Sants
A working-class and industrial neighbourhood with a strong identity
The former municipality of Santa Maria de Sants was one of the centres of industrial Barcelona in the 19th century. Today, in the Sants neighbourhood, you’ll not only find the city’s main railway station, from where high-speed trains depart, but also a major shopping area.
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A neighbourhood that was once a village
Sants is a very popular neighbourhood, with small shops, squares with terraces, and lots of street life. It’s one of the areas where you can discover the true identity of Barcelona.
Three centuries ago, Santa Maria de Sants was a municipality on the outskirts of Barcelona, which developed along the old royal road. At the end of the 18th century, a new road was built that boosted the local economy and, a century later, supported one of the main axes of Cerdà’s Eixample project: the Paral·lel.
In the 19th century, Sants experienced a major leap forward with the construction of the railway line and the establishment of commercial areas that avoided Barcelona’s taxes. The neighbourhood became a working-class centre with numerous textile factories, notably the Vapor Vell, now a library and school, and the Vapor Nou or Espanya Industrial, which was transformed into a park in 1983.
In 1897, Sants was annexed to Barcelona and since then, thanks to major urban reforms, it has become an important transport hub, with the Barcelona - Sants train and bus station, which welcomed the arrival of the AVE (high-speed train), and a vibrant commercial area along the Creu Coberta–Carretera de Sants axis.
How to get to the Sants neighbourhood?
Take the Red Route of the Barcelona Bus Turístic to the Estació de Sants stop, from where you can catch regional and high-speed trains, buses, or start a walking tour of the neighbourhood.
For the curious
- Barcelona – Sants station, or simply Sants, is the main railway station in Catalonia and the second in Spain after Madrid-Atocha, with nearly 30 million passengers annually. From this station, you can take high-speed trains to Madrid or Paris, as well as the Euromed and regional trains for medium and short distances.
- From Sants station, in just 20 minutes, you can reach coastal towns with long beaches to the south, such as Sitges or Castelldefels, and with a bit more time, to the north, you can visit Blanes on the Costa Brava or even Figueres, home to the Dalí Museum.
