Carrer de Bilbao, Poblenou

Just south of Poblenou metro station Carrer de Bilbao disappeared replaced by the signs and instruments of its reconstruction.

Carrer de Bilbao, Poblenou

This chimney is, I think, in the square bound by Carrer de Bilbao, Carrer de Llull, Carrer del Joncar and Carrer de Marià Aguiló. Chimneys such as these are often the only relics preserved of the old factory complexes of Poblenou now destroyed. Although standing tall, scattered as they are and surrounded by the growths of the new building, they are discovered upon turning corners, not sighted on the skyline. This one bears a protective encasement as all around is razed to foundation level.

Taulat, Poblenou

Taulat was a wetland area - marked by such street names as C del Joncar [reed bed] and C de la Llacuna [lagoon] - part of the old village Sant Martí de Provençals lying closest to the sea. Here untreated fabric was set out to bleach by exposure to the elements before being sent to the local textile mills and subsequently dyed or printed.
Turning on to Passeig del Taulat from Carrer de Bilbao and then on to Carrer Vidal i Valenciano I lighted upon housing impervious to the 22@ redevelopment that is happening around it.


Rounding another corner I discovered the arbour of Plaça de Prim (1851), an enclosure of ombú trees (Phytolacca dioica), drinking-fountain, and benches alternating with purple-leaved ? trees marking a perimeter subordinate to that formed by the shuttered facades.

Selva de Mar, Poblenou

There are many such juxtapositions of the old and the new in the 22@ area of Barcelona, reminiscent of the Changing New York recorded in Berenice Abbott's 1935-1938 Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project documenting the rapidly changing built environment of that city, with such images as Construction old and new, from Washington Street #37, Manhattan (August 12, 1936).


These pale walls of apartment houses on Passeig del Taulat, one side of a square surrounding the tall cylindrical tower of variegated brick reds of the Torre d'Aigües de Macosa (Can Girona) (1880-82) designed by Pere Falqués i Urpí, who is also responsible for the Universal Exhibition lampposts (1888) and other modernista street lamps such as the one with trencadí-encrusted base on Passeig de Gràcia (1906). Pere Falqués i Urpí (1850-1916) was municipal architect of Barcelona 1889-1914, a position he got in competition with Domènech i Montaner, and during this period he made more than lampposts and chimneys.
Torre d'Aigües de Macosa is one of the 46 original items in the now 114-long list of sites of the Patrimoni Industrial del Poblenou.

Cementiri de l'Est, Poblenou

I visited Cementiri de l'Est, or Cementiri Vell [Old Cemetery], on the blustery, showery afternoon of 18 October.




Cementiri de l'Est was founded in 1773 by Bishop Josep Climent and became a civil cemetery in 1838 (local parish cemeteries were closed by military order in 1816 for health reasons). By the 1870s no more large tombs could fit into the cemetery and the wealthier classes on expiring moved out to Cementiri del Sud-Oest (opened in 1883) commanding a fine view of the sea from Montjuïc.
Laid out according to the eighteenth century ideal of a park, the newer tombs in blocks of stacked niches line the avenues near the entrance, the older tombs towards the rear are arranged more haphazardly, with variously Roman sarcophagi, Gothic shrines and Byzantine tombs attended by expressive sculpted figures and emblems of the deceased.


I encountered many cats, pigeons perching on ledges and statues, seagulls drifting over from the sea nearby. A flock of starlings (?) occasionally took flight between a bare-branched tree overhanging the north-east wall and a large evergreen tree close to the monument commemorating the victims of the 1821 yellow fever epidemic.



I ought to record here my gratitude to the security guard who kindly indicated the way to the emergency exit upon finding me a little anxious of mien at the wrong side of the entrance some quarter of an hour after closing time, somewhat puzzled at finding me there specifically, but mercifully sympathetic to my plight!

Passatge del Cementiri Vell

18 October.


To the north-east of Cementiri de l'Est.