Walking today along La Rambla means navigating between fences, dodging sections occupied by construction work, and living with the constant noise of machinery. Barcelona's great promenade is undergoing a metamorphosis that, little by little, is leaving behind the image that has defined it for decades and that will culminate at the beginning of next year, when the works are expected to finish. In the midst of this transformation, another historic element of the promenade is preparing to begin its own reform: the Boqueria Market.
After months of preliminary work, the first actions will begin after the summer and will kick off a reform that will last until 2029, with an investment of €12 million and the objective of updating the facility but, above all, recovering the balance between its international and tourist dimension and its function as a local market, with the aim of making Barcelona residents feel that it belongs to them again.
Getting to this point, however, has been a long process. After the agreement reached with the stallholders —the project received the support of 91% of the merchants through the Boqueria Vendors Association—, throughout 2024 and 2025, several studies were carried out to ascertain the state of the structure, the roof and the historical-architectural value of the market, while also making progress on the definition of the new internal regulations. A calendar that the stallholders would have wanted to be more agile and that, now that it finally begins, will still last until 2029.
In fact, a few months ago, in The New Barcelona Post, the president of the Boqueria Merchants Association, Jorge Mas, demanded that the City Council "speed upaccelerate the process and get the project underway" to take advantage of the transformation of La Rambla and advance both reforms in parallel, instead of prolonging them over time. Now, that request has an answer: the project has a calendar and the first actions will begin after the summer.
Although the reform that the stallholders have been demanding for years will start in a few weeks, it will do so progressively. The first actions, which will last until 2027 and with an investment of half a million euros, will focus on improving the market's day-to-day spaces and services
It will start with the logistics area, where the lighting will be renewed with low-consumption technology, and with the public restrooms, which will leave the basement of the office building to move to the same floor as the market, with more space, better accessibility, and a new adapted family bathroom. The central fish island will also be transformed, and the ground floor of the office building will be opened, two actions designed to improve the operation of the facility without stopping its commercial activity.
Beyond the physical renovation
The renovation, however, will not be limited to updating the building, but also aims to go beyond its walls. Thus, in parallel to the physical actions, the market wants to address one of the great challenges it faces: finding the balance between the international projection that has made it an icon of Barcelona and its function as a local market for Barcelona residents.
The figures exemplify this tension: with 188 establishments, La Boqueria is the municipal market with the most stalls in Barcelona, almost three times more than Sant Antoni or Santa Caterina. And it is also, by far, the one that receives the most visitors: more than 22 million in 2025 alone, 132% more than Sant Antoni and 665% more than Santa Caterina.
Increasingly, however, this public is international: in fact, 90% of visitors are foreigners. A profile that, over time, has also modified the products that can be found among the stalls, where centenary businesses coexist with products designed for the occasional visitor and immediate consumption, rather than for filling a shopping basket: such as fruit juices, strawberries and cut fruit, prepared portions…
It is precisely this change in the offer that the new regulation seeks to contain, aiming to restore balance without turning its back on the millions of visitors who pass through La Boqueria every year. Across the market as a whole, at least half of the offering must continue to consist of traditional products, while prepared products cannot account for more than 50%. Some basic specialties may reach 60% of prepared products, but only if the market as a whole maintains balance.
The new regulation establishes that, across the market as a whole, at least half of the offering must continue to consist of traditional products, while prepared products cannot account for more than 50%.
Behind this distribution is, ultimately, the will to bring La Boqueria closer to the residents again. “La Boqueria is an inseparable part of Barcelona and we want Barcelona residents to feel that it is truly theirs again,” emphasized the Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Economic Promotion, Feminisms and Democratic Memory, Raquel Gil.
The great transformation, from 2027
But the great transformation of La Boqueria will have to wait until 2027, when the most ambitious phase of the reform will begin with an investment of 11.5 million euros, which will last until 2029, and will have to address some of the main challenges facing the building: the removal of the existing fibre-cement roof, which contains asbestos, and its replacement with a new one, in addition to consolidating and rehabilitating the metal structure and updating the facilities. The new roof could also incorporate photovoltaic solar panels, an option that will be studied once the current one is removed and depending on the building's conditions.
Raquel Gil: “La Boqueria is an inseparable part of Barcelona and we want Barcelona residents to feel that it is truly theirs again”
The reform will also focus on Plaça de la Gardunya, which for years was one of the main entrances to La Boqueria for Barcelona residents. The City Council now wants to recover this role to reopen the market to Raval residents and turn it into one of the main accesses to the market, along with La Rambla and Pla de Sant Josep, to move beyond its current perception as the “back” of La Boqueria and reconnect it with Raval residents. To define this major intervention, the team of architects still needs to be chosen, a process for which the project competition is expected to be published this autumn.
With all these actions, the horizon is set for 2029, a date that also marks the planned end of other major transformations in Barcelona, such as the first major phase of the remodeling of Fira de Montjuïc or the rehabilitation of the old Escocesa, in Poblenou. By then, La Boqueria will have more than a renovated building: it will have renewed its connection with local residents and once again feel like their own.