Sarrià – Sant Gervasi district, Barcelona city, Spain

Sarrià – Sant Gervasi is one of the ten districts of Barcelona. Sarrià – Sant Gervasi is the fifth district of Barcelona. It has an area of 20.09 km2 and a population of 148,172 inhabitants. It is one of the greenest districts in the city and is, together with Horta-Guinardó, the gateway to the Serra de Collserola Natural Park, the most important lung in Barcelona. This proximity marks its status as a residential and affluent area, with numerous parks and green areas, combined with prestigious educational and health centers.

It is located in the northwest of the city and borders on the north with the districts of Gràcia and Horta-Guinardó, on the south with Les Corts, on the east with the Eixample and on the west with the municipalities of Sant Cugat del Vallès, Molins de Rei, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Sant Just Desvern. He inherited the old municipalities of Sarrià and Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, added to Barcelona in 1921 and 1897, respectively.

The district is the sum of old municipalities added to Barcelona, such as Sarrià (1921), Vallvidrera – les Planes (annexed to Sarrià in 1890) and Sant Gervasi de Cassoles (1897). Sarrià maintains the unity of the old town, although this town is separated from the Three Towers by its homogeneous urban characteristics and the high degree of recognition it has by its inhabitants.

Sarrià – Sant Gervasi is a town with a taste of the village, made up of the neighborhoods of Sarrià, Les Tres Torres, Sant Gervasi – la Bonanova, Sant Gervasi – Galvany, Vallvidrera, Tibidabo and Les Planes and Putxet and Farró.

History
The current district of Sarrià – Sant Gervasi was divided into three municipalities, later two, until the annexation of all of them in Barcelona. These three municipalities were: Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, Sarrià (Sarrià, Pedralbes and Les Tres Torres) and Vallvidrera (Vallvidrera and Les Planes). The place name Sarrià comes from the name Sirriano, which is first mentioned in 986. The origin of the municipality of Sarrià can be traced back to the 13th and 14th centuries. By the end of the 15th century, the population of Sarrià was already significant enough. The nucleus located around the church and what was in the farmhouses outside the village formed a rural society that based the economy on the yield of the land. Over time, it was transformed into an urban society of artisans and artisans who, with the proliferation of towers and summer cottages (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), acquired great importance.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Sarrià became one of the richest and most populated towns in the plain of Barcelona. From 1850 Sarrià lived mainly on activities related to construction and its population, until then formed by farmers and artisans, became an important nucleus of artisans. In the last third of the 19th century, aggregation in Barcelona was already considered. Sarrià opposed it and was, together with Horta, the only municipality in the plan that could avoid it in 1897. In 1921 the aggregation file was reopened, at the request of Barcelona City Council.. It was processed very quickly and, in the same year, despite the opposition of the people of Sarria, it was added to the city by royal decree, and was, therefore, the last town in the plan to be incorporated into Barcelona. Today’s Sarrià combines corners where you can easily recall the old rural village, especially around the main street of Sarrià, and modern areas and major roads.

District
The district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, as it was delimited in 1984, is an amalgam between two units sufficiently differentiated from each other: most of the old town of Sarrià, with the exception of the neighborhood of Pedralbes, which in 1984 was attributed to the district of Les Corts the old town of Sant Gervasi de Cassoles. It also includes the two Barcelona enclaves of Santa Creu d’Olorda, inherited from the old town of Vallvidrera through Sarrià.

El Putxet and El Farró district
El Putxet is a small mountain that stretches between Vallcarca and Sant Gervasi. The lower part of the neighborhood, below the Ronda del Mig, corresponds to the neighborhood of El Farró.

El Putxet is a small mountain that stretches between Vallcarca and Sant Gervasi. Although there are reports of the existence of a chapel in the seventeenth century, the first vestiges of settlement must be placed around 1870, when construction began on a series of towers for the bourgeoisie, which is he moved there due to the urban conditions that old Barcelona suffered. It was one of the three districts, together with those of La Bonanova and Lledó, which were part of the municipality of Sant Gervasi in 1879.

For many years it was basically a summer resort, but with the passage of time and the arrival of new means of transport (Sarrià train in 1863, metro in 1924, trams…) it became a place. of habitual residence. As happened simultaneously in Sarrià or La Salut, the hill was populated by towers, some of them in modernist style such as those that survive in the streets of Mulet or Puig-reig. From the second half of the twentieth century, however, many of these houses were replaced by flats. The neighborhood is dominated by the park created in 1970 at the top of the hill, on land leased by the Morató family.

