You’ve ‘Done’ Barcelona. Now What? Part 5: Jardins de la Rambla de Sants

We’re very fond of Sants. Most travellers to Barcelona only know its station, the terminus for many long-distance journeys in Spain and beyond. It’s so much more than that. Once, Sants was outside the main city, but the advent of steam power saw it develop a vibrant and important textile industry, attracting workers in their thousands to populate the area and expand to become part of an ever-expanding Barcelona. Textiles and textile workers are long-gone, but this is a community proud of its past and with a vibrant and inclusive feel.

All the same. Railways ploughing through city centres are not lovely, and the train and metro lines here split Sants into two. Residents campaigned for decades to find a way of dealing both with the eyesore, and with the noise and dirt the railways bought with them.Finally, in the early 2000s, a solution: Instead of a deep – and costly – underground tunnel, planners built a concrete structural box (a large architectural “cajón”) to enclose the train lines. And then, between 2014 and 2016 – genius! the top deck was made into a raised public park. It’s some 800 metres long, some 30 metres wide, and sits 6 to 14 metres above street level, with many ramps, lifts and escalators linking it to the streets below. It’s crammed with hundreds of trees (such as tipuanas and sophoras) and tens of thousands of shrubs and plants. And benches to relax on. It’s a brilliant solution.

These were the sights that greeted us as we arrived. Bold street art both in the park itself, and visible below and alongside the elevated parkland

And no, nobody would come to spend the whole day in Sants just to see this. But there’s so much else …. to be continued – one day. Meanwhile, come for a stroll with us, enjoy the sights of the streets below, the history told along its length in the form of old photos.

And just … relax, away from the cocophany of the city.

One last shot from down below, as we left our overhead experience …