El Raval and MACBA

El Raval is the half of the old city on the west side of La Rambla, and it is the most diverse, most contradictory and, for many travellers, most interesting district in central Barcelona. For centuries it lay just outside the medieval walls and filled with convents, hospitals and later the textile factories and crowded housing of the industrial age; its southern part, once called the Barrio Chino, was notorious for its bars and brothels. Today it is home to a large community from Pakistan, the Philippines, Morocco and many other countries, alongside students, artists and long-standing Catalan residents, and its streets mix halal butchers, Filipino bakeries, vintage shops, record stores, cocktail bars and old-fashioned taverns. At its northern end, regeneration since the 1990s has created a cultural hub. The Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, MACBA, opened in 1995 in a brilliant white building by the American architect Richard Meier, with a glass façade and ramps overlooking Plaça dels Àngels; the square in front is one of the most famous skateboarding spots in Europe, and the click and roll of the boards is as much a part of the experience as the art inside. The museum's collection focuses on art from the second half of the twentieth century to the present, with changing exhibitions, and the Capella MACBA, a former Renaissance convent chapel across the square, hosts exhibitions too. Next door, the CCCB, the Centre for Contemporary Culture, mounts excellent exhibitions on cities, ideas and society.

Beyond the museums, a short walk takes in several of the old city's quiet treasures. The Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu, a Gothic hospital where Gaudí was taken after his fatal tram accident, now houses the Library of Catalonia, and its arcaded courtyard garden is a free, shady refuge with a café. Further south, the Rambla del Raval, a broad pedestrian avenue created in the early 2000s, is home to Fernando Botero's huge bronze cat, and nearby stands Sant Pau del Camp, a small Romanesque monastery church with a lovely cloister that is among the oldest buildings in the city. The district is also good for eating cheaply and well, from curry houses and kebab shops to modern tapas bars, and its bars stay busy late.

MACBA practicalities: the museum is closed on Tuesdays and has shorter Sunday hours; a ticket gives unlimited access for a month from purchase, and entry is free on the first Sunday of each month and from six in the evening on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, when the museum runs its evening programme. Visitors under sixteen go free. Expansion works on the museum run until early 2027, but Plaça dels Àngels stays open throughout, and the entrances to some spaces have moved; follow the signs on site.

A word on safety: El Raval has a reputation, and while most of it is busy, friendly and fine to explore by day, some streets in the south, near the port, can feel rough, especially late at night, and pickpocketing is common across the old city. Keep valuables out of sight, stay on busier streets after dark, and you will find a lively, real and fascinating neighbourhood that most visitors only glimpse from La Rambla. Start at MACBA, wander south past the Antic Hospital to the Rambla del Raval and Sant Pau del Camp, and finish at the Boqueria or Palau Güell on the edge of the district. If you are short of time, a visit to MACBA plus a coffee on Plaça dels Àngels watching the skaters gives a good taste of the area in under two hours; with more time, the CCCB's exhibitions and an evening meal in the neighbourhood make it a satisfying half-day away from the tourist crowds.