The lower part of the neighborhood, below the Ronda del Mig, corresponds to the neighborhood of El Farró, structured vertically around the streets of Zaragoza and Vallirana. This sector saw its physical continuity broken with the lower part of the Putxet by the opening of the Ronda del Mig, which for decades has been an almost insurmountable urban barrier, both on foot and by vehicle. The current urban and traffic reorganization projects of the roundabout between Balmes and Lesseps will allow the passage between the mountain and sea sidewalks to be made permeable, and to recover the old relationship between the two areas.

It is delimited by the Avenue of the Argentine Republic, the Place of Lesseps, the Avenue of the Prince of Asturias, the August Way, the Street of Balmes (the Oil mill Place) and the Stroll of San Gervasi. Currently, much of its surface is occupied by Park Putxet. Another park in the neighborhood is the Portolà Gardens. Both of the sectors that make up the neighborhood are inhabited mostly by affluent middle class population, because in the past it was a summer area for the bourgeoisie. Many residents of the Gràcia district have also moved there.

El Putxet is a small mountain that stretches between Sarrià – Sant Gervasiand Vallcarca and the Penitents, where there had been a chapel in the seventeenth century, but it was not until 1870 that construction began on towers for the Barcelona bourgeoisie moving from old Barcelona. This district, together with La Bonanova i Lledó, was part of the old municipality of Sant Gervasi in 1879. In the beginning it was mainly a summer resort, but with the arrival of the Sarrià railway in Barcelona, the metro and trams (like the one that passed through the axis of Carrer Zaragoza), became a place of habitual residence.

The other sector, below the Ronda del General Miter, is the Farró, which extends around the streets of Zaragoza and Vallirana. The town is named after Silvestre Farró, who built the first houses at the beginning of the 19th century. In this sector stood out the low houses with inner courtyards and the passages of terraced houses, such as Sant Felip or Mulet, usually built around towers of colonial or modernist style built by the wealthy class of Barcelona in order to summering (some have been replaced by flats, but there are still some left).

Sarrià district
Sarrià combines corners where you can easily recall the old rural village and the modern areas and major roads. The old district of Sarria has changed its limits throughout the century xix and was the last village annexed in Barcelona on November 4th of 1921. Les Corts de Sarrià, better known today as Les Corts, became independent from Sarrià in 1836 and the municipality of Vallvidrera was part of Sarrià for a short period between 1892 and 1921.

Without taking into account the territory of Les Corts de Sarrià or Vallvidrera which were independent municipalities, the municipality of Sarrià had as its main town the town of Sarrià, also included the current neighborhoods of Tres Torres and Pedralbes, the latter now belongs to the district of the Cortes.

The place name Sarrià comes from the name Sirriano, which is first mentioned in 986. The origin of the municipality of Sarrià can be traced back to the 13th and 14th centuries. By the end of the 15th century, the population of Sarrià was already significant enough. The nucleus located around the church and the existing one in the farmhouses outside the town formed a rural society that based its economy on the yield of the earth. Over time, it was transformed into an urban society of artisans and craftsmen who, with the proliferation of towers and summer cottages (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), acquired great importance.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Sarrià became one of the richest and most populated towns in the plain of Barcelona. From 1850 onwards, Sarrià lived mainly on activities related to construction, and its population, until then made up of farmers and artisans, came to have an important artisan nucleus. In the last third of the 19th century, aggregation in Barcelona was already considered. Sarrià opposed it and was, together with Horta, the only municipality in the plan that could avoid it in 1897. In 1921 the aggregation file was reopened, at the request of the City Council of Barcelona. It was processed very quickly and, in the same year, despite the opposition of the people of Sarria, it was added to the city by royal decree, and was the last town in the plan to join Barcelona.

Today’s Sarrià combines corners where you can easily recall the old rural village, especially around the main street of Sarrià, with modern areas and major roads.

Some sectors of Sarrià are: Sarrià Vell, Santa Amèlia, Can Ponsic – Caputxins, Sagrat Cor – Can Caralleu and Can Pomaret – Peu del Funicular. Initially the town was an area dedicated to the agricultural sector, especially wine, but later it attracted wealthy families.

