Barcelona

Barcelona is a city where architecture shapes the way you experience the streets. The medieval lanes of the Gothic Quarter open onto the ordered grid of the Eixample, where the extraordinary Modernisme of Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch turned apartment buildings, hospitals and concert halls into works of art. Yet Barcelona’s design story did not stop there. Rationalism, the legacy of the 1992 Olympics and a confident contemporary architecture scene continue to reinvent the city, while the Mediterranean is never far from view.

Food and drink are equally embedded in Barcelona life. Markets, neighbourhood bodegas, vermouth bars and traditional Catalan restaurants coexist with some of Europe’s most ambitious contemporary kitchens. Seafood from the Mediterranean, seasonal vegetables, charcuterie and Catalan produce provide the foundations, while natural wine bars, creative cocktail spots and a new generation of informal chef-led restaurants keep the scene moving forward. Eating here is often best approached without hurry: a late lunch can easily become vermouth, tapas and dinner.

Barcelona’s most interesting hotels inhabit the city’s architectural layers. Modernista mansions, historic townhouses, former industrial buildings and adventurous contemporary properties offer very different interpretations of Catalan design and hospitality. At DNA Hotels, we curate the places where architecture, interiors, food and the city’s creative energy come together—hotels that reveal a Barcelona with far more personality than the familiar Gaudí-and-beach postcard.