The Gothic Heart
From a quiet medieval square to the Roman forum where the city began — where nothing is quite as old as it looks.
Don’t just see the city. Hear its stories.
Self-guided audio walks, researched and fact-checked down to the last detail. Stand where each story happened, listen, then walk on.
Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastián, Istanbul, Rome, London and Lisbon. 2.99 € each, yours to keep.
How it works
Stop, listen, walk on.
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Choose a walk.
Pick your route — it loads onto your phone, ready to go.
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It starts on its own.
As you reach each stop, the audio begins instantly — no hunting for the right track.
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Walk on when you're ready.
Stand where it happened, listen, then carry on at your own pace.
Cities & tours
Every walk, researched and made for the place it belongs to.
Barcelona
5 walks
Gràcia — The Village That Refused To Disappear
Once an independent town, now a Barcelona neighbourhood that never quite stopped being itself.
Sea, Power & Memory — Part I: The Working Sea
The medieval waterfront, from the royal shipyards to the merchants' exchange — how the city that built ships became a Mediterranean power.
Sea, Power & Memory — Part II: The Reclaimed Shore
Most of the coastline you walk in Barcelona is barely thirty years old. Barcelona didn't find its beach — it made one.
Beyond the Walls
A wall is not a monument to a city's strength — it is a city admitting it is afraid.
Madrid
7 walks
Castizo Madrid — The Neighbourhood That Outlived Its Own Work
Madrid's most famous market grew up around a slaughter yard and a district of tanners — the work is long gone, but what it produced was the neighbourhood itself.
Gran Vía — They Started Building Paris and Finished New York
Madrid ordered a boulevard from a king, and took delivery of a skyline from a republic.
The Christmas Fire — The Night Madrid Lost Its Castle
On Christmas Eve 1734, the fortress that had been the heart of Madrid for eight hundred years burned to the ground while the city was at Midnight Mass.
Bourbon Madrid — The Hill of Sciences
A king laid four instruments along one gentle hill to teach Madrid how to look at the world — and they are all still here.
Habsburg Madrid — The Capital That Was Ordered Into Being
Madrid didn't become a capital. It was told to be one — with no ceremony and no decree, only a note about changing address.
Literary Madrid — Where the Golden Age Wrote and Fought
Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Quevedo and Góngora all lived within a few streets of each other — and most of them couldn't stand the sight of one another.
Malasaña — Named From Below
A convent named this corner of Madrid, then a university. The third name came from its own people.
San Sebastián
2 walks
The Soul of San Sebastián
From the elegance of La Concha to the working soul of the old harbour.
The Making of Donostia
Not a city that simply happened: from the day its walls came down in 1863 to a tobacco factory reborn as a cultural centre.
Istanbul
6 walks
Sultanahmet — Nothing Here Stayed What It Was
The most photographed square in Istanbul is a Roman racetrack, and the shops selling you carpets are standing on an imperial palace.
Divanyolu — What Mehmet Inherited Was a Ruin
The tram outside the Grand Bazaar runs on a Roman road, and the fountain up in Süleymaniye is called “under the arch” because it is.
Kadıköy & Moda — The Istanbul Across the Water
An oracle told the founders of Istanbul to settle opposite the land of the blind — and the land of the blind is where you're standing.
Bebek & Rumeli Hisarı — The Strait Before It Was a View
Everyone on this shore is looking at the water. That habit is about a hundred years old.
Dolmabahçe — The Palace Had Two Faces
A bay was filled in to make a garden, and a palace was put on the garden.
Galata & Pera — The Strength of Not Belonging
This district ran the empire's money without being the empire.
Rome
8 walks
Colosseum to Caracalla — A Gift to the People
Emperors gave Rome its greatest buildings as gifts: open to the whole city, and inside them, rank still decided your place.
Campo Marzio — Once Outside Rome
Outside its sacred line, Rome put everything it would not allow inside. That open field became the middle of the city.
