Sant Jordi 2025 is here! The great feast of the book and the rose, one of the favorite days of the Catalans, is already underway so we come to tell you everything you need to know.
From a literary superilla that will occupy the entire city center, to book signings or open doors in the most important museums and buildings in the city, through the best bookstores or the most beautiful florists where you can find a rose for whoever deserves it (or for yourself). For one day, the streets of Barcelona are dressed in spring, books and flowers, and the traditional costume of Barcelona’s inhabitants becomes a dress of flowers, a totebag with literary phrases and, if the weather is nice, some espardenyes de vetes.
To guide you in this great celebration we bring you a complete guide that we will be constantly updating.
Concerts, books, rose stalls, literary superilla… Here you will find all the information you need to not miss anything and be up to date on both the activities and the weather. Feliç Diada de Sant Jordi to all of you!
When is Sant Jordi celebrated?
Sant Jordi is always celebrated on April 23. Unlike last year, when this day fell on a Sunday and we were able to enjoy a kind of “unofficial holiday”, this year it will be Tuesday.
As last year, this day falls on a working day, and although it may seem a challenge for stores, the Chamber of Books of Catalonia predicts a very participatory Sant Jordi, both for the increase in bookstalls and for the great popularity that this party has been gaining in recent years.
New: record number of stands and paid stands
Although unlike last year, this Sant Jordi will fall on a Tuesday and not on a Sunday , the Diada is expected to be bigger than ever, with a record number of stands.
- A record 336 book stalls are expected in the designated professional spaces. Of those, 94 bookstands will be on Las Ramblas, a space recovered last year after pandemic restrictions.
- Paid stands: For the first time, book sellers and publishers will have to pay for having a stand in the center of Barcelona on April 23. The price is 80 euros for a six-meter stop for members of the Gremi de Llibreters and 100 euros for non-members.
- Another novelty communicated by the Gremi de Llibreters is that the list of best-selling books will be communicated after a few days and that, on the same day, only the best-selling books will be communicated.
The Sant Jordi 2025 poster
We already have the official poster for this Sant Jordi 2025. It has been made by Bakoom Studio, which seeks to recover the two essential elements of this celebration: the rose and the book creating, with the colors of the words, the shape of the stem and petals of a rose.
The poster shows the page of a book where you can fit all kinds of stories that live the celebration of Sant Jordi.
El Pregón: Cristina Rivera Garza, Mexican writer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2024
Cristina Rivera Garza (Matamoros, Mexico, 1964) is an author, translator and critic. Her extensive body of work includes Autobiografía del algodón ( Random House, 2022), El invencible verano de Liliana (Random House, 2021; Pulitzer Prize 2024 and finalist for the National Book Award in the nonfiction category), her complete poetry collected under the title Me llamo cuerpo que no está ( Lumen, 2024) and Terrestre (Random House, 2025), her latest book.
His latest book, Terrestre, can be defined as a work of speculative chronicles, travel literature or words in complete freedom. It is an imaginative work about friendship, youth and the power of transformation.
The writer joins the list of town criers who, since 2003, have been the protagonists of this honorary act in the city of Barcelona: Quino, José Saramago, Martí de Riquer, Emili Teixidor, Antonio Tabucchi, Alessandro Baricco, Bernardo Atxaga, José Luis Sampedro, Josep Maria Castellet, Raimon, Albert Sánchez Piñol, Donna Leon, John Banville, Claudio Magris, Yasmina Reza, Almudena Grandes, Mia Couto, Empar Moliner, Irene Vallejo, Imma Monsó, Gemma Ruiz and David Walliams.
Free concerts for Sant Jordi
Sant Jordi Musical returns to the Antiga Fàbrica d’Estrella Damm this Wednesday, April 23 with a day of live music and signings of authors and artists. From 12pm to 8pm enjoy concerts by Alfred García, Sidonie, Ginestà or Fades, among others.
A literary superilla that returns to conquer La Rambla
If something good brought us the pandemic, it has been the “Sant Jordi Literary Superilla”, a large pedestrian space in the heart of Barcelona, where dozens of book and flower stalls are concentrated on April 23.