Outstanding monuments include the church of Sant Vicenç de Sarrià and the modernist building of the Sant Ignasi school of the Jesuits. The already mentioned church of Sarrià, dedicated to Sant Vicenç, was already mentioned in 980 and rebuilt in 1379. In 1781 the master Josep Mas built the current neoclassical style building. Plaça de Sarrià, in front of the church, was the village cemetery until 1850. In 1858 the town was connected to Barcelona by the Sarrià train, currently a line of the Generalitat Railways. One of the most universal Sarrians is the poet J.V. Foix, which had a pastry shop, still existing, in Plaça de Sarrià.

Sant Gervasi – la Bonanova district
In the middle of the 19th century, Sant Gervasi was discovered by the Barcelona bourgeoisie and the first urbanisations began there. Sant Gervasi de Cassoles was added to Barcelona in 1897 together with most of the municipalities in the Barcelona plan. Sant Gervasi included the current neighborhoods of Sant Gervasi – La Bonanova, Sant Gervasi – Galvany, El Putget and El Farró and El Tibidabo. The main nucleus was Sant Gervasi which is located mainly in the district of Sant Gervasi – la Bonanova, in which two sectors can be differentiated, that of Sant Gervasi and that of la Bonanova. Sant Gervasi is the oldest part and the Bonanova was built around the road that was built to connect the town of Sant Gervasi with the old independent municipality ofSarrià.

The old town of Sant Gervasi de Cassoles was located on the slopes of Tibidabo, between the mountains and the plain. Its rugged geography, with streams, torrents and hills, explains why it remained sparsely populated for many years and lacked a powerful core. The name comes from a small rural church dedicated to Sant Gervasi. As for the place name Cassoles, it has been interpreted as a contraction of “single houses”. In the 10th century it was part of the municipality of Sarrià, until in 1714 it was declared an autonomous municipality. Its first town hall was formed in 1727. In 1897 it was annexed to Barcelona.

In the middle of the 19th century, Sant Gervasi was discovered by the Barcelona bourgeoisie and the first urbanisations began. Owners like Mandri or Ganduxer put their names to some of the streets they opened. In just over fifty years it ceased to be a small peasant village and became a residential area with old manor houses, summer villas, artisan houses, convents and religious schools, artisans and small renters.

This character is still largely maintained in the upper part of the neighborhood, known as the Bonanova, although many towers have been replaced by high-level apartment blocks. Some of the outstanding buildings in the neighborhood are the Rotonda, the Frare Blanc and the Bellesguard, the latter by Gaudí. Other notable urban elements are the Sant Gervasi cemetery, the Tamarita gardens, designed by Rubió i Tudurí in 1918 on a private estate and inaugurated as a public park in 1994, or the old Casacuberta factory, the work of Josep Domènech i Estapà, recently rehabilitated and complemented with a new building as a science museum.

The Bonanova sector takes its name from the Virgen de la Bonanova, which is the popular name of the Virgen dels Afortunats, to which an altar was dedicated in the eighteenth century in the ancient church of Saints Gervasi and Protasi. located where the church of La Bonanova now stands, and which ended up arousing more devotion than the original patrons. As the name suggests, “la Bonanova” means good news or news.

Sant Gervasi – Galvany district
The Sant Gervasi – Galvany district occupies the lower part of the old town of Sant Gervasi, between the Diagonal and the Ronda del Mig. Today it is a neighborhood with a great nightlife due to the large number of bars, restaurants and nightclubs that exist especially around Santaló street and adjacent

The name of Galvany became popular when it was adopted by the municipal market in the area, recovering that of the former owner of the surrounding land, Josep Castelló i Galvany. The urbanization of Camp d’en Galvany began in 1866. These were plots of land next to the Turó Park amusement park, which was later converted into gardens in 1934, following a project by Rubió i Tudurí in 1917.

This garden, together with that of Monterols and the small park of Moragues, are the green islands of a neighborhood of marked residential character, combined with an important commercial and tertiary activity, especially in the sector closest to the Diagonal and in the vertical axis of Carrer de Muntaner. The Sarrià train has been one of the main elements of structuring and revitalizing the neighborhood, although its passage in the open air represented, for many years, a significant danger and an urban barrier. Opened in 1868, it was electrified in 1902. Between 1925 and 1929, the route between Plaça de Catalunya and Muntaner was covered, which led to the appearance of the Via Augusta, the current transversal backbone of the neighborhood.

