Carrer d’en Mallà
October 14th, 2011
Street scene in Carrer d’en Mallà Barcelona, 1908. By Artur Mas
Places in Barcelona
Articles in ‘Places in Barcelona’
The story of El Paral.lel
June 22nd, 2011 My lastest article in Barcelona Metropolitan. A history of El Paral.lel in Barcelona
Parallel, 1913
February 8th, 2011
Remarkable photo by Frederic Ballell of El El Paral.lel in July 1913, when the avenue was the centre of Barcelona’s nightlife. Music halls, cafés, prostitution, cabaret artists, bon viveurs and a hotbed of anarchism. Many more old photos here
The only Spanish witness at the Nuremburg Trials
December 10th, 2010
Latest history article for Barcelona Metropolitan on Fransesc Boix, the only Spanish witness at the Nuremberg Trials.
Shit architecture
July 30th, 2010
This shit building with the awful name of W Barcelona has ruined the skyline of Barceloneta offering 900 euro a night beds for the rich. A boil on the face of the neighbourhood.
A more balenced view of this monstosity at the Guardian.
The American owners claim their hotel, officially the W Barcelona, is “a modernist masterpiece of avant-garde architecture” whose facade reflects “the captivating colours of the Catalonia sky”. However, elsewhere there has been less praise. The El País columnist Agustí Fancelli denounced the “scandalous privatisation” of one of the key points in the city, comparing the hotel to “an inglorious beer belly”.
A zeppelin over Barcelona
June 7th, 2010
A zeppelin over Barcelona in 1933. More Barcelona zeppelins here
Bar La Tranquilidad in Parallel
June 6th, 2010
La Tranquilad, together with the still-existing Café Español, was the most famous of the cafés of Parallel. As a haven for gangsters, police spies and above all anarchists anything but tranquility reigned here.
During the infamous period of pistolerismo in the early 1920s, Barcelona was awash with guns smuggled from France after the end of the First World War. Weapons were sold openly in the Tranquilidad, which also organised raffles, with the winner taking home a Star pistol, the weapon of choice of the anarcho-syndicalist. More here
Anecdotes about La Tranquilidad abound. In the early 1930s, Durruti and his friends were habitués of La Tranquilidad. One story relates when a young beggar with a defeated air came into the bar asking for money. When he approached Durrut’s table the bar went silent. Durruti stared at the man for a minute, and then pulled his revolver and slammed in on the table, saying “There, take my gun. Go to the bank“. From El corto verano de la anarquía: Vida y muerte de Durruti. (The short summer of Anarchy – what a brilliant title)
The bar was later the scene of fierce fighting on July 18th 1936 when rebel soldiers barricaded themselves in here, before being defeated by the anarchist militia.
La Tranquilidad stood at number 69 Aviguda Parallel next to the Teatro Victoria. I believe it was demolished in the 1940s.
Guinardó park
May 19th, 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 19th, 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.
The Barcelona photoblogger
May 19th, 2010![Estació de França, A Train Station in Barcelona, Spain[enlarge]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4601680839_eb8cd474e7_o.jpg)
Barcelona Photoblog by Carlos Lorenzo is a consistently interesting photo site on which we accompany Carlos on his travels around his city.
Here is on The Estació de França
Estació de França is a magical place for architecture enthusiasts. As seen from La Ribera quarter on the other side of Marques De L’Argentera avenue the place looks rather dull and does not give you any clue of the beauty inside. The moment you walk under its gates the light coming through the stained glass both in the domes and walls gently falls on the polished marble floors creating this mysterious soothing church-like atmosphere quite pleasant if you are about to travel. In fact, I felt like skating across the hall in the way a child would do. The elaborate modernist and art deco motifs and especially those metal spheres hanging from a sort of ring tied to the domes are a pleasure to the eye. Although the railway station has been there since 19th century the building was rebuilt in 1929 for the International Exhibition by renown Spanish architect Pedro Muguruza who held important positions in Francisco Franco’s dictatorial government but that’s another story.
As he puts it “Barcelona pictures there are many, commented Barcelona photos there are few, so I intend to provide not just images but information about the daily life of the city and some aspects of artistic expression such as Barcelona sculpture, Barcelona architecture, Barcelona street art, Art Nouveau or Modernisme.”
