Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Sant Adrià de Besòs

What to see and do in Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelonès, Barcelona): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Sant Adrià de Besòs

Besòs River Park 300 m
Arch of Adrià 7 km

Towns near Sant Adrià de Besòs

Spain › Catalonia › Barcelona › Barcelonès › Sant Adrià de Besòs

What to see and do in Sant Adrià de Besòs

Sant Adrià de Besòs
Village
Sant Adrià de Besòs is a coastal municipality of the Barcelonès, at the mouth of the Besòs river, barely 8 kilometres from the centre of Barcelona, with the 13th-century Adrià arch. Its origin goes back to 1012, when it formed around the parish church on the left bank of the river; it was then an agricultural settlement with close trading ties to Barcelona, although it suffered the besosades, sudden floods of the Besòs, and was destroyed by Almoravid troops in 1114 and by French troops in 1697. With the industrial revolution it turned to industry, and in the early 20th century the thermal power stations of Energía Eléctrica de Cataluña, later Fecsa, and of the Compañía de Fluido Eléctrico, known as La Catalana, were built on its two banks.
Arch of Adrià
Monument
The so-called Arc d'Adrià is the 13th-century Gothic doorway of the former Carme convent in Barcelona, originally located between Carme and dels Àngels streets, in the Raval. It has two pillars with Gothic bases and capitals decorated with plant, animal and human-face motifs, a flat lintel and a pointed arch with archivolts of Montjuïc stone. Juli Maria Parellada i de Moragas moved it next to the Cal Tondo farmhouse, in Sant Adrià de Besòs, and in 1991, during the works on the Ronda del Litoral, it was restored and relocated to the roundabout where it stands today, next to the N-II bridge over the river Besòs. In 1997 it was declared a symbol of municipal identity and in 2003, a cultural asset of local interest.
Besòs River Park
Nature
The Besòs River Park is part of the Network of Natural Parks managed by the Barcelona Provincial Council and extends along the last nine kilometres of the course of the Besòs river, from its confluence with the Ripoll river to its mouth in the Mediterranean. With an area of 115 hectares, it is one of the most important green spaces in the Barcelona metropolitan region, and it runs through the urban continuum of Barcelona, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Sant Adrià de Besòs and Montcada i Reixac. It was created through an environmental recovery project for the river's final stretch, and the Provincial Council has managed it since the year 2000, in agreement with the four town councils and the Consorci per a la Defensa de la Conca del riu Besòs.
The Three Chimneys of the Besòs
Historical milestone
The Sant Adrià de Besòs thermal power plant, built at the mouth of the Besòs river, was constructed between 1971 and 1976 by the company Copisa: the first unit came into operation in 1973, the second in 1974 and the third in 1976. Its three chimneys, 90 metres tall above an equal height of boilers, first reached about 180 metres and later, with an added 20-metre section, the 200 metres that marked the coastline. Closed in 2011 and with its interior dismantled, the plant remained standing after a 2008 local referendum in which 82% of residents supported keeping it; the chimneys and the turbine building were declared a local cultural heritage asset between 2016 and 2017. Underwater, the old cooling structures have become an artificial ecosystem with marine life.
The Feria de Abril of Catalonia
Activity
The Feria de Abril de Catalunya, an Andalusian tradition inspired by the one in Seville, has been held every year since 1971 around the last week of April, lasting ten days and drawing close to a million visitors. After passing through Castelldefels, Gavà, l'Hospitalet, el Prat, Barberà del Vallès and Santa Coloma de Gramenet, it has been held since 2004 in Parc del Fòrum, between Barcelona and Sant Adrià de Besòs, where every spring dozens of casetas are set up by Andalusian associations, parties, unions and other groups, serving fried fish, ham and rebujito. The site is known as el Real, a reference to the ral, the coin once used to pay for the carriage ride to the Seville fair. It is Catalonia's biggest gathering of Andalusian cuisine.