The Rec Comtal, the irrigation canal that supplied Barcelona for a thousand years, will be the center of a naturalized tourist route between Vallbona and Trinitat Vella, a section where the water still flows in the open air. Of course, it does so in precarious conditions, with an environment of diffuse urbanization that does not make it easy at all. The old course coexists and sometimes bumps into orchards, streets, paths, highways, train tracks, homes, a gas station… Barcelona City Council has agreed to transfer 2.9 million euros to the Consorci del Besòs to carry out the renovation works. recovery in this area, which is expected to begin soon. The action includes the conditioning of a riverside path that will be used for pedestrians and cyclists and the environmental restoration of the complex with, among other measures, the reintroduction of native aquatic species. It will also have an exhibition on the city’s relationship with water resources throughout history.
The project, financed with Next Generation European funds, is part of the Tourism Sustainability Plan in Destinations, which seeks to decentralize the activity in new areas of attraction for both visitors to the city and residents. In this case, it aims to highlight an area unknown to many – it is the only one in Barcelona with cultivated fields, the La Ponderosa orchard – that was directly linked to the Rec Comtal. With the opening of the cycle path, the aim is also to promote a connection for bicycles between Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac since the path will be able to reach the Meridiana and in the future also link with the Besòs river park. Thus, the itinerary could be a destination for excursions in this vehicle.
The section that is going to be recovered starts in Vallbona (Nou Barris), in the tunnel under the train on Oristà street, known as Dos Ulls, which has begun to be expanded to separate the pedestrian crossing from the vehicle crossing. Then it crosses the beginning of the crescent formed by Castelldefels Street, which later passes as a bridge over the highways and connects with Torre Baró. After this point, the route reaches the Pont de la Vaca, an old stone pass over the Rec Comtal. This is one of the unique points of the old hydraulic route and will be rehabilitated. It then continues bordering the fields of La Ponderosa, passing by the C-17 gas station and running parallel to this road to then approach the Vallbona drinking water treatment plant and ending in the gardens of the Casa de les Aigües, already in the Trinitat Vella, in the district of Sant Andreu.
Of the planned investment, 2.54 million euros will be allocated to adapting the itinerary next to the Rec Comtal and the remaining 380,000 euros will be used to convert the entire area into a great biodiversity refuge, both green and blue. The intervention will complement other environmental actions that are being carried out in the neighboring Besòs river. Thus, the vegetation will be expanded through reforestation along the entire route and the ecological flow of the irrigation ditch will also be checked with a view to the reintroduction of native aquatic species.
The museum part includes an exhibition on the history of Barcelona and water through the supply infrastructures it has had throughout history, among which the Rec Comtal was a prominent piece since it was built in the 10th century. , until the middle of the 20th century, when it was abandoned. The exhibition will have a physical part and a virtual part that will highlight the Casa de l’Aigua de la Trinitat Vella and the neighboring Trinitat Nova.
The intervention follows the guidelines of the Rec Comtal Master Plan, presented in January of last year. This roadmap details how to recover the memory of the irrigation ditch, which has now disappeared along most of its 13-kilometre-long route. The document plans to identify 33 points through which it passed, from its birth in Montcada i Reixac until its arrival in Ciutat Vella. On this route, actions will be carried out that in a certain way recreate it or leave evidence of its existence, combining urban planning and collective memory.
