Barcelona blog

Rundown farmhouse in the Delta de Llobregat

nick — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:44:04 +0000

Rundown farmhouse in El Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat, near Barcelona. Many, however, have been restored.

Forgotten Barcelona

nick — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:54:40 +0000

The excellent documentary Barraques pays tribute to the people who lived in the numerous shanty villages across the city for decades. One of the largest settlements spread across the hills of Carmel. Ignored by the authorities, the residents had trek every day down the hill to fetch water. Some shacks still remain, but most have either been bulldozed or upgraded into houses. High up on the Turó de La Rovira, people built homes around the gun emplacements from the Civil War. Today all that remains are a few tiles, though a number of renovated shacks still exist on the hill.

Watch this short extract from the documentary as two sisters return to the childhood home, now a place of glass, graffiti and rubble.

See also

Somorrostro shanty town

Spring returns to Barcelona

nick — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:10:49 +0000

After a long, grey and grueling, tiresome and draining, never-ending cold, wet and miserable winter, spring appears to have finally arrived in Barcelona. According to the Council

“According to the weather forecasts, the sun looks set to return to Barcelona while temperatures will not be as cold as they have been over the last few days. An anticyclone will ensure better weather and prevailing sunshine in general. Winter is giving way this week to spring, with a constant and steady rise in temperatures over the next few days. Today and Tuesday will see prevailing sunshine in Barcelona, with temperatures on the rise. The trend will continue on Wednesday, although the sky is expected to get cloudy for a while during the day. There could be complicated weather on Thursday and Friday with some rain showers in the city, though these are expected to be light. We should make the most of the light this week as the days are longer. The sun will rise at approximately 7.03 am and set at around 7 pm.”

Las Arenas bullring

nick — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:54:15 +0000

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.

Changes in the coastline of Barcelona

nick — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:54:41 +0000

Map showing changes in the coastline of Barcelona since prehistoric times. fueled by sedimentation and urbanisation. Note the presence of the island, l’illa de Mains.

From Barcelonanautes

Barcelona’s urban heat island

nick — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:51:39 +0000

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

The Rambles one hundred years ago

nick — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:32:03 +0000

The Barcelona Photographic Archive has just released a hundred or so photos taken between 1907 and 1908. They were taken by Frederic Ballell, one of the pioneers of Catalan photojournalism, who delighted in documenting the daily life of the city. Above a goat herder passes by Palau Moja, below a puppy seller. From La Rambla, hace un siglo

The snow in Barcelona

nick — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:46:31 +0000

Yesterday saw the heaviest snowfall in Barcelona since 1983. Schools were closed, the buses stopped working and roads were blocked. Thousands of people were stranded in the city unable to commute home.

Not quite as heavy as the historic fall of Christmas Day 1963.

More great photos here from El Pais

Books in English set in Barcelona

nick — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:26:15 +0000

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?

nick — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:46:42 +0000

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.