Bon Pastor and Baró de Viver Neighbourhoods are part of the working city of Barcelona, which is now facing new challenges while conserving old buildings featuring the old architectural nature of the area.
The history of Sant Andreu District has started with a rural origin, passed through an industrial revolution and reached a commercial tradition.
Far from the centre of Barcelona, the historic area of Sant Andreu with its working class neighbourhoods offers a distant image from the modernist style of the city itself. This area features landscapes with Roman and Medieval remains, as well as cheap properties that are part of the architectural urban heritage.
With 1000 years of history and a century of working class dwellings, the centre of Sant Andreu defines its past and future. It is an area that will change with the arrival of high speed means of transports and will make the new Avenida Meridiana more habitable.
Today we are getting to know this working city of popular architecture, which hides a history full of light and shadows.
Neighbourhoods that define themselves!
Meridiana: from avenue to pedestrian boulevard
With eight lanes and thousands of vehicles moving along it, Avenida Meridiana is one of the main entrance and exit thoroughfares of the city of Barcelona.
Transforming this huge urban avenue that divides neighbourhoods and districts into a pedestrian backbone with green areas is one of the challenges of the government of Barcelona for the following years.
On November 19th, there will be a participative process in which people from Barcelona will be able to define this ambitious transformation, whose works will start in 2018.
At the same time, another backbone that will be part of the transformation will be Ronda de Dalt of Barcelona. This important avenue will run underground from Plaça de Karl Marx (Guineueta Neighbourhood) to Avenida Meridiana.
In this way, new spaces will be added and the environmental impact of heavy traffic will be reduced.
Sant Andreu del Palomar
This is the neighbourhood with the longest history of Sant Andreu, with 1000 years of documented life as independent municipality. It has been part of Barcelona since 1897.
Its past features Roman remains and traditional Catalan country houses. With the passing of time, Sant Andreu del Palomar has become the urban core of the whole district, featuring a lively commercial area.
Towards the North, it borders Avenida Meridiana. The heart of this neighbourhood is Plaça Orfila, right next to Passeig Torras i Bages.
In this square, there is the splendid Church of Sant Andreu del Palomar, as well as one of the best works of rationalism, Casa Bloc. There are also houses that were built between 1932 and 1936 by Josep Lluís Sert, Josep Torres Clavé and Joan Baptista Subirana, all of them part of 48h Open House.
These singular apartments represented an innovative project for the working class and today, they are considered ‘Good of Cultural Interest’.
Baró de Viver
At the end of the 20s, and on the lands bought from Marchioness of Castellvell, the so called ‘Cheap houses’ (in Spanish, ‘Casas Baratas‘) were built in the neighbourhood of Baró de Viver.
Some decades later, the area surrounded by Ronda de Dalt and Ronda del Litoral changed thanks to the new riverside park that surrounds Besós River.
New facilities and the arrival of Metro service to the area have changed the landscape of this neighbourhood, ending with its isolation and adding life to the area.
Between Baró de Viver and the neighbourhood of Bon Pastor, there is the shopping centre ‘La Maquinista‘, another point of interest worth mentioning. Surrounded by old factories and featuring new residential complexes, the area will soon be complemented by the arrival of AVE service to La Sagrera and the construction of a huge natural area.
Bon Pastor
In Bon Pastor Neighbourhood, there are references from the 12th century. The area has improved thanks to the well-known Rec Comtal (old irrigation channel that used to supply water to Barcelona), the mills and agriculture.
Located between Barcelona and the municipality of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, the neighbourhood became part of the capital city in 1945.
In the middle of the area, there is one of the clearest examples of popular architecture from the beginning of the 20th century, which is now part of the historic heritage of the city.
However, the urban plans for Bon Pastor are aimed at replacing the group of 784 ‘cheap houses’ by 754 new dwellings. Moreover, the renovation will conserve the historic past thanks to the creation of a centre of interpretation of the working dwelling in a symbolic block surrounded by the streets Claramunt, Tàrrega, Bellmunt and Barnola.
This part of the working city will be replaced by a new Barcelona, while conserving its architectural heritage.
