8.) Horta

The neighborhood we are visiting now is Horta and it is one of those barrios that used to be an independent village until it was officially added to Barcelona in 1904. It was a mainly agricultural based village and therefore very popular among Barcelona's middle and middle-upper class, who built their summer houses there and actually started to live there full-time once the tram (started in 1901) arrived. Another curious thing that is quite well known about Horta is the fact that in the XIX century it used to be the place where Barcelona's wealthy population brought their clothes to be washed. In some of the streets one can still discover rest of these traditional "bugaderes", as for example in the famous carrer d'Aiguafreda, a beautiful small street which looks more like a village than part of a big city like Barcelona. Horta is also famous for its Laberint d'Horta, on of the oldest parks of Barcelona, that we won't have time to visit, but that you can go to on a sunny sunday or saturday to enjoy its familiar atmosphere. After walking a little bit around the small streets of the older part of this neighborhood and enjoying the view of some of its old masies (Can Fargas, Can Mariner, Can Cortada...), we will take a break and go the probably most popular bar in Horta: Quimet d'Horta. 

Opened in 1927, it is located in the centric square of Eivissa and popular for their xapata bread prepared with all sorts of tortillas and meat. Here we will have lunch to recover energies before walking up the Carmel mountain, our final stop in this itinerary.

Horta seems like a good middle stop of our itinerary, as it is -contrary to what happens in Torre Baró and El Carmel- a more traditional neighborhood with an old center at one hand and a newer and more heterogeneous part on the other. Like Sarrià and Gràcia, which were also former villages annexed to Barcelona, it is an area with a very popular character, even though it stems from a more working-class background then Sarrià and still hasn't entered a gentrification process like Gràcia's.

Quimet d'Horta: Plaça Eivissa, 10.

http://www.quimethorta.com