building cheap and fast, than with the inhabitants’ comfort, access to basic services or public spaces. The main square of the neighborhood, the Plaça de la Prosperitat, wasn’t even created until 1976, with the Plaça de Ángel Pestaña soon after. 

Today, La Prosperitat has the one of the highest population densities of any neighborhood in the district and the residents are pushing for more public spaces to accommodate the community’s needs. The managing entity of the neighborhood associations, Prosperitat Cultura en Acciò 2, has been leading the campaign since 2014 for the construction of a new cultural center on the site of the old Ideal Plástica Flor factory, which would incorporate a library, an events and performance space, as well as a new headquarters for the neighborhood central office.

Many of these associations have a long history and a powerful presence in the neighborhood. For example, La Prosperitat recently celebrated its centenary, but its football club isn’t far behind. The CF Montañese has existed for over 90 years, nearly as long as the neighborhood itself. Many of the entities in the neighborhood have also been around for at least a few decades: the Esplai Druida has existed for more than thirty years, and the Prosperitat Youth Association for nearly as long. Both of these organizations offer workshops and activities for children and young people, such the opportunity to managing an urban garden planted by the Youth Association.

La Guineueta

As with several other neighborhoods in the district, La Guineueta got its name from an 18th-century farmhouse around which the neighborhood was built. This particular house was located at the present-day location of the crossroads between the Passeig de Valldaura and Carrer de la Gasela. 

Houses slowly started to encroach on the rural fields after the Spanish Civil War, until La Guineueta was officially urbanized in the 1960s. Two areas on either side of the Valldaura promenade were developed around this time: the houses in the northern part of the neighborhood were built by the Union Housing Works, and the La Puntual and La Constancia cooperatives, combined with corporate initiatives. Companies including Telefónica, Fecsa and others needed housing for their workers. The southern part of the neighborhood was transformed into two developments called Calinova and Barcinova. The urban planning was generally haphazard, and the endemic lack of services in the district would also plague this area through the 1970s and into the 1980s.

The southern part of La Guineueta is home to the Parc Central de Nou Barris—one of the most important parks in the whole district and the site of numerous events, such as the Barcelona Blues Festival—as is the large La Guineueta Park. The former was built in the 1990s on the old site of the historic Santa Creu Mental Hospital, which was inaugurated in 1889. 

The Parc Central also houses the neighborhood’s main office, the library, and the municipal archive, as well as the Nou Barris district headquarters and the local police station—both housed in one of the former buildings of the hospital. An aqueduct from the 19th century (the Dosrius aqueduct) runs through the park, its stone arches in contrast with the modern glass and metal structure of the Parc Tecnològic.

As La Prosperitat, Les Roqueres and Verdun, La Guineueta is proud of its associative spirit. La Masia is an important space that provides an umbrella for three neighborhood entities: the Centre d'Esplai Guineueta, the Casal de Joves Guineueta and the Ateneu Guineueta. Between the three organizations, they offer activities for people from age five to young adulthood. But young people aren’t the only ones who are cared for by the social fabric of La Guineueta: nearly one in three of the neighborhood’s residents is over 65 years old, and the Casal Civic i Comunitari Guineueta offers support and community-building events, yoga classes and other physical activities, cultural gatherings and technological workshops, to the older segment of the population.

Can Peguera

While the farmhouse called Can Peguera—which was known for making tar from the pine forest that surrounded it—is long gone, the name lives on in the neighborhood situated between the Turó de la Peira neighborhood and the Central Park of Nou Barris. 

This was the last neighborhood to become a part of Nou Barris, and is one of the smallest neighborhoods in Barcelona, occupying just a couple of blocks between Passeig de Fabra i Puig and Carrer de Travau. It was created when workers living in shacks on Montjuïc were relocated to rows of inexpensive housing in 1929 to make way for the Universal Exposition.

