5 Hidden Gems | Things To Do in BARCELONA

From Gaudí's stunning works of Catalan Modernism architecture and Joan Miró's pavement mosaic to a collection of cute and cool arthouse cafes and pricey but magical vintage shops, it's not difficult to see why over 7.5 million people visit the city every year.

It's steeped in Catalan history, nationalism and pride and, to top it all off, Catalonia (the province Barcelona sits within) is the only area that has banned bullfighting in the whole of mainland Spain. This is good. We like bulls :)

Don’t forget to…

…………………………

…………………………

Transcript:

This is a video about the Hidden Gems of Barcelona. Things that are off the beaten track but well-worth making time for.

Coming up:

Vintage shopping, a flock of geese. We’re talking about a maze and a market, and some public artwork.

El Born district in Barcelona is where you can find not on the high street-style shopping. You’ll see some designer names but they’re going to be the vintage kind. It’s a bunch of vintage shops and little boutiques.

Next is Barcelona Cathedral; more importantly, the cloister in the cathedral. The cathedral itself is this vast Gothic building within the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. It’s free to get in and in the cloister you’re going to find 13 white geese…of course. The 13 geese symbolise the age at which the patron saint of the cathedral, Eulalia, was cruelly tortured and murdered by the Romans. Poor girl… - Yeah, that’s a thing! - And you can also spend €3 to get to the top of the cathedral and right there you’ll see the Gothic architecture up close and personal, as well as some really nice views across the whole city. - Yeah, it’s stunning.

Thirdly, La Boqueria market, which is a vibrant mix of colours, stinky fish, gruesome-looking cuts of meat and even some locals too! - It’s a really good spot to go and practise your bartering skills, if that’s the sort of thing you’re in to. Or just to go and find a nice healthy fruit drink to get you through the day, or what I would probably recommend is pulling up a stool at one of the bars that they have there, because there’s a couple, and you can just observe and watch this crazy Catalan culture mixing with all the tourists and just see it all unravel before you. It’s a very cool scene for that.

If you’re more of a low-key person, Parc del Laberint d’Horta is really hard to say but it’s also really beautiful. It’s basically a labyrinth in a park. It’s cool. - Yeah, yes it is. - I really recommend going there if you just want something that’s a bit serene. It’s really nice and very very green, which is nice to have in the middle of a city.

Our fifth and final gem is pretty hard to miss if you’re on a certain part of Barcelona beach anyway. Yep, and that is Rebecca Horn’s artwork on Barceloneta beach. The beach itself now is really really beautiful. It’s kind of hard to believe that it used to be run down, prior to the 1992 Olympics. Before this time, it was little more than a shanty town and its industrialisation and slum-like dwellings used to house fishermen. It was basically a fishing village that vastly out-grew itself and meant that living conditions were little more than squalid. Yeah, but luckily there is a happy ending to this story. A lot of money was pumped in to the city through the Olympics and they used this to move these inhabitants into real, proper apartments closer to the city centre. And locals refer to this artwork as, quite quaintly, The Cubes. Hmm. - Like little sugar lumps. - That’s very pleasant.

And that is our Hidden Gems of Barcelona and I’m sure that you have loads more to tell us about because it’s such an amazing city. So please just leave us a comment in the comment section below.

Thank you for watching. Bye!

[PetitSucreBlau]

I am a Catalan girl from Barcelona and I have to say this is one of the best videos that I've ever seen of the city! you seem very aware of the true culture there and it is so rare and nice to see! Thank you!

[HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

So these are just a few of the fantastic things we stumbled across, did you find any other hidden gems in Barcelona?!

[MavistaFalls]

Wow, so the people who used to live on the beach front basically were relocated to accommodate Senor Mercado, and they all lived happily ever after.

[stephanieda]

Did you just boqueria.... is a hidden gem? all these things are well known