The predominant building typology in the neighborhood is that of a closed island, although at the eastern end —in the areas of Can Ballescar and Modolell — Can Castelló, on both sides of the Via Augusta— the model of isolated blocks of ‘average height, characteristic of the neighboring neighborhood of the Three Towers.

Three Towers district
It has a small older core, around the market, and more modern extensions, with open buildings and taller buildings.

Les Tres Torres was born as such between 1901 and 1903. It was an area on the outskirts of Sant Gervasi, near the border with the municipality of Sarrià, and which housed the cemetery. Urbanization began on the initiative of some residents of Sants (the brothers Romaní and Climent Mas). They were the ones who built three towers, one for each, on land belonging to the Nena Cases estate. These towers are what gave the place its name, replacing the old place name Nena Cases, which was what it had at the end of the 19th century. One of them is currently preserved, although modified, at the corner of Via Augusta – Doctor Roux. Over time, other stately towers were built, but, as in the rest of the district, throughout the second half of the twentieth century they gave way to high-level flats.

At the beginning of the 20th century, between 1906 and 1916, railway stations were built, first in Sarrià and then in the Les Planes line (currently of the FGC). Also noteworthy, during the first half of the twentieth century, the installation in the open fields of the Three Towers, a series of football fields, conditioned by the users themselves. The main club, before the war, was the Club Tres Torres, based in Carrer del Milanesat. The urban typology is characterized by a small older nucleus, around the market (streets of the Vergós – of the Pious Schools), and the most modern extensions with open buildings and taller buildings. The neighborhood also incorporates the Can Ràbia sector, redeveloped with residential buildings after the demolition of the Espanyol football field.

The boundaries of the neighborhood have been much discussed but the last delimitation has been: Via Augusta, Doctor Carulla, Ganduxer, Av. Diagonal, Av. de Sarrià, Passeig de Manuel Girona, Bosch i Gimpera, carrer del Cardenal Vives i Tutó, c. of Font Coberta, Bonaplata street, Vergós street. Notable buildings in the neighborhood include the Col•legi de les Teresianes (Barcelona), the work of Antoni Gaudí, and the Casa Muley Afid, the work of Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

Vallvidrera, Tibidabo and Les Planes
This district extends over a large area of the Collserola mountain range, and includes three well-differentiated areas. The old town of Vallvidrera included Vallvidrera and Les Planes de Vallvidrera, the latter now better known simply as Les Planes. Vallvidrera was the main nucleus of the municipality of Vallvidrera and what gave it its name. It was finally annexed by the municipality of Sarrià in 1890.

This district extends over a large area of the Collserola mountain range, and includes three well-differentiated areas. The municipality of Vallvidrera, on both sides of Collserola, has been part of Sarrià since it was added in 1890. Its history was closely linked to that of the church of Santa Maria de Vallvidrera, built in late Gothic style between 1540 and 1587. Another notable building is the manor house Vil•la Joana, which was the last residence of Monsignor Cinto Verdaguer. Urban development took place from the second half of the 19th century.

Among the notable built elements is the Vallvidrera reservoir (1864), currently in recovery as a leisure space. In 1888 the access road from Vallvidrera to Tibidabo was built, and in 1902 the Aigües road, linked to the city’s supply. In 1901, the Tramvia Blau was inaugurated, which ran from Tibidabo to Vallvidrera, and in 1906 the funicular. The urban expansion of Vallvidrera turned it into a summer resort for the people of Barcelona. Vallvidrera is currently consolidated as a permanent residential area.

Les Planes, which includes the differentiated nuclei of Mas Sauró, Mas Guimbau and the Rectoret, is located on the Vallès slope of the Collserola mountain range. For very few years it was primarily a summer resort, with hotels, fountains and popular snack bars. At the turn of the century the first urbanized nucleus arose, and from the second half of the twentieth century it was transformed into a humble neighborhood without any order. It was not until 1980 that an urban action plan was approved.

The Tibidabo was a place of excursions until the Arrabassada road was opened in 1888. From then on, the construction of the amusement park, the Fabra Observatory (1902-1904) and the temple of the Sacred Heart, begun in 1902 and finished in the sixties. The Collserola communications tower, built by Norman Foster, was inaugurated in 1992. From the year 2000, the Tibidabo amusement park became the property of the City Council. Next to it is a small residential area.

