What are the historical stories in Barcelona?

Who is the most brilliant big city in continental Europe? Not Paris, not Berlin, not Rome, but Barcelona. The capital of Catalonia has all the elements that make urbanites deeply addicted-vibrant street life, bizarre urban buildings, passionate sports and, of course, hot Spanish women-this is not a city of gentlemen, but a city of singers and dancers, where even staid Germans will take off their dresses and join the hottest dances and crazy parties in this city.

Barcelona is a miracle of urban construction. Anyone who studies this city will marvel at his map: What a city it is! Urban researchers will never lag behind Barcelona in their analysis of urban texture. They are usually tied with Washington, Chicago, new york, Paris and Rome. Every great city has its own great times and great stories, such as the renovation plan of Rome, the renovation plan of Paris or the plan of Washington, and all these can't hide the glory of Barcelona's urban construction-the renovation plan of Rome is just an aesthetic movement belonging to the urban dignitaries; What did horsman do in Paris? Demolition of old houses, widening of roads and transformation of old cities, but he transformed Paris; Washington, new york, Chicago, these American cities, just draw their grid system quickly on a piece of white paper, which is exactly what they have been good at; It is really a miracle that a new city like Barcelona appears on the European continent. The story of the birth of this city is not a plan, but an uprising: Barcelona, all the businessmen, architects and citizens of a city, shouted and fought back against the capital Madrid and the European continent.

Only one Barcelona can be born on the European continent, not a collage city, but a cascade city.

The unique temperament and style of this city let me uncover its history and was shocked again and again. Like stratigraphic fossils, it accumulates layer by layer, and each layer records the story of an era and is well preserved. You can read about different faults in this city and learn stories of different times. You can easily divide Barcelona into three layers-the old city in the middle ages, the expansion plan of Cerda in the middle of19th century, the waterfront revived by 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, and different urban faults. The old city retains the most traditional memory of the city, and the expanded area shows the strength and ambition of the city. 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games completely changed the city's position and image in Europe. This obvious fault division is difficult to appear in any other city in continental Europe. Special historical opportunities endow the city with a unique style, and Barcelona is unique in the European continent. Among the Barcelona Fault in these three eras, Cerda's expansion plan in the middle of19th century is undoubtedly the most wonderful, brilliant and unique. However, this history is briefly mentioned in China's planning textbooks. What will be uncovered next is a dramatic urban history that has never been mentioned in the Chinese world.

(1)18th century Barcelona is an absurd urban development calendar.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 8th century, Spain fell into a civil war between the Bourbon royal family and the Habsburg royal family for the Spanish regime. The Bourbon royal family is extremely conservative and centralized, and the Catalan regime where Barcelona is located is a very confident and United cultural region-even today, the most popular language in Barcelona is Catalan, not Spanish. In the political struggle in the18th century, the Catalan regime chose to be loyal to the Habsburg royal family and provide military support. Sadly, the Catalan regime took the wrong side in this struggle, and the war finally failed, and the Bourbon royal family won the most.

History tells us once again that the price of being on the wrong team is painful. 17 14 years, after 13 months of persistent brave resistance, Catalonia announced its surrender to the Bourbon royal family, which was followed by a century-long political and cultural oppression. 17 16, the new central government promulgated the Novo Planta decree, which completely abolished the existing political system in Catalonia politically, but directly obeyed the direct control of the central government in Madrid; Economically, heavy taxes were imposed on Catalonia and cruel cultural repression was implemented-all universities in Catalonia were closed and Catalan was banned.

In this period of history, the city of Barcelona is in a very abnormal development, and the abnormal oppression of urban form by long-term politics is very rare in the history of world cities.

Abnormal urban construction and public life-The brutal suppression of Catalonia by the Madrid government won the constant resistance of the people of Barcelona. All military facilities and office facilities of the new regime have become targets of national hatred and anger. The central government in Madrid had to suppress and control the city more strictly. An octagonal military fortress has been built in the highlands near the eastern port, which can monitor the whole city at any time. Powerful artillery can directly bombard any corner of the old city of Barcelona. There are a large number of military facilities in the city, including troops, police stations and prisons. In Barcelona in the18th century, the scale of these violent machines and military facilities was once comparable to that of the city.

