Reinventing memories: The origin and development of Barcelona's Barri Gòtic, 1880-1950

Journal of Urban History

Volumn 34, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 795-832

  Ganau, Joan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LLEIDA   (Spain)

Author keywords

Barcelona; City center; Collective memory; Conservationist policies; Urban heritage

Indexed keywords

HERITAGE CONSERVATION; HISTORIC BUILDING; MEMORY; REDEVELOPMENT; URBAN PLANNING;

BARCELONA [CATALONIA]; CATALONIA; EURASIA; EUROPE; SOUTHERN EUROPE; SPAIN;

EID: 44449094187     PISSN: 00961442     EISSN: 15526771     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0096144208315681     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Throughout the article we shall use the Catalan versions of the names of neighborhoods and buildings in Barcelona, with translations into English when these are deemed necessary. However, we feel that it is also necessary top point out that the terms Barri Gòtic and Poble Espanyol are often better known in their Spanish versions: Barrio Gótico and Pueblo Español.
2. Fodor's Barcelona to Bilbao (New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, 2003), 37.
3. Some of these guidebooks can be very significant. Another Fodor's guidebook describes it in the following terms: "The Gothic quarter lies between Las Ramblas and the Via Laietana, much of which is pedestrianised. The 13th- to 15th- century buildings, still amazingly intact are splendid examples of the period's architecture, and now, combinations of museums, private homes and specialist shops," Fodor's See It: Barcelona (New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, 2003), 60. The same references to Medieval and Roman Barcelona can be found in Insight Guides: "Barcelona's old city, known as the Barri Gòtic or Gothic Quarter, is a wonderful display of solid stone, sprinkled with small shops, cafés, taverns and gourmet restaurants. Although most of the major architecture was completed between the 13th and the 15th centuries, there are traces of Roman civilisation. Barcelona's acropolis-the highest elevation in the Barri Gòtic-was originally the Iberian village of Laia" (Insight Guides. Spain, London: APA Publications, 2003, 252-53). As a final example, the Lonely Planet guide collects together a mixture of historic memories and information about the gastronomic and festive atmosphere of the quarter: "The Barri Gòtic is a warren of narrow, winding streets and unexpected little squares, and is home of a dense concentration of budget hotels, bars, cafés and restaurants. Few of its great buildings date from after the early 15th century-the decline of Barcelona went into that time curtailed grand projects for several centuries," Damien Simonis, Barcelona (Lonely Planet Publications, 2004), 73.
4. Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 3.
5. Patrick H. Hutton, History as an Art of Memory (Hannover: University Press of New England, 1993).
6. It is important to underline the magnificent work directed by Pierre Nora, Les Lieux de Mémorie (Paris: Gallimard, 1984 - 1986, 7 volumes) or the work of Paul Ricoeur, La Mémoire, l'Histoire, l'Oubli (Paris: Ed. du Seuil, 2000).
7. Maurice Halbwachs, La Mémoire Collective (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1968). The English edition: Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), edited by Lewis A. Coser.
8. M. Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994), 5.
9. John R. Gillis, "Memory and Identity: The History of a Relationship," in J. R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 5-9.
10. Eric Hobsbawm, "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe, 1870-1914," in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 263-307.
11. Years later, the same author went on to publish another key work about nationalisms: Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University, Press, 1990).
12. John R. Gillis, "Memory and Identity: The History of a Relationship," in J.R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations. The Politics of National Identity, 8.
13. David Lowenthal, "Identity, Heritage, and History," in J. R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 49.
14. Rudy Koshar, Germany's Ttransient Pasts: Preservation and National Memory in the Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), and Rudy Koshar, From Monuments to Traces: Artifacts of German Memory, 1870-1990 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
15. Rudy Koshar, "On Cults and Cultists: German Historic Preservation in the Twentieth Century," in Max Page and Randall Mason, eds., Giving a Preservation a History in the United States (New York: Routledge, 2004), 48-49.
16. Koshar, Germany's Transient Pasts, 90.
