Living in Sant Pau (Nou Campanar), Valencia: a neighborhood guide

Living in Sant Pau

Sant Pau (play_arrow) is by far the largest barrio in the Campanar district: 389.8 hectares on the north-west edge of the city, from the old Turia riverbed in the south to the CV-30 ring road in the north, with Avinguda de les Corts Valencianes roughly along its eastern side and the municipality of Paterna to the west. Most people know its newer half as Nou Campanar.

In Castilian it is San Pablo. The name does not come from a church in the barrio. Local histories trace it to the Molí de Sant Pau, a mill on the Rascanya irrigation channel west of Campanar village, near today's Hospital Nou d'Octubre, which paid its dues to the Jesuit college of Sant Pau in the city. The rural area around the mill took its name; the mill itself has gone.

Sant Pau was a farming district of Campanar and became part of Valencia with it in 1897. It stayed largely rural until the last decades of the 20th century, when the high-rise blocks, parks and wide avenues of Nou Campanar went up on the old fields.

That growth is still visible in the numbers. According to the Ajuntament's municipal register, 5,858 people lived in Sant Pau in 2001 and 19,098 on 1 January 2025, which makes it the most populous barrio in the district today.

Transport: the barrio is too large for one answer. Campanar and Beniferri, on metro lines 1 and 2, sit near its eastern side, Nou d'Octubre on lines 3, 5 and 9 is across the old riverbed to the south, and EMT buses cover the rest. Check the walk from the exact street before you sign.

Trade-offs: flats are newer and bigger than in the older barrios, many with pools and garages, but the area is built around the car and the centre is a bus or metro ride away. For a village atmosphere, Campanar's old core is next door to the east.