Deformed wall architecture-I think the wall of Barcelona in the18th century is the most unusual on the European continent. European cities have a long history of building city walls. City walls always have special significance for cities. They not only mark the birth of city regime, but also symbolize the rights and interests of city citizens. People inside the city wall and people outside the city wall are in two completely different social positions-similar to our household registration system today to some extent. On the European continent, almost every city once had its own wall, but all the walls were used to defend and protect the city. Only the walls of Barcelona in the 18th century are not external, but internal, with the purpose of closely monitoring and controlling the urban residents.

The central government in Madrid has built a zigzag wall along the periphery of the city. These stone walls are quite defensive. Fortress, moat and star-shaped watchtower surround the old city, military facilities, ports and forts on the highlands, forming a solid defense system, but this solid system is inward. All these buildings are hated by Barcelona people. This hatred is so deep that after 150 years of struggle, the city wall was finally abolished. When the government had a headache about how to knock down this behemoth, Barcelona residents rushed to the city wall with shovels and hoes like a carnival, so that the iron in the city was once sold out.

Abnormal development of the city-except for the city wall, the martial law area around the city is about 1.25 km wide. In the martial law area around the city, any city construction and assembly are strictly prohibited. This wide martial law area is completely a vacuum zone for urban construction. In the next century and a half, urban construction never crossed the line. Why 1.25 km? This is the effective range of artillery fire on the wall. /kloc-Barcelona in the 0/8th century became a city in a vacuum. Although the condition of the city wall is getting worse and worse, it often collapses, the interior of the city is getting more and more crowded, and the urban environment is getting worse and worse, so that the Madrid government allocates special financial funds to repair and maintain the city wall every year and writes it into the city law, but there is no building or planning on the vast and desolate land outside the city wall, because any building project beyond the scope of the city wall is not just a building project, but represents a political declaration of war against the central government of Madrid.

Growth in a Bottle-Although the border control is strict, with the care of the central government of Madrid, the city has never stopped growing rapidly. At that time, Barcelona was once the textile center of the European continent, and the development of industry brought a new population to the city. 17 17, when the wall of Barcelona was completed, only 37,000 people lived in low-rise houses. Around 1800, there are130,000 people living in the same urban area, while in 1860, the population reaches 65,438. /kloc-In the mid-9th century, Barcelona was the city with the highest population density in Europe, which was twice that of Paris at that time. The living conditions and sanitary conditions in this city are extremely bad. This vicious development overwhelmed the city of Barcelona and began to lead to the rapid decline of the city's industrial status. The city confined in the bottle grew inward to the extreme, and finally began to squeeze the bottle wall that restricted the development of the city.

(b) Break and stand: the rebirth of the city after a century and a half of repression.

During the period of 65438+1940s, the walls of Barcelona were covered with high-density slums, and the industrial buildings and residential buildings in the old city were mixed, with narrow streets and poor living conditions. The voice of the city about tearing down the city wall is getting stronger and stronger. In order to tear down the old symbol of bondage and meet the needs of the new development of the city. This time, Barcelona's rebellion against the capital Madrid was not initiated within the administrative system, but by the merchant class of Barcelona, leading the poor workers in the city, in the name of restoring the light of Catalonia. This is not only to solve the problem of social justice for a century and a half, but also to let speculators see the possibility of huge asset appreciation brought about by urban expansion.

1854, under the constant resistance of the city, the central government of Madrid finally made a royal decision to dismantle the city wall. 1865, the demolition of the city wall was basically completed, and the stones removed from the city wall were basically used to pave the road. At that time, Barcelona was surrounded by a complete vacuum of urban construction. Only when there are five scattered villages in the distance, Barcelona locates the new urban development area in the vacuum between the old city and the villages, and has launched an ambitious new plan.

The wheel of history continues to roll slowly forward in the wrestling between the central governments of Barcelona and Madrid. 1859, Barcelona organized an urban development planning competition after tearing down the wall. The last two options in the competition came from Anthony Roviera Trias and lldenfons Cerda.