17. From a historiographical perspective, for example, the works of: Maurizio Bertolotti, La Complicazione Della Vita: Storie del Resorgimento (Milano: Feltrinelli, 1998) and P. Schiera and M. Meriggi, Dalla Citt̀ alla Nazione: Borghesie Ottocentesche in Italia e Germania (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1991). On the relationship between memory and the Italian nation: Mario Isnenghi, ed., I Luoghi Della Memoria: Personaggi e Date Dell'Italia Unita (Roma: Laterza, 1997). A revised bibliography about recent contributions can be found in: Saverio Battente, "Nation and State Building in Italy: Recent Historiographical Interpretations (1989-1997), I: Unification to Fascism," Journal of Modern Italian Studies 5, no. 3 (2000): 310 - 21.
18. Quoted by E. Hobsbawm, "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe, 1870-1914," 267.
19. David Atkinson and Denis Cosgrove, "Urban Rhetoric and Embodied Identities: City, Nation, and Empire at the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument in Rome, 1870-1945," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 88, no. 1 (1998): 28-49.
20. Anthony M. Tung, "The City That Rewrote Its Past: Fascist and Modern Rome," in Preserving the World's Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2001), 51-69.
21. Herman Lebovics, "Creating the Authentic France: Struggles Over French Identity in the First Half of the Twentieth Century," in John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, 240-57.
22. Hugh Clout, "The Great Reconstruction of Towns and Cities in France 1918-35," Planning Perspectives 20, no. 1 (2005): 1-33.
23. Among the abundant bibliography on the construction of the concept of the nation in the United States: John E. Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
24. Brian S. Osborne, "Landscapes, Memory, Monuments, and Commemoration: Putting Identity in its Place," Canadian Ethnic Studies 33, no. 3 (2001): 39-77. On the same subject, it is also possible to consult: David L. A. Gordon and Brian S. Osborne," Constructing National Identity in Canada's Capital, 1900-2000: Confederation Square and the National War Memorial," Journal of Historical Geography 30, no. 4 (2004): 618 - 42.
25. Benjamin Forest, Julliet Johnson, "Unravelling the Threads of History: Soviet-Era Monuments and the Post-Soviet National Identity in Moscow," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92, no. 3 (2002): 524-47; Taras Kuzio, "History, Memory and Nation Building in the Post-Soviet Colonial Space," Nationalities Papers 30, no. 2 (2002): 241-64.
26. Kenneth E. Foote, Attila Toth, and Anett Arvay, "Hungary After 1989: Inscribing a New Past on Place," The Geographical Review 90, no. 3 (2000): 301 - 34. Emilia Palonen, "Politics of Memory in the City-Text of Budapest," ECPR Workshop paper, Politics and Memory, Edinburgh 2003, http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECPR/events/jointsessions/ paperarchive/edinburgh/ws16/Palonen.pdf (February2005).
27. For example, Sylvia Ostrawetsy questions the limits of memory in the case of the Warsaw ghetto, where hundreds of thousands of people died during the Holocaust. With respect to the monumentalization of the ghetto, she writes: "our world must still find a new way, which without a doubt must be more respectful of men in their ambivalence and more truthful in its historicity, which is capable of synthesising memory and history instead of opposing them." Sylvia Ostrowetsky, "Mémorie et Histoire: La Monumentalisation du Ghetto de Varsovie: Monument et Ville," L'Homme et la Societé 146 (2002): 77 - 99.
28. A good reflection of the editorial activity related with this subject can be gathered from the number of reviews that have recently appeared. For example: Ulf Strohmayer, ©Geography, Memory, and the Recent Past in Germany, © Journal of Historical Geography 26, no. 1 (2000): 125-30; Matthew Levinger, ©Memory and Forgetting: Reinventing the Past in Twentieth-Century Germany, © The Public Historian 24, no. 4 (2002): 117-26; Belinda Davis, © Monuments, Memory, and the Future of the Past in Modern Urban Germany, © Journal of Urban History 30, no. 4 (2004): 583-93. Among the many books that have dealt with the transformation of Berlin in recent years, it is worth highlighting those included in Jeffrey M. Diefendorf's summary, © Berlin irresistible. Explorations in cultural and politics, © Journal of Urban History 26, no. 6 (2000): 823-29; Ronald Taylor, Berlin and its Culture: A Historical Portrait (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997); Alexandra Richie, Faust Metropolis: A History of Berlin (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1998); Brian Ladd, The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997). More recently, another book worthy of mention is Karen Till's, The New Berlin: Memory, Politics, Place (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005).
29. Nuala C. Johnson refers to the case of Ireland within the European context: "Like other European countries, the end of the nineteenth century in Ireland witnessed a profusion of societies, literary journal, histories, sporting organisations and so on that sought to advance the national culture. This was the heyday for the invention of popular traditions (...) What differentiated Ireland from many other places in western Europe at this time, however, was that it was not independent; the symbols and rituals that emerged articulated the division within Ireland over independence." Nuala C. Johnson, "Sculpting Heroic Histories: Celebrating the Centenary of the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland" Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 19, no. 1(1994): 78-93.
