Poble Espanyol: All of Spain in One Village
Why is it significant?
In front of you rises a stone gateway with two massive round towers, battlements and a narrow arch. If you have ever been to Ávila, the walled city west of Madrid, you may feel a jolt of recognition. This is a copy of its San Vicente gate, and behind it lies a whole invented town.
Key Facts
| Place | Poble Espanyol: All of Spain in One Village |
|---|---|
| Address | Avinguda de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia 13, 08038 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.36940, 2.14700 |
| Part of Walk | Montjuïc, the Hill of Big Dreams: Barcelona's 1929 Expo, Olympic Ring & Castle |
| Generated | Generated |
In front of you rises a stone gateway with two massive round towers, battlements and a narrow arch. If you have ever been to Ávila, the walled city west of Madrid, you may feel a jolt of recognition. This is a copy of its San Vicente gate, and behind it lies a whole invented town.
The Poble Espanyol, the Spanish Village, was built for the 1929 Exposition. The architects Francesc Folguera and Ramon Reventós, the same Reventós who designed the Venetian towers, travelled across Spain with two artists, the painter Xavier Nogués and the critic Miquel Utrillo. They photographed, sketched and measured hundreds of villages, and then stitched their favourite pieces together: a square from Castile, a street from Andalusia, a Basque house, an Aragonese tower, a bit of Galicia around the corner.
The result is a Spain that never existed and yet feels completely familiar, more than a hundred buildings arranged like a real town, with a main square, a church, steep lanes and staircases. Inside many of the houses, craftspeople still work today: glass, ceramics, leather, jewellery, in workshops that make it more than a film set.
It was only supposed to last for a season. Like most of the Exposition's pavilions, it was due to be demolished once the visitors went home. But Barcelona had grown fond of it, and it was kept. There is something quietly political in that, too: a dictatorship that wanted to show a single, united Spain built its showcase in the capital of Catalonia, and Catalans ended up adopting it as their own amusement.
At night the village becomes a venue for concerts and parties, and its cobbled streets fill with people who have no idea which region they are standing in. Now leave the gate behind and head east, up the escalators and terraces towards the great domed palace. Take your time... the view grows with every flight of steps.