At Tibidabo was developed when it built the amusement park Tibidabo, the Observatory Fabra (1902-1904) and the Temple of the Sacred Heart. In 1992 they opened the Collserola tower by Norman Foster. Next to the park is the residential area.

Main Attractions
Discover urban spaces, cultural and architectural heritage, natural spaces, museums, leisure and leisure centers, study centers, proposals for shopping or sports and much more.

Bellesguard
The Bellesguard tower or Casa Figueras is a building designed by Antoni Gaudí i Cornet, and built between 1900 and 1909 at the foot of the Tibidabo mountain (carrer de Bellesguard 20, Barcelona). The house is privately owned and has been open for guided tours since September 2013, after many years of being closed to the public. is a work declared of cultural interest Nacional on 24 July 1969. The Bellesguard tower, located at the foot of Collserola, has a Gothic exterior. However, the Gothic language is used not literally but metaphorically, with great freedom, reaching volumetric solutions of great complexity. To build it, Gaudí used materials from his own land, green-gray parsley stone, which gave the whole an original chromaticism in perfect harmony with the landscape.

Bellesguard has a square floor, with a ground floor, three floors and an attic. In the left corner of the main façade and throughout the height of the building, there is also a quadrangular body finished with a large pinnacle crowned by a four-armed cross, an element that Gaudí used repeatedly, and adorned with ceramics, showing the colors of the Catalan flag in homage to King Martí l’Humà. This body is where the main entrance with stone arch and iron fence. The arches of the music room are a demonstration of mastery in the use of brick, and can be considered a rehearsal of the later attics of the Casa Batlló (1904), as can also be seen in La Pedrera (1906) and at the Teresianes school on Ganduxer street. The mosaics drawn by Domènec Sugrañes together with the wrought iron add fantasy to the building. Gaudí was also assisted by Joan Rubió i Bellver in this and other buildings. In 1909 Gaudí left the work, which was completed in 1917 by Domènec Sugrañes, who had already designed the door, ceramic benches and the farmers’ house.

The windows, reminiscent of Gothic with lobed arches; the battlements that surround the building on the level of the third floor and that form a round passage and the great needle that crowns the advanced body or tower, do not correspond with the interior, where Gaudí left aside any reference to the ‘low medieval architecture and used a language of its own, with special care for the spaces, the ceilings and in general of any element of the whole. Highlights include the access staircase patio and the exposed brick music room.

Door and fence of the Finca Miralles
The door and fence of the Miralles estate is a work by Antoni Gaudí declared a cultural asset of national interest. It is the only one left of the house of Hermenegild Miralles. It is a work of Barcelona declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest. The portal and fence of Can Miralles, a minor work by Gaudí, is a wall with a wavy profile, with a wider base and narrowing at the top. Crowning this wall, there is a continuous element along the entire wall which accentuates the meandering shape of the whole. Topping the wall is a wire mesh grille with spikes at the top. It is centered by the main door and its arching is also irregular. Next to the main door, there is a smaller one, which retains the original iron grate.

These doors are covered by a roof, as a marquee, gable. The tiles are made of fiber cement, although they were originally made of stone cardboard and were made by Hermenegild Miralles in one of her factories. This roof is tensioned with braided metal elements and crowned by a four-bladed Gaudinian cross with a sinuous wrought iron profile. This roof is a reproduction of the original, removed in 1965 and rebuilt in a restoration in 1977-1978. On the main door is a life-size bronze sculpture by Gaudí, made in 1999 by the sculptor Joaquim Camps, the year in which the last restoration was carried out. Currently, the preserved section of wall is in good condition, although it was originally 36 meters long.

College of the Teresians
College of the Teresians is a school on Carrer de Ganduxer in the old town of Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, and currently in the Tres Torres district of the Sarrià – Sant Gervasi district of Barcelona.. The school teaches all courses of regulated education from the second cycle of early childhood education to high school. It used to be a girls-only school, but by the end of the 20th century it was mixed. It has a concert with the Generalitat de Catalunya to teach compulsory education. It is a work declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest. The Teresian school is an elongated rectangular building with a longitudinal axis of communication, formed by parabolic arches, and four stories high (ground floor and three floors), basically made of stone and exposed brick.

