Table Of ContentT B r
he arcelona eader
culTural readings of a ciTy
The Barcelona Reader
Cultural Readings of a City
ediTed By
Enric Bou Jaume Subirana
and
The Barcelona Reader: Cultural Readings of a City
LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 2017
Liverpool University Press
4 Cambridge Street
Liverpool, L69 7ZU
in collaboration with Ajuntament de Barcelona
Direcció d’Imatge i Serveis Editorials
Passeig de la Zona Franca, 60
08038 Barcelona
barcelona.cat/barcelonallibres
Copyright © 2017 Liverpool University Press,
unless stated otherwise in the text
The right of Enric Bou and Jaume Subirana to be identified as the editors
of this book has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A British Library CIP Record is available.
print ISBN 978-1-78694-032-2
epdf ISBN 978-1-78694-816-8
Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Contents
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors xiii
Introduction: Barcelona: Cultural readings of a city
Enric Bou and Jaume Subirana 1
I City, history, and territory
1 Barcelona: The siege city Robert Davidson 21
2 Barcelona as an adaptive ecology Ferran Sagarra 43
3 A present past, Barcelona street names, from Víctor
Balaguer to Pasqual Maragall Jaume Subirana 71
4 ‘The asylum of modern times’: Barcelona and
Europe Felipe Fernández-Armesto 91
5 A fragile country Colm Tóibín 131
II City and society
6 Barcelona and modernity Brad Epps 145
7 Football and identities in Catalonia Alejandro Quiroga 163
vi The Barcelona Reader: Cultural Readings of a City
8 The family and the city: Power and the creation of
cultural imagery Gary Wray McDonogh 185
9 Memory and the city in Barcelona’s cemeteries
Elisa Martí-López 209
III Art, architecture, and the city
10 Picasso among his fellows at 4 Gats: Beyond
Modernisme? Jordi Falgàs 243
11 Gaudí: Poet of stone, artistic hedgehog
Marià Marín i Torné 265
12 El Poble Espanyol / El Pueblo Español (1929)
Jordana Mendelson 295
IV The Olympics and the city
13 Barcelona: Urban identity 1992–2002 Donald McNeill 323
14 From the Olympic torch to the Universal Forum of
Cultures: The after-image of Barcelona’s modernity
Joan Ramon Resina 347
V Literature, cinema, and the city
15 La Gran Encisera: Three odes to Barcelona, and a film
Josep Miquel Sobrer 383
16 The deceptive dame: Criminal revelations of the
Catalan capital Stewart King 395
17 A Biutiful city: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s filmic
critique of the ‘Barcelona Model’ Benjamin Fraser 417
Illustrations
Illustrations
1.1 MANGO apparel label with Barcelona brand added
c.2009 39
2.1 Cerdà’s 1/500 topographical plan of 1855 with the
addition of partial 1/1200 surveys (Idelfons Cerdà: Plano
de los alrededores de ciudad de Barcelona levantado por
orden del Gobierno para la formación del proyecto de
ensanche. 19 November 1955. Ink on ‘canson’ paper,
270 × 168 cm. Municipal Archives of Barcelona) 48
2.2 Miquel Garriga’s 1/2000 version of the topographical plan
of the city with its ‘project of reform’ (Miquel Garriga
i Roca: Plano topográfico-geométrico de la ciudad de
Barcelona. Proyecto de Reforma General. Ink on canvas,
135 × 173 cm, scale 1/2000. 15 August 1962. Municipal
Archives of Barcelona) 49
2.3 One of Garriga’s 118 partial 1/250 surveys (Miquel
Garriga i Roca 1858. Ink on ‘canson’ paper, scale 1/250.
