A Self-Guided Tour of Street Art in Poblenou, Barcelona

Poblenou has become increasingly popular as Barcelona’s street art hub alongside the Gothic Quarter and El Raval neighborhood.

Street art in Poblenou is iconic compared to the other neighborhoods because it features bigger murals covering the walls of old houses and factory buildings.

Poblenou used to be Barcelona’s industrial area, with big warehouses and factories. When you wander around the neighborhood, you can still see many of the old industrial buildings.

But Poblenou is transforming!

Some parts of Poblenou are among the most modern and trendy areas in Barcelona, with modern glass offices and apartment buildings.

In other parts of Poblenou, the former industrial buildings have been turned into art studios, cultural spaces, trendy cafes, and some of the best street art in Barcelona!

The street art scene in Poblenou is changing extremely fast as the urban renewal process of the area is tearing down a lot of old buildings and walls that have been used for street art!

Poblenou is often overlooked by visitors. But the area features an interesting mix of Barcelona’s industrial heritage, street art, and urban renewal, which is well worth a visit if you like to explore more off-the-beaten-path areas and non-touristy things to do in Barcelona.

Now let’s discover some of the street art in Poblenou!

A Guide to Street Art in Poblenou, Barcelona’s Trendy Upcoming Neighborhood

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Visiting el Poblenou Street Art – Before You Go

Before we get into the details of Poblenou’s street art, let’s look at a couple of usual tips before visiting Poblenou.

What is Poblenou?

Poblenou is a neighborhood located in the northeastern part of Barcelona. The name “Poblenou” means “new city” or “new village” in Catalan.

Poblenou stretches from Avinguda Diagonal to the Mediterranean coast by Bogatell Beach and Mar Bella Beach, making it one of the city’s most attractive waterfront neighborhoods.

Poblenou dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, when the area became an industrial hotspot within the textile industry.

During the 1960s and 1970s, many local factories in Poblenou closed and moved to a new industrial area closer to Barcelona’s port and airport. This resulted in a decline in the area; people moved away and buildings were left empty.

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics introduced the first change for Poblenou where factories and buildings close to the sea got torn down and new housing projects started.

In 2000, the Barcelona City Council introduced an urban renewal plan, called Project 22@, aiming to transform the old industrial neighborhood into Barcelona’s Silicon Valley.

To learn more details about the history and transformation of Poblenou check out Barcelona Field Studies Centre.

Today, Poblenou is one of the neighborhoods in Barcelona that has experienced the most rapid urban transformation while still maintaining part of its industrial heritage.

Poblenou features colorful street art murals and creative art centers alongside trendy cafes and modern office buildings.

Street Art in Poblenou Map

Check out all the stops on the Poblenou Street Art Map. In the top right-hand corner, you can click on the full-screen icon and have the map open directly in your Google Maps app

How to Get Around Poblenou?

You can get around Barcelona’s Poblenou neighborhood by walking, biking, taking public transportation, or doing a guided street art tour.

Walking

The best and easiest way to get around Poblenou is by walking.

Compared to other parts of Barcelona, most parts of Poblenou don’t get crowded and there are plenty of pedestrian paths to walk on.

While the street art murals are spread out around the neighborhood, it is possible to visit quite a few by walking.

Biking

To get around quicker, it can be a good idea to rent a bike to explore the street art in Poblenou.

We walked the whole day, and there were still a couple of street art murals I had found online that we didn’t get to visit.

With a bike, we would properly have been able to check out more of them. Just keep in mind that the street art scene in Poblenou is changing a lot, so you might find street art mentioned online that doesn’t exist anymore.

Metro & Local Bus

You can easily use Barcelona’s metro and local buses to get around Poblenou.

The yellow metro line L4 drives through the main parts of Poblenou with metro stops such as Selva de Mar, Poblenou, and Llacuna.

There are also several local buses you can take to get around the area.

What you lose by using the public transportation to get around Poblenou is the possibility to stop if you stumble across a nice street art piece on your way around.

Guided Tour

The last option to get around Poblenou and explore the local street art scene is to do a guided street art tour.

Most of the guided street art tours of Poblenou are bike tours due to the distances between the murals in Poblenou.

Normally, I prefer exploring street art with a guided tour. The guides on the guided tours tend to know a lot more about the history of the area and the street artists’ works than what you can find online.

However, this time around the timing of the tours because of Christmas and New Year’s didn’t work with the other plans my mum and stepfather had when they visited Barcelona.

So, I did some research and we found these places ourselves, and I wanted to share them with you guys here.

If it suits your schedule, I would definitely recommend that you sign up for a Poblenou Street Art Tour!

