Barcelona blog

Green roofs in Barcelona
June 12, 2010
Barcelona has 3.5 hectares of green roofs in 54 of the city’s terraces and buildings which use system. Green roofs could be expanded to cover a surface area of close to 96 hectares, if all the city’s available spaces were to be used. in 2009, the city saw green roofs installed in several municipal buildings such as the Biblioteca Zona Nord (1,200 square metres) and the Fàbrica del Sol (150 square metres). More here

A zeppelin over Barcelona
June 7, 2010
A zeppelin over Barcelona in 1933. More Barcelona zeppelins here

Guinardó park
May 19, 2010
Guinardó Park is one of my favourite of Bareclona’s off-the-beaten-track parks. More here from Barcelona Metropolitan who describe it as “an overlooked rustic gem in the middle (sic) of Barcelona”

Pedestrian Barcelona
May 19, 2010
The Guardian has nominated Les Rambles as one of five streets in the world that should be pedestrianised for the greater good, though I’m sure cutting off the only thoroughfare through this part of the centre would be at all sensible.

With only two narrow lanes of traffic astride a tree-lined pedestrian walkway, Barcelona’s Las Ramblas is often cited as a success in urban planning. The reality, however, is somewhat different. Hemmed in by the layout, when the shoppers, gadabouts and meanderers are out in force, the pressure pushes them back out: straight into the roads. At such moments, no number of trees or funky shops can conceal the overwhelming impression that the boulevard which cuts through the heart of the city centre is nothing more than a 1.2km-long traffic island.

Guided tour of Spanish Civil War in Barcelona
April 28, 2010
I’m now offering two guided routes in English of the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona, covering themes such as Anarchism, George Orwell, the realities of daily life, bombing. I hope this is a different way at looking at the city. More here

Spring returns to Barcelona
March 16, 2010
After a long, grey and grueling, tiresome and draining, never-ending cold, wet and miserable winter, spring appears to have finally arrived in Barcelona. More...

Las Arenas bullring
March 16, 2010
Excellent article on the woes of Las Arenas bullring by journalist Nicholas John Mead. Barcelona is already famous for problems that have beset the Sagrada Familia, but for the last two years the prestigious €100m Las Arenas bullring restoration project in Plaça Espanya has run into setback after setback with contruction only resuming a few weeks ago. Read here There were once three bullrings in Barcelona - Plaza de el Torin which was built in 1834, but was demolished long ago ; the above Plaza de las Arenas,  built in 1900 and closed in 1977; and the present bullring, the Plaza de Toros Monumental, built in 1914.

Barcelona's urban heat island
March 11, 2010
Barcelona’s urban heat island effect causes markedly higher temperatures in the city than the surrounding rural areas. The difference is most pronounced at night during anticyclonic conditions in the winter with temperatures as much as 6.9ºC lower. There heat is channeled along corridors of flats, and there a mere 200 hectares of green areas in the city, though the city’s 100,000 street trees have a mitigating effect. The heat island is most noted in the Eixample. The Besós River functions as a corridor bringing in cold air to the coast. More details in Catalan

Books in English set in Barcelona
March 8, 2010
The Oh Barcelona site has a short but good round-up of the books in English set in Barcelona. Montalbán,  Mendoza, Ruiz Zafon, Tóibín, Hughes, etc. More here

Where is Columbus pointing to?
March 4, 2010
Not America that’s for sure. The Barcelonautes blog claims to have the answer: La Platja de Sa Calobra in Mallorca. After that it’s Algiers, the Sahara desert and the length of Africa.

Tàpies foundation reopens
March 4, 2010
The Fundació Antoni Tàpies opened its doors this week after being closed for reforms for several years.  More in English

Timeline of Barcelona
March 1, 2010
I’ve put together this timeline of Barcelona in the history section. Still very unfinished.

Spanish flu in Barcelona
February 15, 2010
Spanish flu killed 1554 people in Barcelona in the terrible outbreak between 1918 and 1919. 370 people died in a single day in the city on 21st 1918.

• More here
• Historical documents from the period (La Vanguardia)