Parc Central de Nou Barris

Pl Major de Nou Barris, 1

This is the city's second largest green space, a place that invites visitors to take a stroll and contemplate the lush vegetation it houses.

This is the city’s second largest green space, boasting 17 hectares. An area that invites visitors to take a stroll and contemplate the lush vegetation it houses. You can find over 1,000 trees made up of 49 different species, as well as a palm grove unique to the city. The park’s other unique feature is its water, in the form of fountains and big lakes.

It has many uses as a leisure, walking and rest area, as a thoroughfare and neighbourhood connection point for pedestrians, and as the site of the district offices, the Fòrum Tecnològic Nord business technology centre, a city-police station, schools and neighbourhood centres.

History

Parc Central de Nou Barris houses the old Institut Mental de la Santa Creu, a mental asylum that closed in 1986. It occupied a 120-hectare estate, only a part of which has been conserved, with a structure that provided interior landscaped courtyards. Today it houses the district offices.

If you go through the park, you will pass by other facilities with a lot of history behind them, such as Ca n’Ensenya, an old 18th-century farmhouse that has been a neighbourhood centre since 1996. You will also see Can Carreras, an old 17th-century farm, originally known as Can Sala, and now owned by the Council.

Visitors can make out part of the Dosrius aqueduct too, which used to carry water from the Maresme to Barcelona back in 1870. Its only remaining section has been turned into a crossable bridge.

Ever since the park officially opened in 1999, its charm and grandeur, and the fact that various facilities are located there, have encouraged residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods (Can Peguera, Guineueta, Turó de la Peira and Porta) to spend time there. The park’s design was rewarded with the 2007 International Urban Landscape Award.

Art and Architecture

Right by the first ornamental fountain is the Palma i diapasó, a sculptural ensemble designed for the park that you keep coming across on your way round. This ensemble of triangular inspiration and spirit interacts with the setting not just as a monumental or ornamental feature but also as a piece of urban furniture, folding up to create pergolas and shaded areas over the paths and secluded spots in the garden. Palma i diapasó has managed to integrate itself into the collective imagination. It has become an aesthetic identity symbol that goes beyond the park’s boundaries and established itself in other parts of Nou Barris.

  • Phone number
    Tel.: 010
  • Titularity
    Public center
Address:
Pl Major de Nou Barris, 1
Districte:
Nou Barris
Neighborhood:
la Guineueta
City:
Barcelona