Barcelona to invest 15 million euros in improving Park Güell

Barcelona's city council is giving Park Güell a makeover. The City Council in the Catalan capital has announced a new investment of around 15 million euros over the next 4 years in the park, with which it hopes to continue to reduce the overcrowding of tourists in Park Güell and improve the boundaries of the space with the surrounding neighbourhoods. We have all the details of this most recent investment in Park Güell which will involve conservation, restoration and maintenance work on the park. 

The park's strategic plan, launched in 2018, has managed to increase visits from within the neighbourhood with free time slots for local residents. Figures made public by Barcelona City Council indicate that before the pandemic, the park received around 9 million visitors a year. However, since its reopening in the summer of 2020, measures have been implemented to limit this number to a maximum of 4.5 million a year in order to reduce tourist pressure.

Photo by Sung Shin on Unsplash

Half of the money in this new investment planned for the period 2023-2026 will be allocated to actions linked to improving the boundaries of the space with the surrounding neighbourhoods of Coll, la Salut, Vallcarca i Penitents, el Carmel and Can Baró, in the districts of Gràcia and Horta-Guinardó.

Among other actions, a new park is planned at Font del Carbó, as well as the development of Coll del Portell and Torrent del Remei and the creation of the new pedestrian walkways including Pare Alegre-Antequera, Picnic Park Güell with Marianao and Passeig Turull with Coll del Portell. In Horta-Guinardó, the urbanisation of Carrer d’Albert Llanas and Carrer de Miquel dels Sants Oliver is also planned, as well as work on the Plaça Raimon Casellas. 

The council in Barcelona is also working to reduce the impact of the high density of visitors and to improve mobility with investments in access to the park, including exclusive online ticket sales, according to a press release.

The plan will continue until 2026 and will coincide with the commemoration of the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí and the re-launch of the park as a public site.

New Park Güell opening hours 

Park Güell

Park Güell opens at 7am, and from this time until 9.30 am, it is open exclusively to residents, schools and all those registered in the "Gaudir Més Barcelona" programme (translating as Enjoy Barcelona More), which offers discounts and advantages in different areas of the city. 

Afterwards, visitor hours end at 8pm, when the "Bon vespre Barcelona" (Good evening Barcelona) time slot begins, a period until 10pm which once again is a time when only local residents can visit the park. The reasons behind this come from the idea that the council wants to make Park Güell "a park for the people of Barcelona".