Barcelona Guide
El Raval
The old-town area west of the Ramblas is known as El Raval (from the Arabic word for "suburb"). Standing outside the medieval city walls, this has always formed a world apart. In medieval times it was the site of hospitals, churches and monasteries and, later, of noxious trades and industries. By the twentieth century the area south of c/de l'Hospital was the city's main red-light area, known as the Barri Xinès in Catalan – China Town. Even today in the backstreets visitors may run the gauntlet of cat-calling prostitutes and petty drug dealers, while atmospheric old bars trade on their former reputations as bohemian hangouts.
However, El Raval is changing rapidly. The 1992 Olympics and then European Union funding achieved what Franco never could, and cleaned up large parts of the neighbourhood almost overnight. North of c/de l'Hospital, in the "upper Raval", the main engine of change was the building of the contemporary art museum, MACBA, and the adjacent culture centre, the CCCB. To the south, in the "lower Raval" between c/de l'Hospital and c/de Sant Pau, a new boulevard – the Rambla de Raval – has been gouged through the former tenements and alleys, providing a huge new pedestrianized area. This part of the Raval is also home to the neighbourhood's two other outstanding buildings, namely Gaudí's Palau Güell and the church of Sant Pau del Camp.
The local character of El Raval is changing perceptibly, too. The area's older, traditional residents are gradually being supplanted by a younger, more affluent and arty population. There's also a growing influx of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and North Africa, so alongside the surviving spit-and-sawdust bars you'll find new restaurants, galleries and boutiques, not to mention a burgeoning number of specialist grocery stores, curry houses, halal butchers and hole-in-the-wall telephone offices advertising cheap international calls.
You'd hesitate to call El Raval gentrified, as it clearly still has its rough edges. You needn't be unduly concerned during the day as you make your way around, but it's as well to keep your wits about you at night, particularly in the southernmost streets.