Barcelona has always been a city alive and full of culture, where La Rambla has played an important role as the main centre of intellectual life. It also has picturesque alleys and corners that have been inhabited and frequented by writers of all periods and from all origins. And this has been captured in Barcelona through sculptures and memory plaques to immortalize the best known writers.
But there are also bookshops, libraries, institutions, facilities and foundations dedicated to the dissemination and memory of literature and, above all, of the authors who have managed to capture any corner of Barcelona in their texts. What better way to get to know Barcelona than through the eyes of the writers.
300 points of literarian interest: a book Barcelona
The creators of this incredible initiative, Joan Safont, Victor Fernández and Marina Espasa, wanted to capture the literary life of Barcelona on an interactive map that serves as a tool for discovering the city and approaching literature from another point of view.
The map, which is available free of charge on the Barcelona City Council website, compiles an inventory of all the city’s literary heritage: from streets with authors’ names to the places where writers were born, lived or died. In this, La Rambla plays a very important role where you can see references to monuments, bars, restaurants, hotels, theatres and bookshops of cultural interest thus becoming a place of immense cultural interest.
This proposal allows us to walk through the literary elements of Barcelona: from the neighbourhoods and hotels frequented by authors to statues, bookstores and libraries. It also includes theatres where their works have been represented and foundations that house their legacy. A very interesting tour whose epicentre is located in La Rambla.
The distribution of literary material through the map is inevitably irregular. The centre of Barcelona appears densely populated in comparison with other areas or new neighbourhoods on the periphery. This is normal because the centre of Barcelona is the origin of the city and the most historic part. Specifically, the district that accumulates more writers is “Ciutat Vella”.
As some writers have already said, Barcelona is the sum of every Barcelona written and dreamed of.
That’s why we encourage you to enjoy this interesting kaleidoscopic Barcelona whether you’re a literature lover or not. And the perfect place to do so is Hotel Arc La Rambla, as being located in the middle of Rambla is the perfect place to enjoy a city as rich as Barcelona and its literary map.
So, if you come to Barcelona… we will accompany you on your trip to Hotel Arc la Rambla.
