Adeline Aránega opened Kitsch, Spain’s first sex shop, in 1978 on Barcelona’s infamous Robador street – the authorities shut it down within three months. It took her four years to register the business legally. She still owns the shop, now on Carrer Muntaner in Sant Antoni, where the shelves stock brands like LELO and Fun Factory as well as a range of lingerie and books. The bright, open layout dates to her nineties redesign, when she rebuilt it so women could browse in peace. In Gràcia, Amantis has a location (one of many now in Spain) and manufactures their own range of sex toys, which they sell alongside books and lingerie in a space designed to welcome women. Recycled materials furnish the light-filled space, and the team runs regular events and workshops.
The sex shops in this guide have room to browse and staff to talk to about what they sell. That conversation carries on at workshops and talks; a shop tour can be led by a sexologist. Most of these shops keep an online store as well as a physical space, with discreet delivery for orders placed online.
Miniguide has covered Barcelona since 2002 – eighteen years in print, digital since 2020. We write from first-hand knowledge: our own legwork, not aggregated reviews.
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Address: C/ Muntaner, 17-19 (Sant Antoni)Hours: Today 11:00–20:00, 11:00–20:00
On March 8, 1978, a 21-year-old Adeline Aránega opened Spain’s first sex shop on Carrer d’en Robador in the Raval – and within three months the authorities shut it down for peligrosidad social. She had learned the trade running a shop of the same name in Perpignan, and she didn’t scare easily; it still took until 1982 before the business could legally register at all. Nearly half a century on, Kitsch is still hers, long since settled uptown on Muntaner.
The real revolution came in the nineties, when Aránega rebuilt the place as a juguetería para adultos – bright, open and laid out like any ordinary shop, so that women who would never duck into a back-street sex shop could browse in peace. That idea has aged into the house identity: a woman-owned institution where the advice is as much a part of the stock as anything on the shelves.
And the shelves run deep – some three thousand references, with LELO, Fun Factory, Iroha, Tenga and We-Vibe among the brands – plus lingerie, books and a pelvic-floor sideline taken seriously enough that the shop hosts retreats with specialists. Long known for its sexologist-led shop tours and talks, it also runs a full online store with discreet delivery for anyone not ready for the doorway even now.
