Clarifying – they seem to be the bane Travelers visiting the Catalan capitalwho come to the city a year OK. 32 million. They position themselves on Gaudi Square with cameras aimed at one of the most popular basilicas in the world.
The photo in a well -known place is of course the Holy Tourist Law, but the uncontrolled crowd is a serious disturbance of the peace and routine of the inhabitants. Visitors They are crowded on the pavement in front of Sagrada Familiaand in search of the best shot they can even enter the road.
Residents have enough. There will be a special zone
The pursuit of photography, which the observer on Instagram will certainly envy, at the expense of everyday life of the Catalans who have to break through roads and have difficulties with the pavement.
The city authorities decided to respond to the needs of the residents and announced construction of a special zone At Sagrade FamÃlia, where visitors will be able to breathe and take a selfie before entering the church.
– Tourism must serve the city model, not the other way around – he said in the conversation
with the Spanish media Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona.
Selfie zone for tourists
The selfie zone is to have an area 6200 square meters and be located between the basilica facade and Gaudi Square at Carrer de la Marina Street. Its construction is planned for the beginning of this year's autumn. Tourists will be able to use the zone already in April 2026that is, on the centenary of the death of Gaudi, the famous engineer, architect and of course the author of the basilica project.
The decision to create the so -called “Vistula” before Sagrada Familia probably accelerated the trend on the thicket, which – although he gave fun to tourists – He disturbed traffic in the city even more.
The visitors set up on the nearby escalator and recorded videos with basilica in the background during the entry. This led to the pavement of exit from the metro station, which in consequence caused a ban on this form of multimedia expression of embedded tourists.
– The new project will help to solve the problem of space in which it is difficult to reconcile the needs of tourists visiting the temple and the inhabitants of the area – it was written in the city council.
Crowds throughout the city. Barcelona “besieged” by tourists
Barcelona, ​​although colorful, sunny and filled with the works of Gaudi, can tire Catalans for years coexisting with ubiquitous tourists. The city authorities have already taken steps to be aimed at regulation of tourist traffic.
In 2024, the implementation of the plan of a value began EUR 44 millionaimed at eliminating crowds at 16 tourist points. The number of cleaning workers and police officers who cares about order and security was increased.
In July last year, the slogan “Visit Barcelona” used for 15 years was abandoned for the new one: “This is Barcelona”, which was aimed at Departure from mass tourism.
Barcelona also undertook to ban the visitors to short -term apartments until 2028 and to limit the number of people going down to the land from cruise ships. According to Collboni, this is the answer to Risk of transformation of Barcelona into a “thematic park” devoid of residents.