Walk it with the app
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Sant Andreu de Palomar was a town of its own until 1897, and its old centre still has a main street, a market and a big parish church. Industry came in the 19th century: the Fabra i Coats thread factory is now a cultural centre, and Casa Bloc, a 1930s housing block, is a landmark of modern architecture in Barcelona. On Saturdays the whole neighbourhood goes out for vermouth.
From the quest: What the Factories Left Behind
A 1930s workers' utopia, hidden in plain sight.
The walk ends at a long, white, S-shaped building startlingly modern for its age. Casa Bloc was built in 1932–36 by Sert, Torres Clavé and Subirana of the GATCPAC group as rationalist social housing — over 200 airy duplex flats with open walkways, built on the creed of "ventilation, light and views" to lift workers out of the slums. The Civil War stopped the work; when Franco's regime finished it, the flats went not to workers but to soldiers, war widows and, later, police.
From the quest: What the Factories Left Behind
One of Barcelona's last great factories, still standing — now making art.
Sant Andreu grew up around thread. The Fabra i Coats mills — traced to a steam spinning works of 1839, merged in 1903 with the Scottish house of Coats — became the biggest textile company in Spain, a walled world of some three hectares whose mostly female workforce had its own clinic, shop and housing. It is one of the very few Barcelona factories to survive almost intact; today its brick halls are a public "factory of creation" and a contemporary-art centre, with the Can Fabra library in one of the naus.
From the quest: The Spine of the Old Town
A modernista pharmacy, kept by the same family since 1896.
Anselm Guinart opened this pharmacy at the top of Carrer Gran in November 1896 — only months before Sant Andreu lost its independence and was folded into Barcelona. The ceramic-tiled façade, its wrought-iron lamp and its painted lettering have outlasted four generations of the same family behind the counter.
A small sample. In the app, each stop unlocks when you reach it — with a detail most visitors miss.
Culture & History
Hidden & Local
Foodie Trail
Pick a quest, follow the compass, check in at each stop. No account needed to start, no ads, no subscription.
