Power By The Spanish Revolution

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

An annotated essay on the history of Barcelona, Spain, and how the history of the city has influenced change within the cultural and architecture. With reference to influential artistic movement, key historical events and social change. I don’t believe you can understand the true impact of cultural change without knowing more that key historical events, therefore I intent to extent the historical information. Of which an annotated essay, involves identifying and writing about the main issues, comment on its given reaction based upon what I’ve read and heard in lectures, avoiding purely personal opinion.

Barcelona is a city which provides an excellent case study of many of the major themes of urban development and change, but which also has some unusual and distinctive features that contribute to its particular character and personality. The city lies on a coastal plain constrained by the Collserola hills and the rivers Llobregat and Besos. These topographic constraints have produced urban congestion and high residential densities.

Part 1 1532/1500 need to reference in text ADD CULTURE

3 key architectural exemplars and use these examples to illustrate key periods of cultural change and architectural evolution.

Explore the cultural context of the city.

Make reference to formative and influential artistic movements and key historical events and social change.

Barcelona flourish’s throughout the 12th century, as it had previously since the moor invasion, in all measures of city life. The territory continued to enlarge through military adventures and through the marriage, uniting the Catalonian and Argon’s territories on an economic and political level. Together they ruled the Mediterranean coast all the way to Nice. These achievements lead to Barcelona becoming one of the most important Mediterranean ports, launching Catalonia its own fleet. At this time the culture of Barcelona was very much being influenced by the moors and their Islamic/Mozarabic culture.

This continued thought the 13th century. Barcelona acted as the focal point for the exchange of scholar and scientific knowledge between the European and Muslim worlds and the arts flourished under the great relationship. Foreign trade saw to it that shipbuilding and conquest were established. This period also saw Barcelona’s trading wealth pay for the construction of magnificent Gothic buildings such as the cathedral and the Dominican convert, completed in 1269.

The Church at the Dominican convert was called St. Caterina and was the first gothic church, built outside the city walls in Barcelona. El convent de Santa Caterina és un conjunt arquitectònic de granThe convent is an ensemble of great rellevància històrica per diverses raons.historical significance for several reasons. Una de les més significatives és laThe most significant is the seva consideració de primer edifici, juntament amb el convent de Frame-consideration of the first building, along with the Convent of Frame, ​​which represents the introduction of the model of church, "characterized by the building of a single nave with chapels between contraforts, voltes de creueria i absis poligonal.buttresses, ribbed vaults and polygonal apse," according to (Mas, 2008). This shows the cultural change thanks to trades and the amplified number of people oncoming to Barcelona.

The city needed to expand as of the increased growth of the population; however this was being limited by the city walls. So two new sections were added to the city walls, the first wall protected the new annexed villas and the second protect the agricultural fields that were expanding in what is now the Raval district. PICTURE

By the 15th century, Black Death and civil war devastated the city's population, whilst military actions abroad did little to enhance the situation. Impoverished and disaffected by the ever-growing financial demands from the crown, Catalonia revolted in the 17th century. The war was an attempt to halt the wave of nationalism that had surged in the city. Barcelona was vanquished and managed to conserve its autonomy, but it couldn't prevent the dismemberment of its territories.

The 18th century was the beginning of the cotton trade with the Americas and the start of the textile industry in Spain. However the last of the Habsburgs, Carlos II, died in 1700 with no successor, which lead to the War of the Spanish Succession. The Treaty of Utrecht left Felipe V in charge from Madrid. Abandoned by its allies, Barcelona decided to resist. The siege began in March 1713 and ended on 11 September 1714 when Philip V of Spain conquers Catalonia and abolishes the region's constitution which ended in the city’s conquest by Franco-Castilian troops. The result was an enormous degree of repression; not only was Barcelona completely stripped of its political autonomy, and the Catalonian language was completely prohibited in all private as well as public settings.

The Start of 19th century marked the uprisings and upheaval of Barcelona, with workers organising the first general strike, of which many buildings within the city where distroyed with in the confict. These tensions and the desire for change also brought about important reforms. By 1836 the ruins of Santa Caterina's convent where demolished after Henry VIII-style anti-clerical legislation that transferred acres of monastic property to the rising middle classes.

1848, was the year that Barcelona entered its golden age of modernisation after centuries of subordination. Spain's first railway opened between Barcelona and Mataro, the Liceu opera house opened its doors, and Santa Caterina opened its brand-new iron market hall. Ignored royal order it the market was names after the convert. By 1854 the city walls were knocked down, which smoothed the way for an extraordinary urban development. Ildefons Cerdá plans were approved in 1859, The l'Eixample was an extensive grid-iron pattern. The development rapidly spread to connect Barcelona to the outlying towns, which were incorporated into the city at the turn of the century. The driving force behind Barcelona's physical expansion has been the growth of the economy.

