Many tourists and their dizzying selfies take the bunkers of the Carmel neighborhood again. No urban guard warns them that they should not jump the fence or sit on this ledge, so the tourists do not miss the opportunity to take lots of photographs with Barcelona as a backdrop. It is a matter of common sense. This was the scene of the place this weekend. A year ago, at least during the days with the greatest influx of public, a device from the Urban Police was responsible, among many other things, to ensure that visitors to the Turó de la Rovira viewpoint did not happily climb onto any edge.
Other visitors also stand on the walls. The fact is that these photographs always look great on social networks… The determination of many tourists to get the best snapshots at any cost is also being evident lately on the escalators of one of the subway entrances in Sagrada Família station. Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) has already had to put up a sign asking visitors not to take photographs there and also to deploy security guards so that no one gets hurt. But visitors try to outwit them all the time.
The lack of municipal police at the Turó de la Rovira viewpoint is also facilitating the street sale of beer cans these days. The tourist season has only just begun, and these large influxes are nothing more than an appetizer of what will soon arrive. The stream of visitors well supplied with drinks is permanent throughout the afternoon on Marià Labèrnia Street. And the people who live in the area shrug their shoulders, as if nothing had ever changed. Apparently the Endreça plan is not as noticeable here as in the city center.
The efforts of Barcelona City Council, which have already started under the mayorship of Ada Colau, with the aim of stopping the overcrowding of this privileged viewpoint that causes so many daily inconveniences from time to time to the surrounding residents have not yet given the intended result. People continue to go to the Carmel bunkers attracted by their tremendously viral views, and not so much by their cultural and historical value. The strength of social networks is very difficult to beat.
Furthermore, the City Council’s attempts to make the Carmel bunkers disappear from tourist guides are being very unsuccessful. A look at Google illustrates this. In fact, and despite the fact that many residents of the neighborhood denounced it last year, and that many media outlets echoed it, the Barcelona Tourist Bus website continues to promote this enclave. “If you enter the Carmel neighborhood – you can read specifically in the paragraphs dedicated to the blue route – you will discover the remains of an anti-aircraft battery from the Civil War that offers spectacular views over Barcelona.”
At least for some time now, no clandestine festivals have been celebrated. The City Council did manage to stop those very well-organized parties, with powerful music equipment and lights. For many years this place was nothing more than a remote place where stolen motorcycles were broken into, among other things. But the movie I Want You, which so many teenagers liked so much, unleashed its popularity back in 2010. In any case, it was social networks that later projected the Carmel bunkers in an unusual way, at full speed.
