Dreta de l'Eixample Archives | BILL IN BARCELONA

Civil War

Battlefields in Barcelona 1: Carrer Diputació, July, 1936

2nd August 2018

The streets of Barcelona comprise a battlefield which continues to host skirmishes and more enduring clashes between armed police, the civil guard, the army, and local people.

The streets of the city have seen fierce clashes over issues such as workers' rights, the all-pervasive and malign influence of the Church, education, Republicanism, a Stalinist coup, national independence, workers' self-management, property speculation, squatters' rights, forced evictions and revolution.

Friday, July 17th, 1936:

The city is awash with rumours — have they or haven't they?

Tensions are high.

Has a cabal of generals and colonels issued orders to the armed forces to rise against the Republic?

Radio and telephone messages from Morocco suggest so. But government censors suppress newspapers and radio stations from broadcasting what little information there is.

Anarchist spies in barracks across the city report that a military uprising is set to begin during the early hours of Sunday, July 19th.

Local authorities refuse workers' demands for weapons. Activists in the transport workers union take the initiative and raid two ships in the harbour. They expropriate and distribute 200 rifles.

Dreta de l'Eixample

The Heart of Modernista Architecture: La Dreta de l’Eixample in Barcelona

8th May 2017

Casa de Les Puntxes, Eixample Dreta, Barcelona

La Dreta de l'Eixample

Dreta de l'Eixample is where you’ll encounter more than 150 of the city's Modernista buildings. The area is sometimes referred to as the Quadrat d'Or — the Golden Square — because of the abundance and quality of the architecture here.

This is where Utopian engineer, Ildefons Cerdà's plan for an expanded city began to take physical form. The first buildings were constructed here during the 1850s at the junction of Consell de Cent and Roger de Llúria.

Passeig de Gràcia is host to Gaudí's La Pedrera and La Manzana de la Discordia — the Block of Discord — where you'll encounter buildings by the three giants of Modernista architecture — Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch.

Lunch

Lunch at Palermo on Mallorca in Barcelona

11th November 2016

Barcelona's restaurants and bars offer a wide and wild variety of cuisines and creative dishes.

However, grazing on tapas and fine dining is both wearing on the wallet and bruising on the palate. There are times while out and about when you want something more substantial than a snack, something a little more ordinary — more home style than stylish. The kind of food the city’s bar-restaurants excel at.

Salmorejo as served at Palermo, Barcelona

Palermo is another favourite lunch spot. They offer a very good menú diari [menú del día] which regularly features traditional dishes such as codillo al horno (knuckle), estofado de vedella (veal stew) or estofado de ternera (beef stew) and, of course, paella on Thursdays. The menú includes a bottle of vino tinto (red table wine) or beer.

Sculpture

Submarine in Barcelona

15th September 2015

One of the many wonderful things about exploring Barcelona is happening across curious sculptures in unexpected places.

Here’s a sculpture of a submarine by Josep Maria Subirachs in Dreta de l’Eixample at the junction of Avinguda Diagonal/Carrer Provença and Carrer de Girona.

The sculpture commemorates Narcís Monturiol’s invention of the first submarine, Ictineo II, powered by an engine.

Here’s a detail of the underside:

The Inventor

Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (b. 1819 — d. 1895) was a curious character, in all senses of the term. He was a Utopian communist and a friend of Ildefons Cerdà, the engineer who designed the Eixample.

The Artist

Josep Subirachs, who died in 2014, is the same artist responsible for the Passion Facade on the Sagrada Familia, and the large sculpture of inverted steps (Monument to President Macià) installed in Plaça Catalunya.

The nearby bar-restaurant, Morryssom, has a few prints by Subirachs in the downstairs bar.

Here’s a detail from the base of the sculpture:

Zarajo in Barcelona

6th August 2015

Â Zarajos as served atÂ Morryssom

One of my favourite tapas dishes is Zarajo, braided sheep’s intestines wrapped around a vine branch and usually broiled, though often grilled, sometimes smoked, served hot with a wedge of lemon.

Very tasty.

Zarajo are not common in Barcelona, the dish originated in Cuenca, the city in Castilla La Mancha.

Zarajo go well with a beer, though I recommend you try them with a glass of rough, strong red wine.

Two places which I know serve zarajo are:

Morryssom’s, one of my favourite lunch restaurants and tapas places.
Bar L’Amistat, Carrer de Torrijos, 13, in Gràcia. IMPORTANT: L’Amistat as was is now CLOSED. It’s still called, Bar L’Amistat, but is now just another would-be trendy bar and they do not serve zarajo.

Zarajo as served at Bar l’Amistat, GrÃ cia.

Bon profit!

Â Zarajo as served atÂ Bar L’Amistat

Enjoy!

The Transition

Battlefields in Barcelona 2: Passeig de Sant Joan, February, 1976

5th August 2015

Los Grises in Passeig de Sant Joan, February 1976

The streets of Barcelona comprise a battlefield which has hosted, and continues to host, skirmishes and more enduring clashes between armed police and local people.

The streets of Barcelona have seen fierce battles over issues such as workers’ rights, the all-pervasive influence of the Church, education, Republicanism, a Stalinist coup, representative democracy, national independence, workers’ self-management, property speculation, squatters’ rights, forced evictions and revolution.

The city’s layout has been largely informed by the needs of the army.

For example:

Via Laietana, was deliberately created to allow cavalry units to disperse hostile crowds forming outside the inner city walls.
Avinguda Diagonal was created to enable rapid access to the heart of the city by troops based in barracks in Gràcia and Pedralbes.
Parc Ciutadella was once the site of an enormous miltary citadel.
The castle on Montjuïc, was only handed to the city in 2008; until 1963 it was a prison run by the military to incarcerate and sometimes execute, dissidents.

1976: Los Grises on Passeig de Sant Joan

Fountains

Drinking water fountain on Diagonal in Barcelona

12th February 2015

One of the many wonderful things about exploring Barcelona is happening across curious and ornate public utilities in unexpected places.

Drinking water fountain at the junction of Avinguda Diagonal with Carrer Còrsega

BLOG

Art, Food, Wine & great company in Barcelona

5th February 2015

February 3rd, 2015 —

Off to an art exhibition opening at Vinçon for 8pm and to meet with two visitors from Montreal — Binky and Jennifer.

Very interesting evening.

Francesc Artigau

The opening seemed much more busy than is usual. And, the age profile of those attending seemed much older than usual. The older demographic is in part explained by the fact that the artist, Francesc Artigau, first exhibited at Vinçon in 1975 — two years after the gallery opened. The exhibit consists of just one large painting split over three canvasses.

Here’s a LINK to background about the exhibit.
And, here’s a LINK to the artist’s website.

We met Binky and Jennifer, and, from the off we hit it off. We had a Moritz beer and a few bites of cheese, crackers, olives and llonganisa then took a tour of the store.

Bar Bodega Quimet

Then we all headed up to Gràcia and Bar Bodega Quimet — one of my favourite haunts for a bite and a drink. At around 9pm it’s a comfortable 15 minute stroll — during the day it can be a frenetic hike. During the day you spend as much energy, if not more, sidestepping the shoppers, gawkers and strollers, as you wend a way up Passeig de Gràcia.

Bodega Quimet was packed. Tuesday night on a cold, damp February evening — packed. Must tell you something.

We perched ourselves at the bar and ordered a bottle of Montsant and a few delicious bites. Then got ourselves seated at a table and ordered more bites and more wine. The chat flowed readily. Laughs came easily — in part prompted by my being locked in the toilets.

Good food, good drink — great company.

We met having exchanged a few emails — we parted as friends.

Dreta de l’Eixample