Final stretch for Barcelona's new Grocery Market: here's the schedule

BarcelonaCountdown to the opening of the new Mercado de la Abaceria in Vila de Gràcia, Barcelona. During a site visit this Friday, Raquel Gil, the fifth deputy mayor of the City Council, explained that construction work is progressing according to schedule and that, barring any issues, the new market building will be completed by the end of the year. Gil also explained that work on the interior facilities to accommodate the stalls will then begin. The forecast, she said, is for the market to open in the summer of 2026.

The deputy mayor has thus set a horizon for an opening that for years seemed impossible. It wasn't until October 2023—five years after the market had already moved to its temporary location on Passeig de Sant Joan—that the work began, which is now entering its final stretch. For a few days now, workers have been installing the glass and siding on the facades, as well as a large part of the market's roof.

The colorful roof—with ceramic tiles in red, yellow, turquoise, and orange—will be one of the distinctive features of the new Mercat de l'Abaceria, which was designed to reproduce the historic structure by architect Joan Torras Guardiola. The original was ultimately removed by the City Council despite efforts by residents—including the architect's great-granddaughter—to preserve it.

Once the structure is completed at the end of the year, work will begin to adapt the facilities to the market's various establishments. The market will house the 51 stalls currently located in the temporary market on Passeig de Sant Joan, as well as a supermarket. In this case, the competition to determine who will manage it is still ongoing. The final phase of the work before its inauguration will be the urbanization of the market's surroundings.

Gil explained that the district will then assess what to do with mobility in the area. To facilitate the entry and exit of trucks during the construction work, the direction of part of Travessera de Gràcia was changed. Once the work is completed, technicians will have to assess whether to maintain the current mobility model or, on the contrary, return to the original direction, with Travessera crossing the entire neighborhood in the Besòs direction.

A new square

A visit to the market construction site also provides a glimpse of the semi-covered plaza, approximately 1,500 square meters (comparable to the Plaza de la Revolución), included in the project. It was an attempt to address one of the neighborhood's main demands, which was to gain green space in a district that, after the Eixample, has the least amount of it in the city (only 3.5 square meters per inhabitant).

When it opens, the new Mercado de l'Abaceria will be a 14,350-square-meter building spread over the ground floor—which will house the food and non-food stalls—a mezzanine floor divided into two levels—which will house the market-related offices and two multipurpose classrooms—and three levels of customer parking with around 50 spaces, loading and unloading areas, and, on the lower floor, a space for the neighborhood's organizations and associations.