Camp del Ferro sports centre is a municipal amenity with community management to encourage the practice of sport. It also promotes grassroots sport and inclusive participation with a gender perspective and for people with functional diversity. The new sport complex responds to demands that local people had been voicing for a long time: new municipal spaces for sporting activities. With a surface area of 7,273 m² and total capacity for 1,800 people, Camp del Ferro has three multisport courts for basketball, football, roller hockey and figure skating, a multipurpose hall, a meeting room and a bar.

As a municipal amenity, this benchmark space in terms of sustainability and efficiency in the city —in terms both of construction and management— is at the service of citizens, who are also active participants in decision-making. As well as sports organizations, the amenity will serve public schools and special education centres, so that children can learn to enjoy an active, healthy life. The installations can also host all kinds of non-sporting events, from meetings of the territory’s associative fabric to large cultural events.

The name Camp del Ferro, iron field, probably comes from the old iron forges that used to stand on the site. During the construction of the new sports complex, remains were found to support this theory. We know that the forges ran on hydraulic energy generated by the Rec Comtal, an open-air canal that brought water to Barcelona from Montcada. The canal provided an irrigation system for the district’s vegetable gardens, but it also carried water for the various industries and small workshops that were built on its embankments. Built in the 11th century, this great work of hydraulic engineering that continued to function until the 19th century has long remained unknown to the people of Barcelona; thanks to discoveries such as this, a path through our history is gradually being rescued from oblivion.