On the two-hour Alternative Free Tour of the Raval, we’ll discover the origins of this strange part of the city. Barcelona’s El Raval neighborhood has been on the map since the middle ages. However, it has always been an outsider in the city of Barcelona. Quite literally, it developed outside the city limits. In spite of being incorporated into the city later on, it remained a separate, more rejected place. In other words, it was a neighborhood to host Barcelona’s undesirables.