Barcelona has 14 public holidays in 2027: the 12 set by the Catalan Government for the whole of Catalonia and the city's 2 local holidays. Three of them fall on a Saturday, and two of the usual ones, 15 August and 26 December, drop off the calendar because they fall on a Sunday this year.
Here are the dates with their day of the week, the long weekends they create and, if you run a company, what the law requires you to do with this calendar before 1 January.
The 14 public holidays in Barcelona in 2027
- 1 January (Friday): New Year's Day
- 6 January (Wednesday): Epiphany (Reyes)
- 26 March (Friday): Good Friday
- 29 March (Monday): Easter Monday
- 1 May (Saturday): Labour Day
- 17 May (Monday): Whit Monday (Pasqua Granada), local holiday
- 24 June (Thursday): Sant Joan
- 11 September (Saturday): National Day of Catalonia (Diada)
- 24 September (Friday): La Mercè, local holiday
- 12 October (Tuesday): Spanish National Day
- 1 November (Monday): All Saints' Day
- 6 December (Monday): Constitution Day
- 8 December (Wednesday): Immaculate Conception
- 25 December (Saturday): Christmas Day
The 12 regional holidays are set by Order EMT/52/2026, published in the DOGC on 1 April 2026. The two local holidays are approved by Barcelona City Council. If your company has workplaces outside the city, the two local holidays change in each municipality.
What makes the 2027 calendar different
Three holidays on a Saturday
1 May, 11 September and 25 December fall on a Saturday. For anyone who does not work on Saturdays, that holiday is not automatically made up: the Workers' Statute does not require it to be compensated, and compensation exists only where the collective agreement or a company agreement provides for it. It is the most frequent question every year that holidays land on a weekend, and the answer is in the collective agreement, not in the general law.
Two holidays that are missing
15 August and 26 December (Sant Esteve) fall on a Sunday in 2027 and the Catalan Government has not moved them to the Monday. 12 October, on the other hand, is on the calendar. If you prepare your 2027 calendar by copying last year's, this is the first mistake that will show up.
Long weekends
Easter gives four days in a row, from 26 to 29 March. 17 May, 24 September and 1 November each make a long weekend. 12 October, a Tuesday, invites a bridge day on Monday 11, and 6 and 8 December enclose Tuesday 7. These are days your staff will ask for, and it is best to have decided before publishing the calendar whether they are a collective closure, a floating day or a normal working day.
If you run a company: the working calendar is a legal obligation
The list of public holidays is not the working calendar. Article 34.6 of the Workers' Statute requires every company to draw up its own working calendar each year and to display a copy in a visible place at every workplace. Failing to display it is a minor infringement under Article 6.1 of the LISOS, punishable by a fine of up to 750 euros. The fine is small; the real problem lies elsewhere: without a calendar, every dispute over hours, leave or public holidays is argued without a written reference, and the Labour Inspectorate reads that as a lack of control over working time.
What it must contain
- Annual working hours, as set by your collective agreement, and how they are spread across the year.
- Working hours for each workplace, shift or group, with rest periods: at least twelve hours between shifts and a day and a half of weekly rest.
- The 14 public holidays, including the two local ones for each workplace.
- Annual leave: the period or periods, any collective closures, and the leave schedule so that each employee knows their dates at least two months in advance, as Article 38 requires.
- Irregular distribution of working hours, if you use it: up to 10 % of annual hours in the absence of an agreement, with at least five days' notice.
- Bridge days and floating days recognised by the agreement or the company, and how to request them.
Who is involved and when
The company draws it up, but not alone: employee representatives have the right to be consulted before it is published, and many collective agreements require it to be negotiated. Agreement is not required unless the collective agreement says so, but you must be able to prove that the consultation took place. The calendar must be published before 1 January. In practice, October and November are the months to close it: the official dates have been known since April and staff start planning in the autumn.
Working-time records and the calendar must match
Since Royal Decree-Law 8/2019, companies record each employee's working time every day. The working calendar is the reference against which that record is read. A calendar announcing one schedule and a record showing another is the inconsistency that most often triggers a labour inspection on working time.
The mistakes we see every year
- Copying last year's calendar without checking which holidays have changed. In 2027, 15 August and Sant Esteve disappear.
- Applying Barcelona's local holidays to a workplace in another municipality.
- Publishing it without consulting employee representatives where the collective agreement requires it.
- Leaving out the annual hours set by the agreement, so the calendar cannot show whether hours are being exceeded.
- Setting a collective closure for annual leave without respecting the two months' notice.
- Publishing it only on the intranet. That is the right channel for remote workers; the physical workplace still needs a displayed copy.
- Not updating it after a change of collective agreement or working hours mid-year.
If you are an employee
Your employer must have the working calendar for your workplace published, and you are entitled to consult it. If a public holiday falls on a day you do not normally work, check your collective agreement first: it is what says whether it is compensated or not. You must know your annual leave dates at least two months before taking them.
Let's talk about your calendar
If you are preparing your 2027 working calendar and want to publish it knowing it complies with your collective agreement and the Workers' Statute, tell us how many workplaces you have, which agreement applies and whether you have employee representatives. That is enough for us to tell you what to check. We are a Barcelona law firm and we work in English, Spanish, Catalan, French and Italian.