As last year, the superilla will again be shaped to create the “Illa Sant Jordi”, a space entirely dedicated to pedestrians who want to enjoy the festival and that will extend along the Passeig de Gràcia, from Jardinets de Gràcia to Plaça Catalunya, and its parallel streets, Balmes and Rambla Catalunya, maintaining the recovery of La Rambla, the quintessential promenade of the Diada that had been lost by the pandemic.
During Sant Jordi’s Day, vehicles will be able to circulate along the perimeter streets of the reserved space in the Eixample and also along the streets of Aragon, Valencia and Gran Via. The rest will be for pedestrians only. No parking will be allowed on any street inside the perimeter from 8:00 p.m. on April 22 until traffic reopens. Bicing stations will also be cancelled. It is recommended to move on foot or by subway public transport.
Sant Jordi in the districts of Barcelona: Activities, stops and signatures in 7 districts.
This 2024, for the first time, book and flower stalls will be spread across seven districts of the city.S
Ciutat Vella, with 94 stops.
Books and roses will fill Ciutat Vella from Canaletes to Santa Monica and continue along Las Ramblas. The commitment to Ciutat Vella is complemented by the Passeig de Lluís Companys, which will serve as a connection to the specific space for comics, children’s and young people’s literature, and family audiences on the Passeig de Sant Joan.
Gràcia, with 26 stops (5 of roses)
As in previous years , the stops will be located in Gran de Gràcia, where the road will be closed to traffic. However, this year the area will be extended from Jardinets to Travessera, which will accommodate, in addition to Pla de Salmerón and Plaça de la Vila, the district with the highest density of bookstores in the city.
Eixample, with 230 stops (37 of roses)
In L’Eixample the number of stops will extend along Passeig de Gràcia and transversals. As in previous years, although somewhat extended, the perimeter around Passeig de Gràcia will extend from Gran Via to Diagonal, with several transversals (Diputació, Mallorca, Provença, Rosselló, with extension to Còrsega and two stretches of Diagonal to Balmes) that will connect with Rambla de Catalunya to create a circuit for people to wander, to which Consell de Cent street is added in an area cut off to traffic almost completely (except Aragó, València and Gran Via).
The district is complemented by Plaça de la Universitat and Passeig de Sant Joan, dedicated to comics, graphic novels, children’s and young people’s literature, and family audiences.
Les Corts, with 9 book stalls.
Books and roses are added to the neighborhood fair, with organizations, institutions, stores and many dynamic activities, in the area of Diagonal, between Pau Romeva and Joan Güell, with the aim of decentralizing the festival and joining traditional places or with consolidation initiatives.
Sant Martí
Poblenou, with 8 book stalls
The bookstores are concentrated in two sections of the Rambla del Poblenou, close to most of the bookstores.
La Verneda, with 5 bookstalls (2 of roses).
This year will be a novelty the implementation of book and flower stalls in La Verneda, to celebrate that the Garcia Marquez Library has won the Award for the Best New Library in the World. According to the City Council, there will be literary activities in the library and in front of it there will be three book stalls and two rose stalls.
Sant Andreu, with 6 book stalls (1 rose stall).
Plaça d’Orfila remains the civic epicenter of Sant Andreu, with a space that in addition to roses and books will host authors signing and the district library, thus completing an offer of literary activities scattered in other areas of the neighborhood.
Sarrià, with 4 stops (2 of roses)
In the heart of the Vila, in the Plaza de Sarrià, there will be a space of roses and bookstores of this district.
Diàlegs de Sant Jordi: conversations among women writers
Among the many activities of Sant Jordi, the city organizes the Diàlegs de Sant Jordi, eight conversations between writers from different places based on affinities in their latest works, in what will be a meeting space between authors and readers in the Libraries of Barcelona.
The Sant Jordi Dialogues will take place from April 15 to 23 at the Jaume Fuster, Gabriel García Márquez, Esquerra de l’Eixample – Agustí Centelles and Francesca Bonnemaison libraries. Writers such as Blanca Llum Vidal and Vicenç Altaió, Ferran Torrent and Núria Cadenes, Olivia Laing and Juan Gómez Bárcena, Alberto Manguel, Ingrid Guardiola and Daniel Innerarity, Jonathan Coe, Mar García Puig and Albert Sánchez Piñol will participate .
It is necessary to register in advance for each of the dialogues and the complete program of the Diàlegs can be consulted on the Sant Jordi website.