Set of 118 drawings covering the survey of the entire city
of Barcelona. 65 × 45 cm approximately each. Municipal
Archives of Barcelona) 50
viii The Barcelona Reader: Cultural Readings of a City
2.4 Garriga’s 1858 ‘pre-project’ proposal for the city extension
(Project approved by the Municipal Council the 6 April
1858. Printed. Undated version) 52
2.5 Preparatory draft for Garriga’s 1858 city extension
(Miquel Garriga i Roca: This is one of the six different
drafts of the ‘Proyecto de ensanche de la ciudad
de Barcelona sobre la topografia de dicha ciudad y
sus afueras’. 28 November 1857. Ink on canvas and
watercolour, 160 × 90-100 cm. Project approved by the
Municipal Council 6 April 1858) 53
2.6 Cerdà’s 1959 ‘Plano de Ensanche’ with, added in, the
three axes cutting through the Old City (Arxiu Històric
de la Ciutat de Barcelona) 55
2.7 Sheet of the handwriting of Cerdà: ‘Synthetic part,
Spaces of public use’ in General Theory of the cities’
construction applied to the case of Barcelona. April 1859
(Cerdà 1859) 56
2.8 Sheet of the handwriting of Cerdà: ‘Synthetic part,
Spaces of public use’ in General Theory of the cities’
construction applied to the case of Barcelona. April 1859
(Cerdà 1859) 57
2.9 Sheet of the handwriting of Cerdà: ‘Synthetic part,
Spaces of public use’ in General Theory of the cities’
construction applied to the case of Barcelona. April 1859
(Cerdà 1859) 58
2.10 Thomas Mitchell’s suggested treatment of street
intersections as urban squares in his 1829 plan for a town
extension (Mitchell Library, Glasgow) 61
2.11 Garriga’s Boulevard, as a reformulation of the contact
between Cerdà’s grid and the old city, 1861 (Miquel
Garriga i Roca: Proyecto para un Boulevard, 19 d’abril
1861 colour ink on canvas. ‘Box n. 7 Garriga-Fontseré’
Arxiu Administratiu de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona) 63
2.12 Cerdà’s proposal of 1863 interpreted by the author
(Sagarra 1993) 64
2.13 Cerdà’s proposal of 1863 interpreted by the author
(Sagarra 1993) 65
Illustrations ix
2.14 Cerdà’s 1863 proposal for rail connections interpreted by
the author (Sagarra 1993) 65
2.15 Section ‘Theorie’ from the Revue Générale de l’Architecture et
des Travaux Publics, Paris 67
2.16 Section ‘Pratique’ from the Revue Générale de l’Architecture et
des Travaux Publics, Paris 67
2.17 Cross-section of Cerdà’s 1859 project (Teoria de la
construcción de las ciudades, Cerdà y Barcelona,
Ministerio para las Administraciones Públicas, and
Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1991. ISBN 84-7088-583-9) 68
2.18 Carrer Aragó before the covering over of the railway
(Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona) 68
3.1 Plan of the project for the remodelling and extension of
Barcelona by Ildefons Cerdà (1859) (Arxiu Històric de la
Ciutat de Barcelona) 74
3.2 The new district of Vila Olímpica (Institut Cartogràfic
de Catalunya) 84
9.1 A mausoleum in the Recinte dels panteons, Cementiri de
Poblenou (Cementiris de Barcelona, S.A.) 213
9.2 Commemorative monument for the deceased buried in the
communal grave at the Cementiri de Poblenou in 1862
(Cementiris de Barcelona, S.A.) 215
9.3 Cementiri de Poblenou. ‘Paz a los muertos’ (Arxiu
Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona) 219
9.4 Cementiri de Poblenou (Cementiris de Barcelona, S.A.) 221
9.5 Sepulture of the Família Patxot (1858). Cementiri de
Poblenou (Cementiris de Barcelona, S.A.) 222
9.6 Family tomb in the Cementiri de Montjuïc (Cementiris
de Barcelona, S.A.) 229
9.7 Cementiri de Poblenou (Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de
Barcelona) 230
9.8 ‘Resurrection’, a 1920 sculpture by Enric Clarasó
adorning the sepulchre of Jaume Brutau in the Cementiri
de Montjuïc (Cementiris de Barcelona, S.A.) 231
9.9 Mausoleum (1894) of the Riva family. Architect: Antoni
x The Barcelona Reader: Cultural Readings of a City
M. Gallisà. Sculptor: Eusebi Arnau. Cementiri de
Montjuïc (Cementiris de Barcelona, S.A.) 233
9.10 Mausoleum of José Olano Iriondo, 1896. Architect: Claudi
Duran i Ventura. Sculptor: Eusebi Arnau. Cementiri de
Montjuïc (Cementiris de Barcelona, S.A.) 234
9.11 El Jardí americà, Cementiri de Collserola (Cementiris de
Barcelona, S.A.) 237
10.1 Ramon Casas, 4 Gats (1900), colour lithograph on paper,
58.2 × 34.4 cm (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya,
Barcelona) 245
10.2 Ramon Casas, Aux aguets (c.1891), oil on canvas,
58 × 47.5 cm (Fundació Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic,
Barcelona) 247
10.3 Santiago Rusiñol, After the War. The Sad Home (c.1898),
conté crayon, ink, pastel, and colour pencil on paper,
42.8 × 34.6 cm (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya,
Barcelona) 248
10.4 Ramon Casas, Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1900), charcoal
and pastel on paper, 69 × 44.5 cm (Museu Nacional d’Art
de Catalunya, Barcelona) 249
10.5 Ramon Casas, Portrait of Ramon Pichot (c.1897–1899),
charcoal, pastel, gouache and ink on paper, 62.9 × 29.8
cm (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona) 250
10.6 Carles Casagemas, A Couple (c.1899), ink and coloured
crayon on paper, 21.5 × 14.5 cm (Artur Ramon Collection,
Barcelona) 253
10.7 Isidre Nonell, At the Boqueria’s Meat Stands (1894), conté
crayon and charcoal on paper, 28.9 × 21.5 cm (Museu
Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona) 254
10.8 Xavier Gosé, Meditation (1900), graphite and conté crayon
on paper, 25 × 25 cm (Museu d’Art Jaume Morera, Lleida
donation from Maria Teresa Barrio (Llobet widow), 1985) 256
10.9 Xavier Gosé, Throwing the Tackle, cover for Quatre
Gats: publicació artística–literària, no. 6 (16 March 1899)
(Barcelona), magazine, 30.5 × 25.4 cm (Universitat de
Barcelona, CRAI, Biblioteca de Lletres) 257
