Around Sants

Sants, on the far left of the Eixample, grew up along the Carrer de la Creu Coberta, the old Roman road to the rest of Spain. Like Poble Nou, it was the setting for Barcelona’s giant textile mills in the 19th century. Of Güell’s Vapor Vell all that remains is tremendously tall brick chimney, at Carrer de Galileu 51.

The FAD-award-winning Plaça dels Països Catalans (1981–2) nearby was originally a traffic intersection, and the architects, Helio Piñón and Albert Viaplana, were given a difficult brief: they could not build or plant anything because of train tracks feeding the Estació de Sants directly below.