Anyone who has been young (or not so young) in Barcelona and has wanted, for example, to have a beer in the street or take a walk after leaving the beach, will have noticed that Barcelona is a restrictive city.
We know that Barcelona loves to define itself as modern but the truth is that doing almost anything in public space (or not so public) is generally synonymous with no fines. So today we tell you some of the strangest and most exaggerated that you can get in the city so you have to be careful the next time you want to move quietly through it doing something other than walking or consuming on the terrace of a bar.
It is forbidden to sit in the fresh air
The first fine is the one that reminds you that Barcelona is not a town in Andalusia (or anywhere else), and that here, if you want to take the fresco, you have to do it paying your good 4€ for a vermouth. And the civic ordinance prohibits taking the chair out the door of the house to sit at night, a custom punishable by up to 500 euros.
In the same way, what some backpacker has done sometime camping in a northern European city here is forbidden: 500 euros for planting your tent in the street.
It’s not the only thing you can’t do on the street. Having a beer while walking around Barcelona is the most normal thing in the world, but if you do it, you have to know that you risk fines of 500€ for buying a can, selling it or throwing it on the ground or fines of 100€ for drinking it.
And the consequences of that beer can also be expensive: €1,500 for urinating in the street if you do it in a park or on a monument. The same goes for “decorating” public space: 750€ for graffiti. In short, public space is not to be touched.
No cooking… in your home
But public space is not the only thing strictly regulated by the rules of civility. You probably didn’t know it, but Sunday barbecues on rooftops (or even on balconies, if you can manage), are also prohibited, at the risk of paying a fine of 500€.
In this article we explain in depth the fines for barbecuing at home and the reasons why they are imposed.
Summer seems to be forbidden in Barcelona: 200€ for walking without a shirt (although the neighbors of some neighborhoods will be grateful to stop this guiri custom) or 200€ more, this time from the DGT, for driving in flip-flops, without a shirt or doing it while drinking a soft drink.
Finally, watch out what you do with your garbage too : taking it out wrong in Barcelona can mean a punishment of up to 600 euros, which the inspectors will get you by literally rummaging through the bags you throw on the street. So be careful, because here nobody and nothing is safe.