Urban art or “street art” has its origin in the 90s as a sign of rebellion or identity. Far from the typical graffiti that disfigures the streets, new forms of art have emerged that have little to envy shown in museums. Many cities have joined the bandwagon of giving up depressed spaces in the town or empty walls so that street artists can display all their art, giving a new look to the environment. If you are one of those, who like to discover these art samples while walking through a city, here we show you seven places in Spain where you can find different routes of murals.
#1. Route of the murals of Zamora
In 2013, this project was born to give a “facelift” to the walls of many of the streets of the old town of Zamora. The fruit of three years is a route that goes from Rúa de Los Notarios to Calle Luis Ulloa Pereira, passing through the viewpoints of San Bernabé, El Troncoso, Pizarro or San Cipriano; that tells us about the history of Zamora and its architecture. One of the most important is the large mural on Luis Ulloa Pereira street, where we can see images of the most representative monuments of Zamora: the castle, the cathedral and the food market.
#2. Route of the murals of El Provencio
This typical La Mancha town with just 2,500 inhabitants has known how to find new ways to make itself known in an area little known by tourism. Since creating the International Comic Fair 7 years ago, the most influential cartoonists in the comic industry, such as DC and Marvel, have passed through authors of national comics. In this last edition, they have joined the Comic Walls association to transfer the drawings of the vignettes to the walls of the town’s main streets – a total of 10 murals that show that El Provencio is not just any town.
#3. Route of the murals of Estepona
In the last three years, the facades of Estepona’s white houses have gone from being a simple structure to a canvas on which painters and artists exhibit their works. Little by little, it has become one more attraction in the city with works as unique as Reflections from the garden, the largest vertical mural in Europe made by a single artist, or Fishing Day, which became the giant vertical mural. from Spain, both creations of the realist painter José Fernández Ríos.
#4. Route of the murals of Madrid
If Madrid’s neighbourhood should have its urban art route, it would undoubtedly have to be Malasaña, one of it’s most alternative and cosmopolitan neighbourhoods. Initiatives such as the Madrid Street Art Project, in which hundreds of artists pass through the neighbourhood every year to give it another face from the blinds of the shops, the facades of the houses to the walls of the old Tabacalera.
#5. Route of the murals of Calpe
One of Costa Blanca’s best-known destinations, Calpe, has a beautiful old town next to the old city wall. Among the houses with white facades, we find murals that play with the perfections in Trompe L’oeils and others in a mosaic mode, such as the one located on the main front of the Tourist Office; the work of the Alicante painter and muralist Gastón Castelló.
#6. Route of the murals of Vigo
It all started in 2014 with the mural that Luis Olaso and Aarón Diego painted on a canvas on a dividing wall. At the time, it was quite a surprise. But two years later, the city reaches almost thirty murals that range from the most classic paintings to the most avant-garde aesthetics of established artists such as Xavier Maghalhaes, Nelson Villalobos, Darío Basso or Antón Pulido.
#7. Route of the murals of Barcelona
Without a doubt, one of the pioneers of urban art in Spain had to be on this list. It was considered one of the European graffiti capitals, where people with extraordinary talent came. Unfortunately, a more restrictive change in regulations began to persecute these artists, regarding it as acts of vandalism. Fortunately, several associations are trying to recover the importance of these particular drawings have had for the city; thanks to the project, Murs Lluires (Free Walls), underused spaces are being released to recover these art samples.
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