Museu Maritim Barcelona and Raval

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

For our third and final field trip our Catalan Cultural Studies Class went to explore Catalan culture within the Raval neighborhood.  El Raval is a neighborhood in the Ciutat Vella district.  El Raval along with Barri Gotic make up the two historical neighborhoods that border Las Ramblas.  El Raval used to be an area historically infamous for its nightlife, cabarets, prostitution and crime.  Through the years, El Raval has gotten a makeover and changed significantly in recent years.  Due to its central location, El Raval has become a minor attraction in Barcelona.  El Raval possesses a very diverse immigrant community with almost half of its population being born abroad ranging from Pakistanis, Indonesias, and a Eastern European community.  The area has various bars, restaurants, and night spots.

Focusing on the makeover of Barcelona, while walking through El Raval we were able to see first hand how it is becoming an important commercial place.  Old religious buildings and areas from the Middle Ages have been renewed into parks, schools, nurseries, public spaces, town hall buildings, etc.  We were also able to see the young life of Catalans.  In an open space outside of MACBA, we stopped at Plaza dels Angels to see the skateboarding area, which we could observe several younger Catalans, probably age range around 15-25, who were skateboarding and just hanging out on the steps relaxing. 

Here you can see the skate park area with MACBA (The Modern Art Museum of Barcelona) in the background.

If you look closely you can see a reflection of the skyline of Barcelona

We were also able to see CCCB which was next to the Universitat de Barcelona.  There were also several open areas and square for people to meet other people or just keep to themselves.  We also saw the Ravalejar Wall which has pictures of people who lost their houses.

Ravalejar Wall

We continued our journey to Carrer de l'Hospital which is the street that divides the north and south of Raval.  

Carrer de l'Hospital 

We then headed to South Raval which was created in 1998 by demolishing three streets and resulted in the creation of Rambla del Raval. Made the streets pedestrian oriented and created a friendlier type of atmosphere.

The main stretch of Rambla del Raval

El gat del Raval

Overall El Raval was a very interesting place to visit and be able to see first hand the melting pot effect of El Raval with all of the different culture blending together.  I can honestly say without this class field trip I would have never visited El Raval and would have missed out on seeing true Catalan culture and a melting pot effect which is one of the most unique aspects of El Raval.