2. The origins of the industry: the calicoes
One of the main arenas of industrialisation on the Iberian Peninsula was Catalonia,
and Barcelona in particular, with its origins going back to the blossoming of the calico
industry.
The calico industry was the industry of printed
cotton fabrics.
Printed cotton fabrics had been introduced in
Europe with great success at the end of the 17th
century, and the royal decrees which forbade the
importation and use of foreign calicoes in Spain
helped form the initial nucleus of industrialisation
in Barcelona in the 1730s.
By the end of the 18th century, the calico business
was growing spectacularly, making Barcelona one of
the industry's main centres in Europe.
3. The Frist fabric factory steam power.
In November 1833, the factory on Barcelona's Carrer dels Tallers, owned by Josep
Bonaplata, Joan Rull and Joan Vilaregut, introduced a tool that was to make
history:
the first industrial steam-powered machine in Catalonia and Spain.
A few years later, in 1848, Joan Illas was to describe that memorable event as the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Spain.
This factory was burned down in 1835. Bonaplata abandoned the project but a new
metalworking company was created on the grounds where the old factory had stood.
4.
5. Soil for the factories: new places of Barcelona.
In 1846, the City Council published its prohibition on the opening of new
factories employing steam-powered machinery within the city walls.
Municipalities on the Plain of Barcelona saw the multiplication of industry :
In 1846 Today (Districts)
Sant Martí de Provençals Sant Martí
El Poblenou El Poblenou
Gràcia Gràcia
Sants Sants
Les Corts Les Corts
Sant Andreu de Palomar Sant Andreu
6. In subsequent years, Barcelona, which remained a walled city until the middle of
the 1850s, experienced a spectacular industrial transformation of its urban
landscape, especially in the Raval, Sant Pere, the Ribera and Barceloneta.
11. In the mid-nineteenth century the Muntadas brothers opened a textile mill called Espanya Industrial, also
known as Vapor Nou, literally "New Steam". The factory area was turned into a park of the same name
and officially opened by Pasqual Maragall in 1985.
18. Built in the 1860s according to Rafael Gustavino's designs, the factory on Carrer d'Urgell was shut down
in 1889. Since 1910 it has been the seat of the Universitat Industrial.
View of the Batlló factory in 1914, when it was already occupied by the Escola Industrial.
21. The factory chimneys of Poble-
sec rivalled the Columbus
statue in height.
View of Avinguda del Paral·lel
in 1915.
22.
23.
24.
25. On 20 April 1897, the process of unifying the towns on the Barcelona Plain as
one municipality was finally fulfilled. This was a project that the Council of the
Catalan capital had been working on for many years.
1897
1904
les Corts de Sarrià (Les Corts)
Horta (Horta-Guinardó)
Gràcia (Gràcia)
Sant Andreu del Palomar (Sant Andreu)
1921
Sant Martí de Provençals (Sant Martí)
Sants (Sants)
Sarrià (Sarrià)
Sant Gervasi de Cassoles (Sant Gervasi)