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Best Street Art in Poblenou, Barcelona

The street art in Poblenou reminds me a lot of the street art in Buenos Aires where complete walls of a building or a garage door are used as the artist’s canvas.

As I mentioned earlier, the street art scene in Poblenou is changing rapidly to make space for new construction projects.

I visited Poblenou at the beginning of January 2025 and had a good amount of research on where to go. Most information online where a couple of years old, which when it comes to Poblenou can easily be too old. Some of the murals I found mentioned were still there while others weren’t.

Street Art Cities turned out to be a great app for discovering some of the newer pieces of street art in Poblenou.

There is still a lot of street art in Poblenou that I had on my list (and even more on Street Art Cities!) didn’t get to visit. So, I might have to do a rewrite of this post at some point!

But let’s get into discovering some of the great Poblenou street art!

Wallspot Western Town

Wallspot Western Town is one of the best places to visit for street art in Poblenou!

Western Town is just one of several Wallspot street art murals around Barcelona. Wallspot was an initiative to help street artists find a wall to legally work on.

According to Wallspot’s Instagram account, the platform helped find 106 walls in 22 cities. However, unfortunately, in September 2024, it was announced that the initiative was closed down.

The street art Wallspot Western Town covers two full walls on the corner of Carrer d’ Espronceda and Carrer del Marroc in Poblenou, right in front of Parc del Centre del Poblenou.

The murals on Wallspot Western Town feature everything from cartoon characters, a gigant face of Gandhi, and a Greek-inspired column. On Street Art Cities it says that the Greek column was created in 2014.

My personal favorite (as a dog mum) is a black-and-white wall of a dog face with the text Adopta, no compres (“Adopt, don’t buy”) written above.

The dog mural on Wallspot Western Town was made in support of the local NGO Adopta Love Animals BCN.

Adopta Love Animals BCN helps homeless dogs and cats in animal shelters find their forever home. The mural was part of their initiative to find a forever home for Rocky, an 11-year-old dog who had spend 10 years (almost a lifetime for a dog!) in an animal shelter.

Location: Carrer d’ Espronceda and Carrer del Marroc.

NauArt Art Center

In front of Wallspot Western Town, you will find NauArt, a local art center in Poblenou.

On the walls around NauArt, you can find several street art pieces, including colorful faces made of clocks and a gigantic body on the wall of what looks more like a car park.

Most of the murals are facing Carrer d’Espronceda. Some of the murals are painted facing the street, while others are hidden on walls behind fences.

Around the corner on Carrer del Marroc, there is an impressive portrait of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso painted on a garage door.

Location: Carrer d’Espronceda and Carrer del Marroc.

Big Face on Wall

A short walk from Wallspot Western Walls and NauArt, in an alley from Carrer de Pere IV, you’ll find a stand-alone Poblenou street art piece.

On the side of the tower of an old industrial building, there is a big head watching over the neighborhood.

I had found mentions of this mural online before visiting but I wouldn’t find much more information about it.

Location: Carrer de Pere IV 325, Poblenou

La Escocesa Art Center

La Escocesa is an old factory converted into a self-managed and artist-led art space in Poblenou and one of the best places to explore local street art in Poblenou!

The building that houses La Escocesa was built in 1852 and was used to produce chemicals for the textile industry. In 1999, the old factory first became a meeting point for local artists.

However, in 2006, a construction company bought the building and the land housing La Escocesa and planned to tier down the old factory. The artists had to vacate the building.

The following year, the Barcelona City Council passed a plan that made La Escocesa part of the city’s Industrial Heritage and devoted it to public use. Since 2007, La Escocesa has been part of the Barcelona City Council’s Strategic Cultural Plan for the city, and the cultural hotspot we see today.

Learn more about the history of La Escocesa!

I had read before going that La Escocesa is only occasionally open to the public. But when we passed by on a Saturday afternoon the door to La Escocesa was open!

Right by the entrance to La Escocesa, you have a beautiful mosaic wall covering the whole entrance. Based on the sign by the side of the mosaic wall, it was created in 2014.

Inside smaller pieces of street art cover the walls until you reach the far back of the entrance. Here the whole back wall of the building is covered in a giant mural featuring bright colors against a black background.

In the back of La Escocesa, you’ll find the old industrial tower. Some creative souls had found their way to add some colors to the lower parts of the tower.

Location: Carrer de Pere IV 345, Poblenou

When we visited it seemed like some construction work was going on and most of the area around the industrial tower was closed off.

While we were taking pictures of the murals, small groups of people were arriving and going to the back of the old factory.

They didn’t say anything to us about being there, and some just smiled at our cameras pointed at the big colorful walls.