Rovia's planning fully respects the old city, caters to the aesthetic concept of Catalonia aristocrats who were very conservative at that time in Barcelona, takes the idea of reappearing the medieval glory dominated by Catalonia culture, continues the axis of the old city, and designs five radial axes and complex urban public spaces. In Rovia's plan, New Barcelona is designed as a baroque city similar to the traditional elite of Rome or Paris.

Cerda's plan is in sharp contrast. In his scheme, it embodies the pursuit of early modernism and reflects an implicit social change. In his plan, the aesthetics of urban aristocrats was put at the bottom, and he advocated a modern, equal and enlightened city: poor workers, powerful people, businessmen and doctors should all enjoy the same high-quality urban space, and sunshine, clean air and convenient transportation are the same benefits provided by the city for all residents. Different from Rovia's idea of reviving the glory of the Middle Ages, Cerda hopes to realize an equal Catalonia city, which is reflected in the large number of undifferentiated urban blocks in space, that is, "a Catalonia city with equal cells" advocated by Cerda, with 550 blocks covering an area of 9 square kilometers. His planning has nothing to do with the old city, which fully shows his social ideal, his desire for efficient urban development and his demand for investment. In his ideal model, the ideal scale of the block is 1 13.3 meters, separated by 20 meters of urban roads. The buildings on each street corner provide better traffic space, public space and good lighting and ventilation by chamfering (called xamfrans). From any point of view, Cerda's plan is almost the other extreme of Rovia's plan.

(Cerda's Barcelona expansion plan is in sharp contrast to Rovia's plan. )

Like Howard, the founder of Garden City, Cerda is not an urban planner in the traditional sense, but a sociologist deeply influenced by two French philosophers and politicians. He studied engineering in Madrid in his early years and had a good relationship with the central government of Madrid. Later, he returned to his hometown of Barcelona.

In this city bidding organized by Barcelona, Cerda was not on the original official invitation list, but this "spontaneous" designer personally participated in the final design competition. In the last evaluation of the scheme of 1859, Cerda's scheme was hung in a small room next to Rovia, but few people applauded. Since the ruling classes of cities at that time were conservative Catalan aristocrats, Rovia's scheme undoubtedly won the competition of 1959. However, a year later, things have changed dramatically. 1960, the Madrid central government completely subverted the results of the competition, and put forward Cerda's plan as the final implementation plan and enforced it.

The development of things is quite wonderful. The central government put pressure on the local authorities to change the bid, and it was this unimaginable event that changed the future fate of Barcelona. Is this due to the excellent operation of Cerda's friends in Madrid's political circles, or is it because the radical Barcelona described in Cerda's plan, which belongs to the new era, has been recognized? But in any case, the development track of this city, in such a rebranding event, has moved towards Barcelona in our field of vision today.

This is a wonderful history, but when I read it for the second time at the central government in Madrid, I finally pieced together the whole picture of this history. This bid change event is not simply a "thorny" event with great influence in the history of western cities, but a political struggle between the central government of Madrid and the dignitaries of Barcelona.

In fact, the central government of Madrid's planning for the new Barcelona began when 1854 decided to demolish the city wall. Cerda participated in this planning in Madrid from 1854. The central government of Madrid regards the construction of this new city as an important opportunity to replace Barcelona's deep-rooted Catalan tradition and exclusive old culture with new culture. The new plan is seen as an opportunity for reconciliation, but this reconciliation is a reconciliation with the people of Barcelona. Ordinary urban residents, such as businessmen and poor workers, are the targets of the central government, and those deep-rooted elites need to be further weakened. Madrid hopes to transform the original social structure through equal urban space, gain the support and support of urban civilians, and deprive local elites of their privileges and interests in urban space.

Faced with the wishful thinking of the central government in Madrid, Barcelona's ruling elite naturally rose up and rebelled. They organized their own "official" urban planning bidding, and invited a large number of planners and architects-Cerda, who belongs to the Madrid government, was naturally not invited. This is a coup, and the vigorous planning of the bidding activities has aroused widespread concern from all walks of life in Barcelona. Under the pressure of the situation, the Madrid central government had to explicitly order Cerda to take part in this dramatic bidding activity with the completed plan-the result was naturally unsuccessful. Unfortunately, before Barcelona's elite could cheer for their victory, Real Madrid's central government used a killer weapon to forcibly change the bid and took Cerda's plan as the implementation plan.

