Remarkably, four bottlenosed dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were spotted inside Barcelona harbour (Moll de Barcelona) last month by wildlife experts, the first sighting in recent times in the port itself, though the animal is reasonably common in waters off Barcelona. Loved to have seen them! More here in Catalan
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
Latest history article for Barcelona Metropolitan on Fransesc Boix, the only Spanish witness at the Nuremberg Trials.
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 in 1933. More Barcelona zeppelins here
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.
Lucy’s Barcelona nature blog Spanish Civil War