In spite of these tiny houses’ chronic humidity problems and other issues, the neighborhood revolted when the Barcelona City Council announced its intention to demolish them to make way for new construction, until the city finally promised to let them be. This makes Can Peguera the only neighborhood in Barcelona to preserve examples of homes from this particular era, as similar structures in the Sants-Monjuïc and Sant Andreu districts have all been knocked down and replaced with apartment buildings. The residents of Can Peguera see the houses as a symbol of their history, and want to refurbish them. Other plans for the area’s urban renewal include the construction of a passageway that would connect many of these houses to the street, and make life easier for pedestrians.

In spite of its small size, Can Peguera is active when it comes to outreach and solidarity projects; for example, the Sant Francec Xavier parish works with the regional food bank to distribute aid to dozens of families. Can Ensenya is a center that works with people with intellectual disabilities, and the Matissos Sociocultural Association defends the rights and fights for the social inclusion of people suffering from mental illness. The Tronada Youth Association works with kids from four to 16 years old on educational, vocational, cultural and community-oriented projects. 

And finally, the Casa Nostra neighborhood house is a collective made up of various associations (including Tronada, the local Women’s Association and others), offering workshops, job-hunting advice and used clothing for needy families and other kinds of assistance.

Canyelles

The makeshift community that grew up around the farmhouse called Can Guineueta eventually contained approximately 250 houses and called itself Guineueta Vella (“Old Guineueta”). When the Ronda de Dalt construction project was started in the 1960s, the city declared this land to be destined for modern housing and apartments; there wasn’t much the residents could do about it, as they didn’t have any legal rights to the land they had built on. However, they did ask for and were granted the right to inhabit some of the new properties that would be constructed on the sites of their former homes.

Many of the rest of the neighborhood’s first inhabitants were former residents of an improvised shantytown located along the Ronda de Dalt itself as it was being built. The Ronda is the southern border of the neighborhood, with the northern part of Canyelles stretching into the Collserola park.

Like many neighborhoods in the district, Canyelles was built to meet the boom in demand for urban housing; however, unlike its neighbors, it wasn’t built up until the mid-1970s. When it was, the urban plan for the neighborhood was based around the concept of vertical construction (tall apartment buildings), in order to leave some space for parks and other public areas, such as the Josep Maria Serra Martí Park, which features a neighborhood market on Tuesdays.

The new housing blocks built between the Ronda de Dalt and the Guineueta Vella consisted of over 2,800 units. Like every other neighborhood in Nou Barris, the workers who moved into these units would spend the three decades fighting for infrastructure and services—such as streetlights, medical facilities and schools—for themselves and their families. The arrival of the metro and bus services in the following decades gave residents better mobility and easier access to the rest of the city. 

The neighborhood was gradually improved, and a kindergarten (the Escola Bressols Municipal) was created to serve its residents. Later, the Deià School of Art and Design and the Tomàs Moro International School added prestige to the neighborhood when they were built in 1989 and 1990, respectively. Today, one of the projects occupying the neighbors’ time is a decades-long, ongoing campaign for the construction of a multi-use indoor sports center specific to the neighborhood.

El Turó de la Peira

This neighborhood takes its name from the oldest urban park in the district of Nou Barris; El Parc El Turó de la Peira was built in 1936. Its winding paths lead up a small mountain—or 133-meter hill, one of the seven surrounding the valley of Barcelona—topped by a metal cross, offering a panoramic view of the city and the sea. The streams that formerly ran through the park’s pine forests were used to irrigate the crops of the surrounding farmhouses, which were located on the slopes and at the foot of the hill, until property speculation in the 1950s through the 1970s caused most of these old houses to be torn down. Only a fierce fight by the local community spared the park at the top of the hill from also being destroyed to make way for cheap modern housing.

In contrast with the peacefulness of the park, the neighborhood itself has suffered from the same affliction as other parts of the district: structural problems stemming from the poor construction of hastily-built apartment blocks in the 1960s. In the 1990s, one of these buildings collapsed on Calle del Cadí, killing one person. Since then, the residents of the neighborhoods have fought for better services and facilities, more public transport and improved infrastructure. 

