Last week the cranes finished bringing down the iron cover of the old Abaceria market. The machines dismantled the structure without contemplation and stacked it in large containers. Yesterday, some pillars were still intact on the lot. All this is part of the construction process of the new Travessera de Gràcia market, whose works will take place over the next two years. However, with the destruction of the iron structure, the legacy of the architect Joan Torras Guardiola, known as the Catalan Eiffel for the innovation in metal structures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and which left its mark on some emblematic buildings of the city, such as the Clot market, the dome of the church of Sant Andreu del Palomar or the scaffolding to build the Columbus monument in 1888.
The great-granddaughter of the architect, Assumpta Feliu i Torras, together with Jordi Rogent, Head of Heritage at Barcelona City Council for twenty years, presented a request to the Council a few weeks ago to stop the dismantling of the structure and warned which was cataloged with protection level C (goods with elements of interest) – included in the Special Plan for the Protection of the Historical and Artistic Heritage of Vila de Gràcia – and was a very serious infringement. The request went unanswered and, three weeks later, the dismantling of the structure has continued. Now, the descendant of Torras Guardiola is finalizing the presentation of a complaint against the municipal officials for a crime against heritage, since she considers that the structure could not be destroyed.
The City Council undertook to preserve a representative part of the old structure to “restore it in another public space as a memory of the old market” and make an exact replica of it because the old one cannot withstand the weight of the new facility. They also point out that the project had the approval of the Departments of Heritage and Urbanism, without anyone submitting allegations.
However, according to the great-granddaughter of the architect, the promises to assemble the structure in another enclave of the city after destroying a large part of it is impossible. “The demolition works of the metal structure continue without respite and give rise to sadly irreparable and irreversible situations”, complains Rogent in a new letter presented to the City Council in which he warns of the damage caused and before filing the criminal complaint. “We watched as a machine gripped the pieces of the structure and then violently threw them into a metal container, cut them indiscriminately and then mercilessly crushed them, destroying and disintegrating the metal structure. lica protected and, in this way, reduced 131 years of history to simple scrap”, he laments.
The complainants refer to images recorded by the residents of Gràcia in which machines appear to destroy the structure. “The gruesome images are likely to hurt the sensibilities of anyone who is in favor of the defense of the protection and conservation of the cultural, historical and artistic heritage of the city of Barcelona and its elements of interest”, he concludes.