The best bookstores to celebrate the Diada
Sant Jordi is an ideal day to go for a walk, but let’s not fool ourselves, if we have not yet bought a book for the person we wanted to give it, doing so on the day of Sant Jordi can become a real odyssey, better to be a little foresighted and go to the bookstores and florists of the city some day before to get a gift that allows us to stroll calmly through the stops during the Diada.
In a city with nearly 300 bookstores like Barcelona, there are plenty of places to choose from, but, just in case you have doubts, we leave you some of the best bookstores in the city in this list, so you can stroll through the shelves with tranquility during the week and thus, walk calmly through the stops on April 23.
Oh, and if you are more into second-hand books, we leave you some of the best reused bookstores in the city so you can also go to them in search of your treasure.
Where to get roses for Sant Jordi
Books are, without a doubt, one of the great attractions of this holiday. But beware, they are not the only protagonists. Sant Jordi would not be the festival of books and roses without the latter, and it is during this celebration and the days surrounding it in Barcelona are sold about a third of the roses that are sold in Catalonia the rest of the year.
Of course, getting this traditional gift on April 23 can be a real hassle, so we leave you some of the most beautiful florists in the city so you can find your rose in advance comfortably and enjoy the day watching the queues from afar.
How to keep your roses fresh?
We love to give roses as gifts (and even more to be given them), but anyone who has ever had a rose for Sant Jordi’s Day will have had the same problem: roses wilt quickly. If you buy it in advance, the day of Sant Jordi you give a wilted bud, and if you give it on the same day, after nothing you have a sad flower that speaks badly of the love that has been shown in giving it.
Therefore, we have prepared some tricks to keep your rose fresh as the day you bought it, so that its petals shine as much as the love you showed when you gave it as a gift.
Open doors in monuments and museums
çAs every year, Sant Jordi’s Day in Barcelona will not only be celebrated with book and rose parades. This day is also a wonderful opportunity to enjoy an open day in some of the most emblematic museums and monuments of the city.
Among them we find the Sant Pau Modernist Site, the impressive hospital complex designed by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, the Palau de la Generalitat, current seat of the Government or the Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s unfinished monument emblematic of the city.
If you do not want to miss any of the spaces that you can visit for free only during the day of Sant Jordi take a look at this article in which we explain it in detail.
A different Sant Jordi with comics and graphic novels in the Triángulo Friki in Barcelona.
Reading does not only mean reading great classics of 800 pages. The comic and manga genre is becoming increasingly popular, and Barcelona has several stores specializing in them. They are books for all ages, tastes and themes, beyond the cliché of superheroes that we have internalized (which there are also, no doubt, and they are great).
Passeig Sant Joan will host during Sant Jordi a space dedicated to these genres and youth literature. This promenade is also known as the Triangle Friki, as it is home to the bookstore Gigamesh, Norma Comics and Freaks, as well as more than 30 stores dedicated to comics, role-playing games and merchandising.
Roses, books… And bread? The bread of Sant Jordi
Nothing like accompanying a tradition with a meal to confirm that the tradition is established. In the case of April 23, Barcelona prepares its own Pa de Sant Jordi, a bread that combines walnut, cheese and sobrasada bread to create a bread with the colors of the senyera that represents one of the most beautiful days of Catalonia.
A couple of years ago, we went to Forn Sant Jordi to try it and they explained to us how to prepare it.
The legend of Sant Jordi: Why do people give roses and books on April 23rd?
In case you had ever wondered, in case you had not wondered or in case you did not remember the story (the legendary one that talks about the dragon and the palpable one, which talks about books). Whatever the case, we explain you the origin of the legend and of the Diada de Sant Jordi so that you don’t have anything left to know about one of the most important festivities in Barcelona.
What is the name of the princess of Sant Jordi? Why don’t we know her name?
As April 23rd, an emblematic day in Catalonia, approaches, it is common to reminisce about the legend surrounding this celebrated festival of the book and the rose. You are probably already familiar with the story, either from reading about it in various articles, hearing about it at school or seeing it on the many posters and flyers during Sant Jordi’s Day.
No doubt you know the hero of this tale, the intrepid Jordi, who with his bravery and his sword put an end to the dragon and rescued the princess. However, the name of the other protagonist may not be as well known to you. Although we have all heard of her and mentioned her when referring to the legend, we have rarely stopped to ask something as simple as this: What is the name of the princess?