St. Peter's — The View That Cost a Neighbourhood
Popes, architects and Napoleon all wanted this view. Nobody built it until 1936, and a whole quarter came down for it.
The Ghetto — Built to Convert
In 1555 a pope walled the Jews of Rome into a few streets by the Tiber, and the order said what it was for: to convert them.
Rome Ran Out of Water — And Took Its Hills Back
Rome lost its water and came down off its hills. This walk follows the one aqueduct that never stopped.
Testaccio — The Hill That Was Thrown Away
A hill made of millions of broken Roman oil jars, which the city's own heritage office calls the first sorted rubbish tip in history.
Esquilino — Written Over
The new Italy laid out a grand quarter for its clerks on the Esquiline. It did not go to plan.
Garbatella — The Workers' Utopia the Regime Finished
A garden city for workers, founded in 1920 and finished by a government that wanted it to do something else.
London
8 walks
Bankside — Where the City's Rules Ran Out
From Southwark Cathedral to St Paul's, through the south bank where the City's rules did not reach, and playhouses and bear gardens could.
Westminster — Chains on the River
From a duke's water gate to Westminster Abbey: the Thames once came up to the palace stairs, until the riverbank was pushed out into the water.
The City to Tower Bridge — The Map Survived
From Bank to Tower Bridge: the Great Fire of 1666 burned the City, but its streets and plots survived, because nobody had the money to redraw them.
Covent Garden & Bloomsbury — Who Holds the Key
From the Covent Garden piazza to Russell Square: squares laid out by landowners for their residents, and one garden whose gate still needs a key.
South Kensington — What One Exhibition Paid For
From the site of the 1851 glass building to the Natural History Museum, on the land south of the park that the Great Exhibition's profit helped pay for.
Greenwich — Zero, Give or Take
From a sailing ship's clock to the line the world calls zero — and on to a second zero, about 100 metres east, where the walk ends.
Soho — Proved by the Exceptions
From John Snow's first London home to Piccadilly Circus: the cholera of 1854, and who drank from one pump and who didn't.
St James's Park — Nature by Design
From Admiralty Arch to the Victoria Memorial, through a park where much of what looks natural — the lake, even the rocks — was designed.
Lisbon
5 walks
Baixa — Lisbon, Redrawn
From Rossio station to the river, through a lower town that looks old but was drawn on paper after the earthquake of 1755 and built on the rubble.
Alfama — Older Than Its Houses
From the Castle of São Jorge down to the Chafariz de Dentro, through a quarter said to have survived 1755: the houses mostly fell, the streets did not.
Chiado — Two Fires
From Largo do Carmo to São Pedro de Alcântara: a famous ruin that is really an unfinished rebuilding, and an ordinary-looking street that burned in 1988.
Mouraria — Kept Apart
From the Senhora do Monte viewpoint down to Martim Moniz, across the slope where Lisbon's Muslims had to live, outside the walls, after 1147.
Belém — The 1940 Stage
From the Jerónimos Monastery to the Belém Tower, through an Age of Discovery scene largely staged for a 1940 exhibition, its plaster monument later rebuilt in stone.
Why OpenEar
Made by hand, on foot.
Every word, checked.
We don't publish a story until it's researched and fact-checked. What you hear actually happened — exactly as it's told.
Built to be stood in.
Each story is made for one exact spot, so you hear it standing right where it happened.
One voice, the whole way.
A single narrator who knows the city, walking beside you like a friend.
FAQ
Good questions, honest answers.
Which cities can I walk?
Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastián, Istanbul, Rome, London and Lisbon. More cities are in the works.
Does it work offline?
Yes — completely. Download a walk and both the audio and the map work with no signal at all. Useful if you're roaming, underground, or just saving battery.
How long do I keep a tour?
Once you buy a walk, it's yours to keep — no time limit. Download it and come back to it whenever you like.
What languages can I listen in?
English, Spanish, French, German and Italian.
Do I need a guide or a group?
No. It's just you, your headphones, and your own pace. Start, pause, and walk whenever you like.
Start walking.