At the corners of the façade, there are brick pinnacles with a helical column culminating in the four-armed cross, typical of Gaudí’s works, and with ceramic shields with various defining symbols of the Teresian order: the crowned Mount Carmel. by the cross, the heart of the Virgin crowned with thorns and that of St. Teresa pierced by an arrow. Almost all the openings have a shape close to the parabolic arch. On the ground floor they form a gallery of arches in a row. On the first and second floors, the arches are inscribed in a rectangle. On the top floor, a succession of arches (alternating real openings with blind arches) form a large frieze that crowns the whole, which is superimposed by the roof railing that is combined with a kind of triangular-shaped battlements and pinnacles with crosses of four arms at the corners.

On one of the long sides is a small porch close to the square, which rises two more storeys forming viewpoints, enclosed by brick latticework with small colored ceramic circles. The entrance door of this porch, formed by a parabolic arch, has a wrought iron grate, which is in line with the dragon door of the Güell pavilions, although its design is simpler. The coat of arms of the order appears in several places. In contrast, there are virtually no ornamental elements, but constructive solutions.

Inside, there is a corridor that is famous for the succession of parabolic arches it contains. These elegant line arches are not merely decorative, but have the function of supporting the ceiling and the upper floor. Gaudí used the parabolic arch as an ideal constructive element, able to support high weights by means of thin profiles. The Teresian building thus becomes one of Gaudí’s most coherent works, in which interior and exterior form a unit.

Casa Tosquella
Casa Tosquella is a modernist building resulting from a refurbishment carried out in 1907 by Eduard Maria Balcells i Buïgas, a monument protected as a cultural asset of national interest in the municipality of Barcelona. The building, a residential tower in the neighborhood of Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, is three winds, and consists only of ground floor and a semi basement visible from the garden. The composition of the elevations combines the curvilinear elements and the broken lines, typical of modernist aesthetics, with others of an Arabizing nature, such as horseshoe arches, used again since the nineteenth century by historicist styles and, later, in some modernist buildings. It is necessary to emphasize the decoration of railings, shelves and stained glass windows, today very damaged.

Casa Tosquella is one of the first works by the architect Eduard M. Balcells, belonging to the second generation of modernist architects, and whose work moves in discreet levels of quality. It is a renovation of an 1889 summer house made in Sant Gervasi by the master builder Juan Caballé. The reform was commissioned by Antonio Tosquella, a returned person from America with a good financial position. It is an eclectic style building with Arabic language and a structure similar to Casa Calado, also in Balcells, but with a larger size. In addition, it has wrought iron railings of great fantasy. The estate, now inhabited by her daughter and husband, is very abandoned. The owners want the city council to make some renovations, as it has been declared a monument of artistic interest.

Cases Ramos
Les Casas Ramos is a modernist residential building by Jaume Torres i Grau declared a cultural asset of national interest. The building is designed as a single body with a more careful main front that faces Lesseps Square and a much simpler side façade. The whole façade is topped with a stone frontispiece. The various floors differ in different levels: ground floor, mezzanine, main, type floors and top floor, with special emphasis on the design of the main and part of the mezzanine. The façade was made with a background of beige sgraffito and white drawings with placated ornaments. Montjuïc sandstone grandstands and balconies with wrought iron railings complete the building.

All the elements used in the construction of the crown of the set have a medievalist, specifically Gothic aftertaste. Mention should be made, among the movable elements, of a large three-armed wrought iron lamp in the courtyard, where the influence of Lluís Domènech i Montaner can be seen. Also of interest are the brass bell plates within the modernist current.

Olorda Castle
The castle of Olorda, located in the Collserola mountain range near the Puig d’Olorda and the Pedrera dels Ocells, belongs to the municipality of Barcelona, is a missing castle of uncertain location. Some sources place it at the very top of the Puig d’Olorda. However, others identify it as the house next to the hermitage of Santa Creu d’Olorda. In Olorda there was a castle as confirmed by the fire of 1365-70, although we know that in 1355 the Delorda Castle had been sold to Pere des Llor, father of Simó, by King Pere el Cerimoniós, and about twenty years later the Castle de Lorda belonged to Berenguer de Relat, who also owned the Ciuró Castle.