Our recommendations with the best books to give as gifts this Sant Jordi’s day.
One of the biggest dilemmas surrounding Sant Jordi’s Day revolves around the big question: How do I decide which book to give as a gift this year? Because let’s not kid ourselves, sometimes finding the perfect read for someone other than yourself can be a complicated task.
So this year from Barcelona Secreta we have made a list with our recommendations of books to give (or give yourself) to hit the nail on the head for sure. From books to let a tear drop, graphic novels or poetry to great stories about existence, rebellious women and reflections on freedom or good food and the most gastro facet of Sant Jordi.
Here are some ideas that might inspire you to find the perfect story.
Rose ice cream and Sant Jordi ice cream: the flavors of Sant Jordi in this ice cream shop.
Throughout the month of April Barcelona is buzzing waiting for Sant Jordi and, of course, everyone joins the party. Badiani, which has been linked to the city since it landed in Barcelona, is jumping on the bandwagon with two ideal ice creams for the Diada: the Sant Jordi gelato, which returns after last year’s success, and the new rose gelato.
Gelato Sant Jordi is an ode to the Catalan tradition of giving books and roses as gifts. With a creamy fiordilatte base, which evokes the white pages of a book, and an intense red wild strawberry sauce, which reminds us of roses, it completes this fresh and vibrant taste experience.
The other protagonist of the month is the Rose gelato, made with rose essence, reminiscent of a garden in full bloom, capturing the true essence of the day.
Two ways to enter the Sagrada Familia for Sant Jordi for free
With the arrival of Sant Jordi, the Sagrada Familia is preparing to celebrate this holiday in style and will raffle tickets for a guided tour of the basilica at night.
This will take place the day before the Diada, between 10:25 am and 9:15 pm, and to participate it is only necessary to register on its website until 10 am on Thursday April 18. The winners will receive their tickets by e-mail on the same day.
In addition, during April 23rd all the Jordis, Jordins, Jorges and Georgines will be able to visit the Basilica totally free of charge with a companion. No reservation is required, just show up at the Sagrada Familia between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. with an identity document certifying your name.
In addition, the basilica has released an immersive show that allows to know the history of Sant Jordi walking through the temple.
An alternative plan to escape from the hustle and bustle for a while: Paradox Museum
We love Sant Jordi, but on this special day, at least for a while, it’s good to seek shelter in a place that is not full of people queuing up to buy a rose or get a book signed. Paradox Museum, the museum focused on the concept of paradox (full of tricks and spaces to take great photos and videos), is a good alternative plan to escape the crowds, and if you come as a couple or with a friend, on the 23rd you have a prize!
Only on this day, if you buy a ticket for the museum you get a 2×1, perfect for inviting whoever you want. To get your offer, just access the plan on the website or the Fever app (right here) and select April 23 and the promo will be applied directly.
Will it rain for the Diada de Sant Jordi? The weather in Barcelona on April 23
The week of Sant Jordi is approaching and the AEMET predicts a sharp drop in temperatures (which we have already been noticing). With the current predictions, on April 23 the rain could return.
And although at the moment it is not guaranteed, booksellers are looking at the sky with fear because the unstable weather will be the protagonist and although large showers are not expected, sporadic rains are almost guaranteed.
György, Yrjö, Göran… This is how you say Jordi or Jordina in 17 different languages.
As we had told you, this Sant Jordi the Sagrada Familia is inviting free visits to all those who are called Jordi or Jordina to celebrate the Diada. But the building not only invites those who are called this way in Catalan, but to all those who have this name in the 17 languages that the basilica has in its audioguide.
Among them we have discovered equivalences that we did not know, and that are undoubtedly a striking alternative to the usual Jordi we know. Therefore, we leave you here a list of equivalences of Jordi and Jordina and that you freak out like us with some of the versions of one of the most popular names of Catalonia.
Streets cut and changes in the public transport for Sant Jordi
During the day of the Diada the city will adapt to make this festival a success, and will pedestrianize and adapt many streets of the city to enable all spaces with Sant Jordi stalls. However, this will affect the city traffic during this Tuesday April 23rd.
If you want to know which streets will be closed to traffic, which areas will suffer cuts and detours and how it will affect public transport we tell you in detail in this article so you do not get caught by surprise.