An example of the neighborhood’s determination to improve its surroundings and maintain its heritage is the Turó Acció Sociocultural Network (TASC), which is a coalition of local organizations that co-manage the civic center located in the 17th-century farmhouse called Can Basté. Thanks to this collaborative effort, the Can Basté Civic Center has become one of the most important meeting places in the Nou Barris district. It even has its own radio station, Ràdio RSK, which has been broadcasting since 1985.

Other historic sites in the neighborhood include the 10th-century Sanctuary of Santa Eulàlia de Vilapicina, and the 15th-century country house that became a travelers’ hostel, Ca n’Artés, but not all of Turó de la Peira’s community efforts center around history: the Montsant Futbol Club is an inclusive sports club that aims to make football accessible to all children and young people.

Vilapicina i La Torre Llobeta

Vilapicina i La Torre Llobeta is the southernmost neighborhood in the Nou Barris district. Due to its elongated shape, it borders several neighborhoods belonging to the Sant Andreu and Horta-Guinardó districts. It’s more accessible than some of its sister neighborhoods in Nou Barris, thanks to the three metro stops in the neighborhoods—Vilapicina, Virrei Amat and Maragall, on the blue (Line 5) and yellow (Line 4) lines—and to its proximity to the important thoroughfares La Meridiana, Passeig de Fabra i Puig and Passeig de Maragall.

Santa Eulàlia de Vilapicina represents the oldest part of the area; people built homes around the Santa Eulália parish church centuries ago. While the modern boundary between Vilapicina i La Torre Llobeta and Turó de la Peira as well as Porta is the Passeig de Fabra i Puig (formerly the Rambla de Santa Eulàlia), the community that grew up around the parish was all part of the same community until the 20th century. Like many neighborhoods in the district, the area was mostly rural until the second part of the 1900s, with farmhouses built around the stream that ran through nearby Horta. Again, similar to other nearby neighborhoods, Vilapicina i La Torre Llobeta is the namesake of two of those farmhouses.

As it is situated relatively near to the rest of Barcelona, it was the first neighborhood in the district to experience urbanization. Eleven housing blocks were built in the 1950s by the Municipal Housing Board, and the Horta stream was re-channeled to prevent flooding. Soon after, the Plaça de Virrei Amat was also created to give the residents a place to use as a center for community life. Today, the square (remodeled and expanded in 2009) is the site of numerous local public facilities, including a health care center, a home for the elderly and a sports center. 

One notable architectural exception to the apartment blocks typical of Vilapicina i La Torre Llobeta and the Nou Barris district in general is a street that was developed in the 1920s: the Passatge de l’Esperança is lined by fourteen modernista and noucentista houses. The neighborhood fought to preserve these houses as a part of their cultural heritage when the city announced plans to demolish them in 1976 as part of their urban expansion plan; in 2011, the neighbors finally won.

Vilapicina i La Torre Llobeta is known for rehabilitating historic buildings for cultural or social use. For example, Cotexeres Borbó is an important space for the local community. A library, the local health center and a sports center are installed there, which is located in the Plaça de Carmen Laforet. The complex got its name from the old bus and tram depot dating back to 1901, which was abandoned in the early 1970s and later reclaimed by the neighborhood. 

Another important center housed in a historic building is the Torre Llobeta Civic Center: officially opened in 1983, it is located in a 15th-century Catalan Gothic-style country house. In the 18th century, it was a hostel and place of rest for people traveling between Barcelona and the formerly independent municipality of Horta. During the Spanish Civil War, it was controlled by the army, and in the 1950s, eleven blocks of inexpensive housing were built to house people evicted from the area where Drassanes was being built. The owners eventually gave the land to the City Council for social uses; it now serves as a hub for the neighborhood’s many associations, including notable feminist organization Dones en Forma and the SESE local basketball club, which has been active since 1952.

And finally, the neighborhood isn’t without its green spaces. The six Verge de le Neus gardens were created on land conceded to the neighborhood by the City Council; all run by different local associations. Other public spaces also in the works on lands once occupied by historic farmhouses include the Can Xiringoi gardens.