In 1471 these two castles belonged to Lluís de Relat, in 1537 to the maiden Lluís Pou and in 1542 to Lluís Desvalls who sold the terms of the two castles to the Requesens-Zúñiga, then mistress family of the barony of Castell Vell de Rosanes. It is very clear that the castles of Ciuró and Olorda always went hand in hand with regard to the common history, although Olorda always had a more watchtower function, which was damaged earlier by losing the function rather. for which it was built. Information from 1430 already tells us of a very damaged building under the name of Castro del Orde. The jurisdiction of the castle of Olorda included the territories of Vallvidrera and Sant Bartomeu de la Quadra, but it never had a life of its own because the lords always preferred to live in the castle Ciuró where there were more facilities and better communication with the rest. of villages in the region.

Casa J. Espona
Casa J. Espona is a rationalist building by the architect Raimon Duran i Reynals, protected as a cultural asset of national interest, in the Sant Gervasi district of Barcelona. Building located on a plot between medians and consists of a ground floor and six floors with the main facade in Camp d’en Vidal street and the rear facade in Aribau street. The facades, plastered and painted green, are organized into three bodies, with the central body emphasized with balconies with built-in windows. The narrower side bodies show two rows of landscaped windows. The organization in plan proposes a reinterpretation of the type of building between medianeras of the Eixample when having four houses by landing, what makes possible a concentrated distribution, in front of the historical linear type, and allows a rational functional differentiation of the zones surroundings of specialized celoberts.

It is necessary to emphasize the innovative functionalism of its distributions and the clarity in the organization of the space, as well as the conjunction of the rationalist language with the classicist composition of the facades. To these values must be added the mastery, influence and progress it has had in the history of architecture in our country.

The building is fully integrated into the European architectural movement called Rationalism. This project highlights the high degree of interrelationships that had been established between groups of Catalan architects and the international movement that laid the foundations for the evolution of modern architecture.

Fabra Observatories
The Fabra Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in Barcelona, on a buttress of Tibidabo facing south at an altitude of 411 m above sea level (latitude: 41.4184 ° N; longitude: 2.1239 ° E). It was founded in 1904 and is owned by the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona. Its current director is Jordi Núñez de Murga, professor of the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology at the UB and full member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (RACAB). It is the fourth oldest observatory in the world still in operation. The Fabra Observatory, located in the Collserola mountain range, near the top of Tibidabo, belongs to the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, which takes care of the scientific direction, operation and maintenance. From the first years of operation it works in three specific fields: meteorology, astronomy and seismology.

The building is the work of 1902-1904 by the architect Josep Domènech i Estapà, one of the leading figures in the Catalan architectural scene between the 19th and 20th centuries, who was also a doctor of science, professor of geodesy and geometry and academic of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts. This solid technical and scientific training is reflected in the building, which is an example of functional fidelity, of effective architectural response to a scientifically based approach that conditions it and that the author uses to configure a coherent, balanced and rational building.

The Fabra Observatory consists of an octagonal body at one end and a rectangular tower at the other which, by a protrusion mounted on posters, is transformed into a cruciform; between the two parts is an elongated body, covered on two sides, which connects them. The octagonal body is crowned by a rotating iron plate dome that contains the telescope and at the bottom has, as a facade, an access atrium, with two neo-Egyptian columns and an atypical pediment, within the line of the ‘ eclecticism. The tower ends with a terrace and a higher body with a turret or metal crown. The building is part of a pre- modernist eclectic general arrangement,

In relation to the urban landscape of Barcelona, the Observatory has become an irreplaceable landmark that is part of the urban landscape of the city and at the same time its scientific, historical, artistic and cultural values in the context of scientific history are especially remarkable. of Catalonia. The location of this monument is a landmark that forms a landscape image of singular interest within the landscape of the Collserola mountain range, and specifically of the mountain of Tibidabo, which supports it.

Museum

Cosmocaixa
The CosmoCaixa, Barcelona’s science museum, is housed in a modernist building from 1909, designed by the architect Josep Domènech i Estapà. The building initially housed an asylum for the blind, the Empar de Santa Llúcia, which was in operation until 1979. Two years later, the first science museum in Spain opened its doors and one of the best in Spain. ‘Europe, an innovative proposal with the aim of bringing science closer to the citizens. After a refurbishment in 2004, which expanded the facilities to the current 50,000 square meters, it was renamed CosmoCaixa, as it is currently known.

