The Port opens 600 meters of promenade by the sea on the Barcelona pier

Barcelona is synonymous with Mediterranean and maritime tradition. With the arrival of good weather, the beaches of the Catalan capital, especially the most central ones, fill daily with thousands of tourists, although also some locals, eager to take advantage of every ray of sun in the Barcelona sky. Starting this Friday, residents gain a privileged space to walk by the sea and observe the city's coastline. The Port of Barcelona has opened the north and east areas of the Barcelona dock, connecting Drassanes to the World Trade Center, a space with which citizens gain 600 linear meters of promenade by the sea.

The opening of the Barcelona dock has involved an investment of 100,000 euros to level the pavement, install urban furniture, and improve the lighting of the promenade. With this intervention, Barcelona gains a total of 13,565 square meters and 600 meters of promenade by the sea, a space equivalent to a block of the Eixample.

"The America's Cup served as a catalyst to accelerate actions but, once it passed, from the Port we have continued with the purpose of reopening spaces and getting closer to the citizenry," emphasized the president of the Port, José Alberto Carbonell, referring to other recent inaugurations, such as the Fishermen's dock, which allows access to the daily fish auction. However, the president insisted that this promenade still has a "provisional" urbanization, with the smell of freshly asphalted ground and a very minimalist proposal, with a large esplanade facing the sea. "We preferred to open it to the citizenry than to keep it closed," highlighted Carbonell.

The Port of Barcelona is now working with the City Council to finalize its urbanization and the different uses of the space. Carbonell assured that this will be a space where "things will happen," ensuring that it could be the setting for events such as the Setmana del Llibre en Català or the Nadal al Port. For now, this space will be one of the places that the Salón Náutico will take in October, in addition to having already become a promenade space for Barcelonians and tourists to enjoy the sea breeze and take photographs of the Barcelona coastline.

The opening of the Barcelona pier to the public represents the culmination of the Port's purpose to gradually inaugurate all spaces previously closed, as advanced by the president of the Port of Barcelona until October, Lluís Salvadó, to The New Barcelona Post. In addition, this inauguration also coincides with the rehabilitation works being carried out in the maritime area, allowing for the continuity of La Rambla, which is in an intense transformation process with works, all the way to the sea.

The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, has highlighted that the new pier promenade allows local citizens to "reconnect and recover their seafaring essence." A commitment to opening up to the sea that the city council also pursues with projects such as the rehabilitation of La Rambla, as well as the future transformation of Mar Bella or the promotion of the blue economy that the Port carries out through the BlueTechPort at the Sant Bertran pier.

The Barcelona pier was built in the 1870s with the first major expansion of the Port to the south due to the boom in international trade. At this time, it began to act as a space where large passenger ships from Italy and America docked. In 2018, the City Council and the Port signed an agreement to reduce the city's cruise terminals, an activity that until then occupied the Drassanes and Barcelona piers, and open these spaces to the public.

Since then, the Port has been working to follow the agreed calendar, and already in the autumn of 2023, it transferred the activity of this area to the Adossat pier. However, this area could not be reopened until now because, during the America's Cup celebration, it had been occupied by the host team, the Emirates Team New Zealand. The port institution plans to complete the definitive transformation of the Barcelona pier, of which the north and east areas have now been opened, by 2027, as by the end of 2026, cruise ships will also stop docking in the southern area of this pier.

Reconnect with the sea and port activity

The opening of the Barcelona dock coincides with the celebration this weekend of the second edition of the Port's open day. An event that aims to get Barcelona residents to rediscover not only this space, but also to learn about the importance of daily port activity, which serves as a gateway for cruise passengers, but also for goods present in the daily lives of Barcelona residents, from coffee to clothing.

An initiative that they repeat after the success of its first edition, when some 30,000 people discovered the secrets hidden behind the port facilities. In its second edition, the 3,000 free tickets for guided tours sold out in just four hours. Guided tours that, for the first time, will allow access to two container terminals, APM Terminals Barcelona (APMT) and Hutchison Ports BEST. In addition to the guided tours, the Port has organized a large number of activities that will begin to bring life to the recently opened Barcelona dock, with foodtrucks and workshops occupying this new space by the sea.