This part is about the harbour district. After going through the whole La Rambla to the south, we come to the harbour(where there is an extension called La Rambla del Mar). First we reached Port Vell (the old harbour, totally refurbished and rebuilt for the Olympics in 1992) and then La Barceloneta and Port Olímpic (the new harbour, built for the Olympics) were Barcelona's 2 tallest buildings stand.

Port Olímpic

Finally reaching Villa Olímpica, the Olympic village, that is dominated by Barcelona´s 2 tallest buildings and is situated at Port Olimpic, the new harbour. Many of Spain´s most famous architects was involved in this project, that was contructed for the Olympics in 1992. The bronze sculpture is El Peix by Frank Gehry.


Villa Olímpic towers are both 154m tall and was both built for the Olympics in 1992. They are pretty lonely on the sea skyline though.


The 2 towers as seen from the east with Torre Mare Nostrum to the far right.

Hotel Arts. At 154m, 44 floors, this is both Barcelona´s largest and tallest hotel. This 5-star de luxe
hotel is designed (by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) like a fortress, so it won´t be easy to reach it lobby
from ground level. This is to avoid Barcelona's big problems with pickpockets.


Torre Mapfre. 154m, 40 floors. HQ for the company Mapfre.

Torre de les Aigües. A beautiful former water tower under renovation.


Torre Mare Nostrum. I was very curious about this new brutalist highrise project, also called Edificio Gas Natural, wondering about the name and how tall it will be. Finally I found the name at the construction site and the info at Emporis. It is already a (lower)skyline addition to the existing Villa Olímpica towers. When completed in 2005, it will have 22 floors and 86m and will be surrounded by a salty lake.


This biomedical center is under contruction just next to Torre Mare Nostrum and the hospital Ntra. Sra. Del Mar.


From the site of Villa Olimpic, to the east you can see Diagonal Mar's skyline through the boat masts.


A closer look. This is were we will go now. It turned out it wasn´t so easy to get the right bus though and it was much further away then we thought. But we reached it and it is contained in a separate section.


On the way to the bus, we passed this part of Port Olímpic, the new harbour. The whole beach, formerly with a bad rumour, was strongly refurbished for the Olympics in 1992.


Port Olímpic Park.