Roses & Birds Mural

The Roses and Birds mural is located a short walk from La Escocesa on the street Carrer de la Selva de Mar. The mural features two gigant birds with their bodies created like roses.

According to Street Art Cities, the Roses and Birds mural was created by street artists Curtis Hylton and Tim Marsh in 2024.

The rustic background of the old house creates a great contrast to the two beautifully created white birds.

Location: Carrer de la Selva de Mar 94, Poblenou

Street Art Murals at Passatge Morenes

Around the corner from the Roses and birds mural, you’ll find one of my absolute favorite places of street art in Poblenou: Passatge Morenes!

Passatge Morenes is a small alley from Carrer de la Selva de Mar, and the whole wall on the left-hand side of the alley is covered in beautiful colorful street art murals!

The street art murals on Passatge Morenes are created by different artists. The Street Art Cities app came in very handy because they have all the murals in Passatge Morenes separated by the artist.

According to the information on Street Art Cities, the murals on Passatge Morenes were created in support of the local community of the area, who found a fight against real estate speculation, and their houses were declared the heritage of Barcelona.

Needless to say, my dog-mum-heart fell completely for Tim Marsh‘s murals with two dogs looking out on the passage.

Location: Passatge Morenes, Poblenou

Turtle by Tim Marsh

Around the corner from Passatge Morenes on Carrer de Cristobal de Moura, you will find a street art mural with colorful geometric turtle swimming (or flying?) with balloons.

The colorful turtle is another of street artist Tim Marsh’s works in Barcelona and is located on the entrance to the Cooperative La Bonita.

Location: Carrer de Cristobal de Moura 105, Poblenou

Seal by Tim Marsh

Make a left turn at the next corner from Tim Marsh’s Turtle on Carrer Treball to find yet another of his colorful animals.

On the gate to what looks like a workshop, you’ll find a colorful geometric seal on a black background.

Both the Seal and the Turtle can be found in Street Art Cities.

Location: Carrer del Treball 109, Poblenou

Corner of Carrer Treball and Carrer de Cristobal de Moura

On the opposite corner to the geometric seal, on the corner of Carrer Treball and Carrer de Cristobal de Moura, you will find several colorful street art murals.

Right in the middle of the different colorful murals facing Carrer Treball, there is a geometric mural of a woman.

According to Street Art Cities, this street art mural is called “Tatiana” and is another of Tim Marsh’s works in Barcelona.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much information on the rest of the murals.

Location: The corner of Carrer Treball & Carrer de Cristobal de Moura, Poblenou

Street Art Mural on Carrer Treball & Carrer de Veneçuela

Further down on Carrer Treball, on the corner with Carrer de Veneçuela, there is another of Poblenou’s street art murals.

The mural is hidden a bit behind the wall to what looks like an abandoned parking lot or a construction site.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information about this mural either. It looks like an older mural since the colors are a bit fainted.

Location: The Corner of Carrer Treball & Carrer de Veneçuela, Poblenou

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Get the Most Out of Visiting Poblenou Street Art

That’s all the street art, we got to explore in Poblenou this time around!

The self-guided walk of street art in Poblenou took around one hour (including photo stops). So, it is very manageable to add to your Barcelona itinerary.

I still have a list of other places to try out (for example, Poblenou Zoo and BIOMA), so I might update this post at a later point.

To get the most out of your visit to Poblenou, you can also sign up for a guided street art tour of this unique Barcelona neighborhood.

Popular Guided Tours of Poblenou Street Art

Here are some of the most popular Poblenou Street Art Tours:

• Poblenou Street Art Tour on Bamboo Bikes
• Poblenou Street Art Tour with Barcelona Street Art
• Poblenou Street Art Bike Tour with Cool Tours Spain
• Poblenou Street Art Bike Tour with Barcelona Street Style Tours

Other Popular Street Art Tours in Barcelona

Poblenou is not the only area in Barcelona with great street art! Both the Gothic Quarter and El Raval offer a great street art scene.

Here are some popular street art tours in other parts of Barcelona:

• Street Art Tour of Raval & the Gothic Quarter
• Raval Street Art Tour by Barcelona Street Art
• Street Art Tour with a visit to an art studio

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Final Thoughts: Is It Worth Visiting Street Art in Poblenou?

The short answer is yes! Poblenou is worth visiting for its street art scene and to experience how Barcelona is developing as a city.

Poblenou is a rapidly changing neighborhood with a lot of construction work happening in the area. So, what is there today might not be there tomorrow or in a couple of months.

The rapid changes in Poblenou also mean that sometimes street art murals disappear when the walls they were built on get demolished.

Personally, I enjoyed the day exploring the street art in Poblenou! I would recommend you add a visit to Poblenou if you are in Barcelona and enjoy exploring local street art.