See what life in Barcelona is like during the lockdown

The municipality offers a photo bank of thousands of images depicting the life affected by covid-19

If you, too, miss wandering around the streets of beautiful and sunny Barcelona and marvelling at its spectacular buildings designed by Gaudi, if you are wondering what the Catalan capital looks like during the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a solution for you. The municipality of Barcelona has just launched an online portal with thousands of free images to help you understand what the city is going through right now to remind you what it used to be like.

General view of one of the INEFC pavilions adapted for the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Isaac Planella, Imatges Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Images from Barcelona in the times of pandemic

Imatges Barcelona is a municipal photo repository with more than 4,000 photographs available online. The most recent of them, which count more than 700 so far, depict various aspects of the work of essential services, during the lockdown of Barcelona, including the neighbourhoods of the empty city.

You can see the most popular tourist sites of Barcelona deserted and the city’s public spaces overtaken by nature. Yet, most of the repository is filled with images of life in the city in recent years, which creates a contrasting impression of life before and during the coronavirus.

In addition, you can download and use the images under a creative commons license. The virtual space is organized by thematic galleries and has a search engine by keyword to facilitate the location of specific content.

An operator of a cleaning service company uses a pressurized water lance to disinfect containers. Photo by Isaac Planella / Imatges Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Citizens have the right to information

Barcelona has launched this rich photographic collection with the belief that citizens must be able to access truthful and quality information. This fundamental right, the municipality explains, is guaranteed at the municipal level through a set of public resources and open and transparent information services.

They have recently been enriched with Images Barcelona, on top of municipal news, videos, Telegram, and a newsletter.