Barcelona Metropolis

• The Story

The clinic where I was born was turned into an old people’s home, then it became an empty space and finally it was squatted in and then cleared. But it hasn’t been knocked down.

• The Story

Under the Eixample there are the same streets as on the surface, though much narrower, and they reflect the life outside and that of the houses above.

• The Story

These days, not even the neighbourhood’s own mother would recognize it. Still, it’s worth saying that the change has been for the better.

• The Story

The poet Josep Pedrals talks to us about his neighborhood in a poem.

(Translated from the Catalan by Ronald Puppo)

• The Story

During those years I was undocumented. “Not having papers” used to mean (means) lacking facts. But there was nothing to fear in the library.

• The Story

I suspect that Jane Bowles, Pere Calders, Nelly Sachs, Joan Maragall, Federico García Lorca, Josep Vicenç Foix and Mercè Rodoreda once lived together in Vallvidrera. This neighbourhood...

• The Story

I wish they’d all go away. That this damned Operation Escape would end. That the neighbourhood would be emptied of those who live and who don’t live in Pedralbes.

• The Story

This former town once had eighty laundries washing the clothes of Barcelona’s wealthy.