The vibrant, ever-changing canvas of Barcelona’s Jardins de les Tres Xemeneies is being systematically erased, as municipal cleaning crews paint over its celebrated murals with coats of drab grey paint. The move by Mayor Jaume Collboni’s government signals an end to the plaza’s long-held status as a legal mecca for urban artists, stunning a community that once flocked here from across the globe.
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For more than a decade, the concrete walls of Tres Xemeneies in the Poble-sec neighbourhood served as a dynamic, open-air gallery. Astonished residents and artists report that for the past several weeks, city workers have arrived almost daily to whitewash the art. “And the urban guards told us they have even issued four fines,” one local told La Vanguardia.
An Urban Art Landmark
The plaza’s journey to becoming a global street art reference point began during the tenure of former Mayor Xavier Trias. The Barcelona City Council entrusted the management of several dedicated walls to the arts organisation Rebobinart, which established a booking system through its Wallspot platform. The initiative was a resounding success.
Tres Xemeneies became an alternative cultural hub to the nearby Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), attracting not only painters but also a thriving community of skaters and BMX riders. Artists from every corner of the world would book a slot to paint, knowing their work might last only a day before being replaced. The goal was not permanence, but participation-to leave a mark, however fleeting, on Barcelona’s urban landscape. Over 12 years, the Wallspot portal registered 35,000 artworks from 25,000 artists.
Its fame placed it among the city’s most important creative spaces, a vital part of what makes the city a draw for art lovers. While some areas are known for transient works, Tres Xemeneies offered a rare, sanctioned space for elaborate pieces, distinguishing it from other Barcelona graffiti hotspots.
The ‘Pla Endreça’ Crackdown
The current crackdown is part of the city’s wide-reaching Pla Endreça (Tidying-Up Plan), a civic maintenance and order initiative. A City Council spokesperson confirmed these actions, noting that organisations and residents involved in the plaza’s roundtable had also requested them to improve coexistence.
For years, some residents have felt excluded from the space. As the plaza’s popularity grew, so did the problems. Graffiti began to spill beyond the authorised zones, with tags appearing on an adjacent office building and even on the second floor of a nearby residence for the elderly. Representatives of a local community of around 700 residents described a situation that had “been overflowing for years.”
“They painted the steps, the elderly residence, the car park lift… We even had workshops for tourists with their instructors who left a right mess,” they explained. Their primary concern, however, goes beyond the paint. “What keeps us awake at night is the homeless encampment, which just keeps growing. We have disturbances every night. And in the morning, the Council comes to clean, to put on a patch.”
The City Council’s intervention marks a decisive shift, reminiscent of similar municipal efforts to impose order, such as when L’Hospitalet cracked down on illegal ‘after hours’ cafes.
Artists Outraged, an Era Ends
For the artists, the move is a betrayal of an established understanding. Many are in disbelief, asking: “wasn’t it legal to paint here?” In response, artists began circulating a manifesto, collecting signatures, and called a protest. On the nearby Avinguda del Paral·lel, artists sprayed a giant message in defiance: “Graff will survive!”
The winding down of Tres Xemeneies as a legal art space began under the previous administration of Mayor Ada Colau. In the spring of 2023, the City Council informed Rebobinart that it was assuming full management of the walls. A year later, a major renovation of the plaza was completed, which involved demolishing the main authorised walls to create more open space. Today, only a 27-metre stretch of the local Punt Verd (green recycling point) facade remains available for legal painting-a fraction of the original canvas.
With its primary walls gone and a strict cleaning regime in place, the era of Tres Xemeneies as Barcelona’s graffiti temple appears to be over. The city has silenced one of its most unique cultural voices, trading a chaotic, world-famous art hub for a quieter, greyer, and more orderly public square.
