Pla Litoral

Barcelona is a city of the sea. How residents perceive and use its coastline has changed over time. The city has gradually become more and more open to the sea, especially in a physical sense. However, there is still a long way to go to incorporate all the attributes of maritimity into the collective imaginary and thus make Barcelona a new maritime city.

One of the key aspects of maritimising the city involves recovering its historical memory. The aim is to establish a permanent dynamic of public communication to promote Barcelona’s maritime heritage and the history of the city’s coastal areas (Camp de la Bota, Somorrostro, La Barceloneta, Port of Barcelona, La Marina). It is necessary to recover the collective identity of the coastline and of the historical memory of the sea-city, as well as to promote awareness of the diversity, variety, values, historical past and uniqueness of this singular place that we call the seafront.

The actions proposed to achieve a recovery of the city’s maritime memory are as follows:

• Assess the city’s tangible and intangible maritime heritage.
• Create a collective urban story with the aim of recovering and promoting the identity of Barcelona’s coastal areas.
• Set up routes that bring to the surface the “erased geography” of the city’s maritime history.
• Support all activities that promote the maritime memory of the city.
• Protect the living maritime heritage by means of adaptive reuse whenever necessary. 
• Selectively promote a type of critical tourism that is interested in recovering the historical and social memory of the coastline.