A New Name at Our Doorstep: Jardins de l’Areté
The stretch of Port Vell right outside our offices now has an official name — and it’s one of our own values.
The stretch of Port Vell right outside our offices — between the Moll de Barcelona and the Moll de les Drassanes — now has an official name: Jardins de l’Areté.
Barcelona’s city council has approved the new designation, borrowing the same word that anchors the Escola’s 20th-anniversary values and the six stars in its anniversary logo. It’s already the Escola’s own postal address: Jardins de l’Areté, 1.
What’s in the name?
Areté (ἀρετή) is the ancient Greek idea of excellence — not a trait you’re born with, but one you build through practice, choice by choice. It’s the same idea behind the six stars in the Escola’s anniversary logo: imagination, dialogue, self-determination, effort, trust and wisdom. Six practices, not six virtues to admire from a distance.
The naming will get its official unveiling when the Escola kicks off its 20th-anniversary celebrations on October 14, 2026 alongside the installation of the anniversary sculpture on the pedestal already in place in the gardens, with a ground plaque reading “Sapientia” marking the spot.
From this October, one of the Escola’s own values has a permanent address in the heart of the Port of Barcelona — a few steps from where it all began twenty years ago.
