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KEMA CERAMICS FOUNDERS DAIANA AND PABLO/ANNA HUIX THE STUDIO OF PAINTER PERICO PASTOR/ANNA HUIX ANIMATOR ASIS PERCALES IN HIS STUDIO;/ANNA HUIX


Te Travel Guide


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Inside


Barcelona Discover Poblenou, the creative heart of the Spanish city Page 03


Switzerland How this country earned the title of ‘Europe’s reservoir’ Page 04


Wiltshire Famous for its ancient sites, explore England’s mysterious county Page 08


Austria From families to luxury travellers, these are Austria’s best ski resorts Page 10


Barcelona’s art district I


n Barcelona’s leafy Poblenou district, Pablo Pulido, an Argentinian ceramicist and jazz musician, points to the sky


outside his narrow workshop’s open doorway when I ask why he moved here. “We liked the light principally,’ he tells me, “and the closeness to the sea.” Te bright Mediterranean sun floods in through the shop’s large windows, bouncing off the whitewashed walls to illuminate the mauve and yellow bowls and cups that line the shelves. Pablo opened Kema two years


ago with his partner Daiana Nuñez Schneider, a Uruguayan ceramicist and industrial designer. Teirs is just one of a new influx of galleries, studios and independent boutiques and coffeeshops that, over the past few years, has garnered Poblenou the moniker ‘the Catalan Hackney’. Bordered by the sea to the south


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and one of Barcelona’s major arteries, Avinguda Diagonal, to the north, the area was a powerhouse of the Catalan textile industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the late 1980s, however, many of Poblenou’s warehouses and factories had been abandoned. Attracted by the large, light-filled studio spaces and relatively low rents, artists soon began moving into the area. For Pablo and Daiana, the sense


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of a genuine community was also part of the area’s appeal. “A lot of our neighbours have bought things or come and made their own pieces in our workshop,” says Pablo. “Next door, there’s an iron worker’s forge and a guy who repairs bicycles, so people feel a sense of belonging to the


neighbourhood.” Poblenou’s mashup of tenants and residents gives the district an atmosphere that locals believe has been lost in some other areas of Barcelona, since the 1990s dawn of mass tourism. Neighbourhood bars and stylish


restaurants advertise three-course menús del día (menus of the day) for around €15 (£13). And the heart of the neighbourhood is characterised by streets lined with gabled factory and warehouse buildings, ornate art nouveau apartment block doorways and angular steel and glass high- rises, now home to art and design colleges, as well as international firms. Dotted among them are independent shops like Guau!, a small gallery and store selling work by local artists, and tall, 19th-century redbrick chimneys left over from Poblenou’s industrial past. Just a few blocks from Kema,


muralist and illustrator Asis Percales shares an eighth-floor studio with


The seaside neighbourhood in east Barcelona has been brought back to life by galleries and studios taking over once-derelict warehouses. Words: Eddi Fiegel


animator Gerard Cornella (aka Geco), who worked on the award-winning animated feature Chico and Rita. Teir organised, plant-filled studio — open to the public by appointment — is both a home and an office, with vast windows through which the sea can be glimpsed over rooftops. Te pair say that Poblenou’s


relative tranquillity when compared to the crowded city centre is a major part of the area’s appeal. “Here, you’ve got the contrasts between contemporary Barcelona, industrial Barcelona and a real neighbourhood,” explains Geco. Asis also mentions another


instrumental figure in Poblenou’s creative community: Claudia Costa Oropeza, a Venezuelan gallery owner and former film producer. At her bright, white-walled La Plataforma gallery inside a converted printing workshop, I catch her between meetings. “When I came here for the first time, it was clear immediately that this was the area that was going to grow in Barcelona,” she explains. “Because you’re by the sea and you have a lot of industrial spaces that are perfect for creative and cultural venues. And at that time, a lot of those spaces were empty.” Tat was around 2010, and after


ECLECTIC ARCHITECTURE ALONG POBLENOU’S ROC BORONAT STREET/ANNA HUIX


moving here Claudia soon felt there was a need to promote Poblenou’s growing creative community. She then co-found the Poblenou Urban District in 2012, a cultural association that helps promote the area’s community through events such as open studio days and nights. It also produces a map featuring local arts spaces, galleries, museums,


studios and restaurants. My final visit is to the studio of one


of the artists featured on that map — Perico Pastor, a successful Catalan painter and illustrator for Te New York Times and La Vanguardia, Catalonia’s most prestigious broadsheet newspaper. As I arrive at the large converted warehouse, workmen are hauling a wooden pallet into a service lift. Upstairs, many of the units are now home to designers, musicians and artists. Describing himself as a ‘painter of


daily life’, Perico has lived and worked in the area for 25 years, creating Matisse-influenced watercolours, many featuring the beach and seafront promenade. Despite being in his early seventies,


Perico cuts a nimble figure as he shows me around his studio. Te walls are lined with bookshelves; calligraphy brushes resting in jam jars on high work tables; and wind chimes hanging in large windows that look out to the sea. Te bohemian space is both Perico’s home and studio, and, like his neighbours, he says he still thrives on Poblenou’s authentic atmosphere. “When I first came here, there were


still traditional printing works and garment shops. It was a very working- class atmosphere and people were always very friendly. Te wonderful thing is that, 25 years later, it still has that feel. And you’re just three blocks from the beach,” he explains.


Tis article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). nationalgeographic.com/travel


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