Barcelona redraws its heart: the new Via Laietana opens with a major public celebration

On 29 June, the city will officially open the new Via Laietana with a major public celebration that will fill the street with life, workshops, music and neighbourhood activity. It will celebrate a transformation that has changed not only the form but also the substance of a thoroughfare that was car territory for decades.

After three years of works and more than €38 million invested, Via Laietana is reborn as a civic, green and welcoming corridor. With pavements twice their original width, exclusive lanes for bicycles and public transport, and new spaces to meet and stroll, this artery now truly connects the neighbourhoods of Gòtic and Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera.

The festive day will be the prelude to its definitive opening to night-time traffic, with new access criteria designed to give priority to those who live, work or travel sustainably through Ciutat Vella.

The new Via Laietana no longer divides: it connects, breathes and dialogues with its surroundings. It is a gesture by the city towards the future, recovering the essence of the past to offer citizens a street in which to stay, not merely pass through.