These streets will be reserved for pedestrians, with vehicles allowed to circulate in perimetral streets and cross the block using C/ Aragó and C/ València. Because of this, people are advised to get around on foot or on the metro on the day.

Barcelona City Council’s publishing service will also be present in the literary superblock in Passeig de Gràcia (between Provença and Rosselló), with the Sala Ciutat bookshop also open at C/ Ciutat, 2. The latest City Council publications will be on sale along with titles from other years with a 10% discount.

All districts will also have reserved spaces for books and roses.

Getting into gear

Over the weekend of 15 and 16 April, children have the chance to enjoy comics, storytelling and reading at Món Llibre, the literary festival for children. The festival is being held at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), in Plaça de Joan Coromines and at the Francesc Candel and Vilapicina i la Torre Llobeta libraries.

The city’s library network will be resuming the Sant Jordi Dialogues from 19 to 22 April, offering three days of conversation between writers about books and literature. The sessions are being held at the Esquerra de l’Eixample – Agustí Centelles, Francesca Bonnemaison and Jaume Fuster libraries.

The opening speech on reading is another classic for Sant Jordi. This year’s talk is by the journalist Gemma Ruiz Palà, winner of the latest Sant Jordi Prize for novels with Les nostres mares. The talk is on 22 April at 6 pm.

Barcelona as a book

Another classic element to Sant Jordi is the poster, which this year recreates a Barcelona imagined from the pages of a book, opening up to invite city people to visit all its corners. The work is a photographic shot of a hand-made three-dimensional paper figure by the artist Maria Laura Benavente, with the collaboration of Arauna Studio, who took charge of the composition, the colour and the typography.

Free copies of the poster are available at the Sala Ciutat and the Palau de la Virreina, while stocks last, and can also be downloaded from the website repository.