Living next to a symbol: the penance of the Sagrada Familia neighbors

BarcelonaNo is expected that the future chapel of Penance – one of the spaces of the Sagrada Família still pending construction – will have any tribute to the neighbors of the temple, but by God that for some of the inhabitants of the neighborhood the coexistence with the basilica has become a sacrifice. Especially in recent years. The visit of Benedict XVI in 2010 – the last by a pope to Barcelona – triggered global interest in the work of Antoni Gaudí. Among the neighbors there is fear that the broadcast worldwide of the blessing of the tower of Jesus that Pope Leo XIV will perform on Wednesday, will cause a similar explosion.

The neighborhood concern has statistical foundations. In 2010, the last year before the covering of the central nave and the dedication of the basilica by Benedict XVI, the temple received 2.3 million visitors. The latest balance sheet that the Sagrada Família has made public estimates at 4.9 million the visitors who crossed the doors of the building in 2025. The explosion of the basilica as a global tourist symbol is still more noticeable on the street. According to the City Council's calculations, in 2010 the visitors who approached the Sagrada Família – regardless of whether they entered or just admired it and photographed it from the outside – were around 10 million. Now this figure has almost doubled, and stands between 18 and 20 million people each year.

All this results in a very great pressure on the immediate surroundings. The difficult coexistence between tourists and neighbors can be observed daily. Also in these days leading up to the Pope's visit. Let the testimony of Montse and Enric serve as proof, a married couple from the neighborhood who avoid tourists after leaving the Green Point while dragging their shopping cart. They have lived in the area for many years, and they believe it has changed a lot. "Before, children used to play on Gaudí Avenue; today, the only noise is that of suitcases," laments Enric, who assures that between the terraces and the tourists, "you see neighbors who can't even pass with their mother's wheelchair."

A neighborhood oasis

In the square in front of the Nativity facade, this resigned coexistence between residents and tourists becomes even more evident. While three children, oblivious to everything happening around them, swing in the playground, a few meters away there is a very long queue of people waiting to take photos in what the guides accompanying them define as “the best view of the Sagrada Familia in the area”. It is a queue that does not stop growing, as before one group has been able to take the photo, another group thirsty for an image in front of Gaudí's temple has already arrived.

A little further up is one of the few neighborhood oases in the area: the Plaça Gaudí Petanque Club. Dozens of retirees from the neighborhood, indifferent to the constant movement around them, play botifarra, Catalan bowling, or petanque. Until a disoriented family –preparations to broadcast the Pope's arrival make mobility in the area even more difficult– bursts onto the bowling alley, thinking it is a path to the basilica.

Jaume watches with amusement, following the petanque games even though every now and then he has to act as an impromptu tourist guide for those who ask him how to access the temple. He has lived in the neighborhood for forty years, although further up, away from the epicenter of the crowds. He explains that what he notices most is how the commercial landscape has changed. The lifelong shops have been replaced by souvenir shops, fast-food franchises, and 24-hour supermarkets. A trend that, he says, is constantly expanding its radius of action. Montse and Enric agree, citing Gaudí Avenue as an example again, where, they say, there are increasingly more sections almost exclusively for tourism. "To buy meat and fish, we have to travel kilometers," they say.

The shops and the neighbors

Once again, the diagnosis is easily verifiable with a glance at the streets around the basilica. It's Thursday at 11 AM, and on the stretch of Carrer Sicília between Mallorca and Provença, only a 24-hour supermarket, a physiotherapist, and a real estate agency are open. A sushi takeaway establishment, a hamburger joint with signs in English, the emblematic Irish pub Michael Collins, a focacceria, and a cocktail bar are closed. On Carrer Mallorca, the row of souvenir shops is only interrupted from time to time by the Barça and Madrid stores, a Starbucks, and franchises of the bakeries that have proliferated throughout the city in recent years. There are also some fast-food restaurants, although these tend to favor the sidewalk of Carrer Provença. Near the exit of a metro station that constantly disgorges tourists, within a few meters, you can find a McDonalds, a Five Guys, a Taco Bell, and a Ben&Jerry’s.

But it's not just commerce that has changed. Many of the neighborhood's residents that Benedict XVI found and those that Leo XIV will find are also different. While from the temple emerges a bell-shaped version of the Virolai, Jaume explains that in his building there are only four owners left who have lived in the neighborhood for years. “Now it's almost all short-term rentals,” he adds.

Considering only registered residents, the latest available data from the Municipal Data Office (OMD) of Barcelona City Council provides evidence for this mutation. If in 2010 those born in Barcelona were 52% of the neighborhood's residents, today they are only 41%. On the other hand, the foreign-born population has become 40%, whereas fifteen years ago it represented only 21%. And where have these new residents come from? Well, according to the data, mainly from the rest of Europe, but also from Asia. Those born on this continent now represent 19.3% of residents, ten points more than in 2010.

In the neighborhood, more or less everyone has stories of residents who have moved to another area of Barcelona or directly outside the city. In response to the question of whether they have considered emigrating, Enric and Montse are clear. “We don't want to leave, we really like Barcelona,” they say goodbye.