Of note in the museum is the Planetarium, an extraordinary visit to the cosmos on a journey through the time of the stars and planets; the Geological Wall, consisting of seven large sections of real rock to interpret geology; the Matter Room, a place to become a scientist and put limits on physics; and the Flooded Forest, which recreates an Amazon ecosystem that includes plant and animal species in the area. To create this area, scientists traveled to the Brazilian state of Parà to make molds and faithful reproductions of the large trees and vegetation in the area. CosmoCaixa is a challenge for the senses and one of the best leisure activities in the city, designed for both adults and children. With a reference building, CosmoCaixa has put modernism at the service of the most modern science.

Tibidabo Automata Museum
In this museum of the Tibidabo Amusement Park, located in an old theater from 1909, there is a fascinating collection of mechanical toys and dolls that used to be found at fairs all over Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. We find everything from dolls that worked when a coin was inserted to mechanical games that entertained children from other eras.

The science of automation could be the mother of today’s robotics. Automata are the first machines with movements similar to those of humans, a kind of android resulting from the combination of woodwork, sewing and the most sophisticated micromechanics, or watch mechanics. The mechanism of automata has been used for technological advances, but in its origins, they were reserved for display in amusement parks or fairs. Tibidabo’s automata are grouped in a curious museum that is now the most important in the world because it contains pieces from the late 19th century, and even Walt Disney wanted to buy one of the automata with a blank check. The museum is an old theater from the early twentieth century and contains models with mobile and automated elements in operation that explain the close link between mechanical technology and amusement parks.

Parks and gardens
Sarrià – Sant Gervasi offers lots of outdoor spaces ideal for walking and enjoying nature and the landscape.

Eucalyptus of the Swallow Park
The Eucalyptus of the Parc de l’Oreneta is a tree found in the Parc de l’Oreneta (Sarrià – Sant Gervasi, Barcelona, el Barcelonès), which due to its dimensions (especially those referring to the perimeter of the trunk) make it the largest blue eucalyptus in the public spaces of the city of Barcelona.

It is in a forest park with a combination of planted and escaped garden species, and the same goes for native plants, which we find planted or natural. As for herbs and lianas, there are forest asparagus, garden asparagus, acanthus, cane, false miraguà, wall blackberry, hemp, chard, vidalba, suckling pig, vincapervinca, devil’s tomato, bittersweet, Bidens and St. John’s wort Joan. As for shrubs, it grows buckthorn, narrow-leaved buckthorn, laurel, ivory, troana, crown and olive tree. The tree cover that accompanies it is made up of oak, cork oak, elm, cypress, olive, carob, hawthorn, Japanese loquat and almond. In fact, it is a partially vestigial vegetation that accompanies a very modified testimony of an old Mediterranean boulevard or stream.

The gardens of Can Castelló
Located in the old estate of Dr. Josep Castelló i Galvany, the gardens of Can Castelló are characterized by their elegance and the variety of species they present.

The gardens of Can Sentmenat
Located on the sea side of the Collserola mountain range, the gardens of Can Sentmenat are one of the few remaining remains in Barcelona of the stately gardens created by the Catalan aristocracy at the end of the 19th century. In a romantic and French character, the gardens of Can Sentmenat have an undeniable testimonial value, as they have maintained the original structure and typology. On both sides of the building, the enclosing walls are covered with climbs and all over the terrace you can see very beautiful views of Barcelona and the Collserola mountain range, which together with the sky become an exceptional backdrop of the gardens.

The gardens of the Tamarita
The Tamarita Gardens are a living example of a private garden assimilated as a space and public heritage. When we cross the door of the gardens of the Tamarita we enter a Barcelona that transports us to the times when the bourgeoisie built its mansions surrounded by gardens in the upper part of the city. These gardens are a good place to rest and be quiet away from the hustle and bustle of the city, located just across the stone and wrought iron wall surrounding the garden, built to store a space that was private and that it is now public.

The Hill Park
Turó Park is rich in species and exceptional tree specimens, both in size and age. Turó Park is a secluded, elegant and cozy place. A shady area with small groves, ivy flower beds, curvilinear paths and beautiful scenic corners. Since it was created at the beginning of the 20th century, it is, without a doubt, one of the most emblematic parks in Barcelona.