On the horizon of Barcelona, ??reddish brick chimneys rise accompanying the city skyline. They are the vestige of an industrial past that ended up designing the neighborhoods that arose around it. Their sirens marked the time of entry and exit and took the pulse of the city. Some of these old factories succumbed to the brick boom to become large real estate operations. In other cases, the legacy of a Barcelona that, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, competed with cities like Manchester or Liverpool, has been redefined to become a heritage and public element.
The creation of the railway made it possible to connect port activity with factories and was fundamental for industries dedicated especially to textiles to begin to proliferate, with the production of indianas – printed cotton fabrics from Asia that put Barcelona on the map. world-. The establishment of this means of transport especially allowed industrial development in Poblenou. But the city, today dedicated to mass tourism, was also dedicated to the chemical industry, the automobile industry and even the beer industry, which is precisely what visitors demand so much today.
If there was a neighborhood par excellence in which textile industries proliferated, it was Poblenou. Between 1852 and 1855, Can Ricart was built in this district, one of the first factories dedicated to the mechanical printing of cotton. The initial project, with windows finished with semicircular arches and plastered and painted facades, was conceived by Josep Oriol and Bernadet. The main nave, the attached tower and a nave that today is used as a space for artistic creation are still preserved. Behind these footprints the present of the neighborhood appears, a huge building full of offices and technology companies.
But if you want to continue snooping into the past, just walk to Pallars Street, where you will find Can Felipa, an old textile factory that attracts attention with its huge windows. What is preserved today was the central building, built in 1885, with a particular style reminiscent of a Parisian residential building. Its activity ceased in 1978, when more than 70 workers were laid off, the last of a workforce that reached 700 workers. The workers’ protests of the late eighties to avoid closure were followed by the mobilization of the neighborhood’s residents, who in 1991 managed to reopen the facilities that were currently converted into a municipal sports center, a civic center and the Historical Archive of Poblenou. .
Without abandoning the Poblenou district or its textile heritage, Ca l’Alier stands as a benchmark for the recovery of Barcelona’s industrial heritage. This building, which was built in 1855, deteriorated over the years and the fires that broke out within its walls until, in 2018, its rehabilitation works were completed. Currently, it is one of the 115 industrial buildings in the district with heritage protection and still retains its characteristic 20-meter-high chimney. It is the headquarters of the Fundació Barcelona Institute of Technology (BIT Habitat), a space dedicated to promoting innovation and smart technology in the city.
Following the English example of the factories that were built in Manchester, Ca l’Aranyó stands out among other models of Catalan textile architecture of the 19th century. Its exposed brick façade is combined with the use of the metal structure, a British seal, and the traditional Catalan vault. The master builder Josep Marimon was in charge of its design, following a project by the British company Prince Smith. For more than a century, its activity ceased in 1986, it was dedicated to the manufacture of wool. Since 2004, the industrial legacy was integrated into the design of the communication campus of the Pompeu Fabra University.
On one side of the Plaza de las Glòries, the facilities of an old flour mill are today a multidisciplinary sociocultural facility available to the residents of Clot, and to those curious who want to know more about the industrial past of the area or enjoy the activities that are organized here. From theater to workshops to exhibitions or conferences, culture is now manufactured here.
Still in the building are production machines from what was one of the most important flour mills in Catalonia, producing 36% of the country’s flour. In the assembly hall and theater of the cultural center you can still see the hydraulic turbines that run through the building. A present that deciphers the past within the walls, but also outside. The building that is preserved is the only one that survived from the San Jaime flour factory. Following the modernist inspiration, its façade is made of exposed brick and its rehabilitation respected the interior metal structure of the building.
La Farinera del Clot is not the only flour mill that has survived to this day. Although on this occasion it can only be seen from the street, without the possibility of accessing its interior, the old La Fama wheat factory is located in Poblenou, also known as Can Gili Vell. Its walls were built in the seventies of the 19th century and it originally had a grain mill, a flour manufacturing tower, a chimney and several industrial warehouses dedicated to grain storage. Currently, only the main industrial building, the chimney and the tower remain.
The rehabilitation of some of these spaces that designed industrial Barcelona has served to shelter culture. Fabra i Coats, in the Sant Andreu neighborhood, is a reference for artistic creation, experimentation and exhibition. At its peak this former cotton spinning mill provided employment to more than 1,500 people. The recovery of the complex carried out by Barcelona City Council has made it possible to largely preserve the building complex that includes the large energy system rooms inside. The center offers free guided tours to learn about the past and present of the creation factory as a space for cultural innovation.
