In this article I want to talk about why Barcelona urban city structure, with big blocks and straight lines.
It looks like a grid from the top!
Yeah that’s weird.
It’s all fall of Cerdà, a Catalan architect, who in the middle of 1800 decided to propose an extension from the old city: a city without class division, without difference between rich and poor.
LETS GOOOOO
Yesterday I went to visit the famous Barcelona’s Bunker located on top of Turó de la Rovira, a hill 280m high in the middle of the city. Once you reach the top, there is a biiiiiig open space where, back in 1939, there were installed anti-aircraft warfare. (Apparently to defend themselves from Italian Fascist, ouch).
From here you have a 360-degree view of Barcelona. It’s really one of the best free views of the city. Here’s a link for the video
It feels good to be above 1.6M locals, overlook the city like Mufasa and Simba in the Lion King, but I don’t wanna judge a book by its cover.
YES, it is beautiful and romantic as much as you want, but why? Why is beautiful ? What’s the magic factor?
After a few beers and a great sunset, I thought I might have found it.
“Is the Geometry of the city”
Back in the days…
Villages were developed around the house of the most powerful person, or family: a king palace, a duke, a sultan, or a church.
This is quite a unique feature of European cities, especially in a big Metropoly ( Metropoly means Mother-City, from ancient Greek).
Examples:
PARIS: what is called now the Musee du Louvre used to be for centuries the center of French Royalty, located right in the middle of the city. ( In purple I wanted to indicate the development f the city)
Same as the Duomo in Milan, located right in the middle of the city.
In Barcelona you can still visit the oldest part of the town called, Gothic quarter. The buildings are tall and close to each other.
Few weeks ago, when we were looking for an apartment, we removed the Gothic Quarter from our list because the buildings are very old, most of them have no lift and rarely have natural sunlight. Plus you are right in the city center, so it’s always packed with tourists, and it’s not very easy to live.
“Overcrowding”
In the beginning of the 18th century Barcelona was surrounded by strong tall walls, and outside there were just farms and two little villages: Gracia and Sants.
The port was always busy, streets were narrow and horses were the only “public transportation” at the time. I can imagine a layer of shit on the ground.
The population’s density was higher than London and Paris.
To make everything worst, a Cholera pandemic hit the city!!!
Barcelona needed an upgrade, and Cerdà was the man.
An upgrade able to reach out Gracia and Sants, the other two villages in proximity of the Gothic Quarter. More then an upgrade they needed an extension.
He simply thought: “Let’s ruralize the urban!”.
He had passion for accessible art, open space, things that old cities leaked.
The Extension, in Catalan L’Example.
Cerdà not only built a “Built an extension” of the city without class division or exclusive area but pioneered urban planning. In fact, he focused on the quality of the neighbor: air quality, possible traffic, green area, and exposure.
The Manzanas defines Barcelona City structures
Originally each Manzana, or city blocks, was to be built upon only 2 or 3 sides, and the rest had to be public gardens.
L’Eixample was a wheat field and the first one was built in Urgell/Floridabanca.
Victor Balague was a poet who was assigned to give the name of Eixample street.
Each city block is like a little neighborhood where everyone knows each other and recalls the feeling of living in a small village. Cerdà ensured that each Manzana has a garden in the middle, and housing blocks to be orientated NW-SE to guarantee all apartments sunshine during the day.
But the bureaucracy of this country…
Cerda’s plan wasn’t approved right away. I researched it and it took him more or less 10 years before starting this project. It makes me feel better because I know bureaucracy hasn’t changed a bit since 1850 to now… IT IS STILL VERY SLOW.
( Here my struggle to get NIE, a permit to work in the country: )
The Vision
At the time cars were not invented yet, there was just a project to develop a train line across the city. He thought that in the future there will be “some sort of small machines moved by steam that each driver could stop in front of their house”.
BOOOOOOM
So each Manzana, or city block, is not really a big square but it is an octagonal block: eight sides. They do so to allow drivers to see more easily what was happening to the left and right.
What a legend!
Superblock, Superilla
And here is special news for the year 2050. Barcelona wants to become a city with ZERO CO2 emission. A group of nine existing blocks where traffic will then be restricted to just the roads in the superblock perimeters, and they will only be allowed in the streets in between if they are residents or providing local businesses.
I always wondered what was the story behind, because as I said in the beginning it is quite rare in Europe to see this kind of structure. Like for example in Italy it’s pretty hard to touch cities because they are either protected by UNESCO, or the mentality of people is too close to convincing them to change house!!!
I guess other cities had different opportunities to be rebuilt: they either were completely destroyed by the 2WW, or strongly hit by natural catastrophes. But a human wants to do more for other humans?! That’s special!
The End
That’s all beautiful people for today, if you read till here that means you are a true legend to me. Please let me know what’s your thoughts and opinion on this post.
Your comments are GOLD to me.
Let me know if you want to know more about Barcelona.
Ciao, be safe!
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