• Car-free promenade, one of the best scooter and bike runs in the city center
• Giant-bubble makers and street musicians work the crowds most afternoons
• Leads straight into Ciutadella, so it slots into a park-and-playground morning

Josep Vilaseca built this red-brick arch as the grand entrance to the 1888 Universal Exposition, decorating it with ceramic crowns, carved friezes, and a squadron of stone bats. It presides over Passeig de Lluís Companys, a wide car-free promenade lined with palm trees where kids scoot and bike past giant-bubble makers and street musicians, and it dead-ends into Parc de la Ciutadella, so it slots naturally into a park morning.