Barcelona will invest 100 million in five years to complete the renovation of all the city's markets
The Abaceria Market will reopen this autumn and until 2031 nine more will be remodeled.
BarcelonaBarcelona is stepping on the gas to have all the city's markets completely renovated in five years' time, by 2031. The Barcelona City Council explained this Monday that the new Strategic Market Plan for the 2026-2036 period foresees investing 100 million in the next five years to complete the reforms of these public facilities that were still pending. The ten markets to be renovated will be: La Boqueria – where the preliminary work phase has already begun –, La Mercè, Galvany, L'Estrella, Horta, Sant Martí, Felip II, Hostafrancs, and Canyelles. L'Abaceria – which began its works in the autumn of 2023 – will also reopen this autumn, completely remodeled.
"In this way, in the last 40 years we will have renovated Barcelona's 39 food markets and the four non-food markets", which are Encants, the Sunday Book Market and Encants de Sant Antoni, and the florists of La Boqueria, explained the deputy mayor and head of Economic Promotion and Work in Barcelona, Raquel Gil. The last major renovation carried out was the remodeling of the Montserrat Market, in the Nou Barris district.
Only 3% of stalls empty
Thus, the new strategic plan maintains the "investment effort" that was already allocated in the previous period, during which 250 million euros were invested in ten years. The underlying objective is to strengthen the markets as "reference public facilities" and professionalize them, through the modernization of spaces, digitalization, training, and sustainability strategies and measures.
The City Council calculates that the markets generate 3.4% of Barcelona's GDP – all aggregated commercial activity, they say, represents 15% of the city's total –. Furthermore, according to the same estimates, they point out that market operators generate an economic impact of 561 million euros per year in terms of GDP in the city.
When asked if the activity and tradition of the markets are declining, as there are more and more empty stalls, Gil denied it outright: "We have 40 buildings with 1,900 stalls, of which only 60 are closed; that is, more than 95% are functioning. The markets are functioning, and what we have to do to keep it that way is to go and buy: when citizens decide where they go to buy, they are also making politics," stated the head of Economic Promotion, who added that the markets generate more than 7,500 jobs, both direct and indirect, and receive nearly 70 million visits annually.
In this regard, Gil recalled that the culture of Barcelona's markets, with La Boqueria at the forefront, has been presented to UNESCO as a candidate for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Community places
One of the main axes that has been set within the new strategic plan is to highlight, precisely, "the soul of the markets" as a social, community, cohesive, and proximity tool. To achieve this, the new plan will also promote actions to improve physical spaces, eliminate architectural barriers, improve accessibility, and ensure they are spaces that facilitate gender equality.
Work will also be done to reinforce the characteristics of climate refuges and urban resilience nodes, and workshops and educational programs will continue to be promoted to strengthen the territorial link of the markets and the transmission of values of responsible and proximity consumption.