In 1868 Bourbons was removed from power by the Spanish revolution and in 1888 Barcelona held the World Exhibition. BCinternet (2010) states that "the event would mark a turning point for the city. Firstly, Europe suddenly saw Barcelona as a city that shared its same concerns. Secondly, Spanish immigration began to reach the capital."

20th century Barcelona started with the famous Tragic Week in 1909 with riots, barricades and destroyed buildings. The Spanish Civil War followed. Thousands of people were forced into exile abroad while the bombings devastated the city, this didn’t mean much change within the culture or architecture; nevertheless the culture of Barcelona was being spread. Although in 1939, when the Civil War ended and Franco's dictatorship began, Barcelona lost many of its freedoms, including the self-government it had achieved in the past and the unrestricted use of the Catalonian language, which was once again prohibited. The market fell into despair, as for Franco markets where a political threat, the meeting of people created an excuse for talk and in large groups could plot against Franco.

Also in 20th century Barcelona became the center of a cultural avant-garde that concerned itself with all forms of advances made in the scientific, technological and artistic fields. The spirit of modernism touched all of the city's artistic spheres, including architecture. Barcelona attracted a generation of artists who gave fantasy its ultimate expression and for whom the only taboo was the straight line. Coloristic ceramic, glazed glass, wrought iron and an imaginary bestiary were incorporated into the architecture. The ultimate exponent of this architecture was, Antoni Gaudí.

1960 saw the end of post-war period, where supplies where no longer need from the Caterina market. Barcelona had a massive influx of workers from the impoverished countryside, which resulted in a surge in economic and industrial growth in the city, as well as a charge in culture. Urban and housing infrastructure increased at an incredible rate and often without any clear principles, which led to the growth of "dormitory neighborhoods" (in the words of BCinternet (2010)) in the city's outskirts. Barcelona's markets where under threat as more people shopped in supermarkets and wholesale dealers preferred out-of town space. Though, the solution at Santa Caterina wasn't demolition as (Dychoff, 2005) says, "Protecting the market as a way of life, the heart of the people".

Franco's death in 1975 finally brought democracy to Spain. Barcelona reinstated the Generalitat and regained its place as the capital of an autonomous Catalonia. Just as it had in previous years, Barcelona continued its growth on an industrial and cultural level.

"By 1977 it was as though it had never been banned. The new Spain was prepared to allow Catalonia a certain autonomy and the Catalan language a certain official respect. In those years when I lived in Barcelona the Rambla changed from being the centre of life in the city to being a centre of political dissent, where the crowds ranged against the police, where tear gas and rubber bullets were fired, where there were baton charges." - (Toilbin, 2010)

In 1992 Barcelona held the Olympic Games, profound architectural and urban transformation that opened the city to the sea and culminated in one of the best Olympic Games in history. The event put Barcelona in the spotlight and projected the city’s image as a modern, open and hospitable city to the world.

(Dychoff, 2005) says "There's a saying in Catalonia: "El mercat es el barri" - the market is the neighbourhood." A hundred and fifty years after the opening of Market of Santa Caterina, the market's decaying structure as the centerpiece of yet another city-hall plan to revive a decaying neighborhood, one of the last truly impoverished parts of the city.

(Dychoff, 2005) also say, "Not that the people are unhappy with all the post-Olympics polishing-up of their streets and the city's transformation from dark, dangerous port into Europe's most desirable city for modern-day flaneurs. The trouble is, for 20 years the city has been a building site. However this didn’t matter as the neighborhood of Santa Caterina has been missing its heart for far too long."

The market is transform from a Neoclassical fresh-food market into a flying carpet of brilliant colours and agitated forms. Only from up high, from the flats overlooking the building, (a view only for the locals) do the 325,000 hexagons making up the pixelated images of fruit and veg come into focus - a homage to Gaudi and this city of tiles.

The reconstruction of the Santa Caterina Market and the architect’s related urban renewal plan for the streets around it, bring life and light into one of the worst slums of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. The architects retained the white-painted masonry walls on three sides of the rectangular 1845 market structure, with many arched openings permeable to the surrounding streets. They brought the same granite pavers used on city streets in the neighbourhood into the market interior "so that everyone understands it’s a public space," explained Tagliabue. Since the market did not need to be so large, the rear wall has been demolished and cut in an intimate plaza, which made room for designed housing for elderly residents displaced by local urban-renewal work.

Today, Barcelona is a big tourist destination in Europe and there are plenty of reasons for it. However the main issue with Spain’s history is the relationship between capital, Madrid and surroundings city such as Barcelona and how it still hasn’t been resolved, this is marked by the 1.5 million people that protested for independence from Spain in September 2012 in Barcelona.

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2004 Forum of Cultures was the latest event on a global scale celebrated in Barcelona. Although lacking the same public response garnered by the Olympic Games, the Forum still centered world attention on the city. It also served as the impulse for the construction of new spaces, such as a modern convention centre and an auditorium. Although the definitive, future function of the event grounds is still undecided, one thing that is certain is that it brought about the recovery of one of the most forgotten areas of the city.

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