Barceloneta was laid out in the 1750s on reclaimed land to rehouse residents displaced when the Bourbon army razed part of La Ribera to build the Ciutadella fortress. Its triangular grid of long, narrow blocks was designed for fishermen and dockworkers, and the tight, sun-starved tenements — often a single room deep — still give the neighbourhood its dense, intensely local feel, with laundry strung across the streets and old men playing cards in the squares.
The peninsula points out into the Mediterranean, fringed on its eastern side by the wide sweep of the city beach that was created for the 1992 Olympics. The Passeig Marítim runs the length of the sand toward the twin towers of the Olympic Port, while the old harbour side faces the marina and the cable car that swings up to Montjuïc. The covered Mercat de la Barceloneta sits at the heart of the grid.
Come for the seafood above all — this is where you eat grilled sardines, paella and the neighbourhood's own bomba potato croquettes, either in old-school vermouth bars like La Cova Fumada or in the chiringuitos along the beach. It is busy, salty and unpretentious, and on a summer evening the whole city seems to drift down here.