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The now-defunct Hygiene Pavilion of the Port of Barcelona was a building built at the beginning of the 20th century, on a central island in Paseo de Colón in front of the customs warehouses. It was in front of the disappeared Coal dock and San Bertrán dock on the sea side and Carrera street, with the complex of the three chimneys power station of Paralelo.
It was a brick building inaugurated in 1909, built by the Board of the Port solely and exclusively to be used by workers dedicated to loading and unloading coal at that time essential and currently reviled.
The reason for its construction was none other than to concentrate a place at the entrance of the port that met all the necessary conditions so that the port workers had the much-needed sanitation and hygiene due to the work they carried out.
The unloaders, after so many hours moving tons of coal, thus had a place at the end of the day to wash up and change their clothes.
Another of the reasons for the construction of the building was to have a nearby location to be able to attend to them quickly, after the accidents that occurred daily and that forced urgent transfers to hospital centers in poor conditions.
The Hygiene Pavilion building incorporated a series of sections that were equipped with a battery of sinks, showers, toilets and a cloakroom for changing at the end of the day.
In another department, medical and nursing services were installed for immediate care in case of emergency.
Later, at the end located in front of the customs warehouses, an element was built in which a fountain with the figure of a fish stood out in the lower part. In the center there was a panel with a figure supporting a two-sided clock and the upper part was topped by a black dome that supported a metal frame with a lightning rod and, inside the frame, there was a bell.
The bombardments suffered during the period of the civil war caused irreversible damage to the Pavilion, which caused its total demolition at the end of the war.
At present, its position would correspond to the exit roundabout of the Ronda belt at the beginning of Avinguda del Paral·lel.