The bidding process of Barcelona's expansion is full of twists and turns. A seemingly simple urban planning process is produced under the constant extrusion of two completely different political positions and interests. The implementation of the Cerda Plan has a profound background of economic, political and cultural changes. In the process of implementation, new political forces gradually formed, and the power struggle between the emerging middle class and the traditional Catalan aristocrats intensified. It can be said that the Cerda Plan satisfied the petty bourgeoisie's pursuit of an ideal life, and also met the needs of ordinary urban residents to improve the urban living environment at that time.

Although Barcelona's elite failed in the battle for the future of the city, this failure is the luck of the city. This opportunity has not only brought about extensive political and economic changes, but also set a framework for the future development of Barcelona's urban space. It was the planning storm of 1859 and the planning of Cerda that made Barcelona as we know it today.

1. On the road network, Barcelona's expansion plan is the only city in Europe that uses grids and diagonals on such a large scale. Later development also proved that Barcelona made the right choice. Although the new expansion area is in sharp contrast with the old city in scale, the scale of the expansion area is still very comfortable.

2. Regulatory planning. The plan has established a powerful control framework for the future development of Barcelona's urban space, which has never appeared in the previous European urban aesthetic movement of cronyism, whether in Rome or Paris. Perhaps because of Cerda's background as a sociologist, his planning did not focus on the beautiful palaces, squares, fountains and main axes of those cities, but sought a fast-developing, equal and efficient modern urban development framework for the city. Although the final plan is far from Cerda's idea, the regulatory framework formed by Cerda's plan has formed Barcelona's unique temperament today.

3. Unity of urban integrity and diversity. Integrity and equality are the pursuit of Cerda and the starting point of this plan. However, the final realization has just formed the richness of the city under the overall unity. Businessmen spent a lot of money to support talented architects to build their own houses in the area where the emerging bourgeoisie gathered in the middle of the expansion area. Although the overall shape of the block is limited, each family strives to be different in architectural design, especially at the corner of each street, which has become a space for key design and display. It is such a process of pursuing individuality under the overall unity that a large number of architects represented by Gaudi have the opportunity to make great achievements. A series of classic works, such as Mila Apartment, were formally produced under this background, forming the unique temperament of Barcelona today.

Deviation between ideal planning and realistic development

Since the Cerda planning scheme was put forward, the urban development density of Barcelona expansion area has gradually increased. In Cerda's original conception, the whole city is overhead, with an open garden in the middle of the courtyard, low building density, abundant sunshine, fresh air and tree-lined streets, and there will be no more crowded and messy urban space like the old city of Barcelona. In the actual construction, Cerda's idea of low-density space is gradually shattered, and the planning laws and regulations for urban control and development are adjusted every once in a while, so that the blocks can develop at a higher density.

From 1859 to 1889 when Cerda put forward the planning scheme, the Barcelona municipal government controlled the construction of the expansion area according to the original idea of SEDA. It is stipulated that the building density of the block should not exceed 50%, and the remaining open space should be turned into a garden with a height limit of 5 floors. From 189 1 to 1932, with the influx of a large number of immigrants, the urban population grew rapidly and the restrictions on urban development density gradually relaxed. The building density is limited to 73.6%, and seven-story houses can be built, and mezzanine, semi-underground and red lines are gradually allowed. After 1933, the building control continued to be gradually relaxed, and the area of lighting patios and courtyards in the block was further reduced. After 1976, with the decline of industry, the city began to clean up overcrowded houses again, revived some decaying blocks, and gradually made the block density more reasonable.

Although in the process of implementation, the density of urban construction constantly broke through the original planning concept, which also led to the overcrowding and decline of urban space in Barcelona in the 20th century, Cerda's control factors over Barcelona continued, forming the unique temperament of Barcelona today. Walking in today's Barcelona expansion area, we can still feel the struggle between the emerging class and the urban aristocracy in that era, and this history has been permanently solidified in Barcelona's urban space.