30. J. Ganau, Els Inicis del Pensament Conservacionista en l'Urbanisme Catal̀, 1844-1931 (Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 73-139.
31. It is possible to cite numerous examples of these hikes and monographs, but one particular anecdote should provide a good illustration of the obsession with archaeology during this early stage of Catalan nationalism. It is the case of the expedition organized in 1870 by the young Antoni Gaudí. At just 18 years of age, he and two school colleagues organized a trip to restore the monastery of Poblet, the biggest monastery in Catalonia, which was then in ruins. This venture was based on a simple plan which was not supported by any other resources. Evidently, the undoubted enthusiasm of the three young men was not sufficient in itself and therefore, not surprisingly, the project was a complete failure. However, given the later trajectory of Gaudí, this small youthful adventure perhaps provides a good example of the context in which Catalan architecture was at that time J. Bassegoda, "El Manuscrit de Poblet: Un Intent de Restauració del Monestir en 1870," Revista Técnica de la Propiedad Urbana 35 (1988):21-54; E. Fort, Eduard Toda, Tal Com l'He Conegut (Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, 1975).
32. Ramon Grau and Marina López, "El Fil d'Ariadna-II Pau Piferrer i Victor Hugo: La Llum no Venia d'Alemanya, " L'Avenç 89 (1986): 70-73.
33. Joan Bassegoda, "La Fachada de la Catedral de Barcelona," Memorias de la Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona 809 (1981): 263-87, offers a summary of the long process involved in the construction of the cathedral's facade.
34. A procedure that was extensively criticized by Camillo Sitte, Der Städtebau Nach Sseinen Künstlerischen Grundsätzen, Viena, 1889. Years later, it was also criticized by Leopoldo Torres Balbás with respect to Spain: "El Aislamiento de Nuestras Catedrales," Arquitectura 20 (1919): 358-62.
35. Lluis Domènech, "Reforma de Barcelona," La Renaixensa 3 (1879): 125-48.
36. For more information about this ode and other aspects of this poet's literary relationship with Barcelona, see: Francesc Codina and Ramon Pinyol, eds., Verdaguer i Barcelona (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1995).
37. Ángel J. Baixeras writes about the project: "The only thing that some people will consider to constitute a luxury item is the garden that we propose to locate behind the Cathedral; but we consider it as an ornate and relaxing necessity. (...) All cities of any importance have them, and there is no better place in our city to locate than this one, because as well as being the highest point in the city, it will also meet conditions of quite uncommon beauty, being surrounded by the artistic facade of the Audiencia, the grandiose apse of the Cathedral, and the characteristic Archive of the Corona de Aragón; enjoying the sight of the beautiful Capilla de Santa Águeda, and allowing the construction in the centre of this garden of the remains of a Roman monument [...] known as the Column of Hércules." Ángel J. Baixeras, La Verdad Sobre el Proyecto Baixeras (Barcelona: Imprenta Barcelonesa, 1883), 21.
38. François Choay, L'Allégorie du Patrimoine (Paris: Seuil, 1993), 137-39. The book by the Belgian C. Buls had a great influence in French speaking circles and also in Spain: Charles Buls, Esthétique des Villes (Bruxelles: Imprimerie Bruylant-Christophe & Cie, 1893).
39. A more extensive explanation of these difficulties can be found in Joan Ganau, "Town Planning and Conservationist Policies in the Historic Centre of Barcelona (1860-1930)," Planning History 19 (1997): 2-3, 23-31.
40. George C. Collins and Christiane C. Collins, Camillo Sitte and the Birth of Modern City Planning (London: Phaidon, 1965).
41. Anthony Sutcliffe, The Autumn of Central Paris: The Defeat of Town Planning (1850-1870) (London: Edward Arnold, 1970). About the whole process of modernization of Paris through the nineteenth century, see David Harvey, Paris, Capital of Modernity (New York: Routledge, 2003).
42. To view the urbanism of Barcelona within the context of this period, see: Manuel Torres, El Planejament Urb̀ i la Crisi de 1917 a Barcelona (Barcelona: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 1987). Also: Francisco J. Monclús, "Barcelona's Planning Strategies: From 'Paris of the South' to the 'Capital of West Mediterranean' ", GeoJournal 51 (2000): 57-63.
43. See, for example, Rafel Torrella, "La Fotografia al Concurs Artìstic de la Vella Barcelona in La Construcció de la Gran Barcelona: L'obertura de la Via Laietana 1908-1958" (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2001), 128-47.
44. Francesc Carreras, "L'Administració Municipal Devant la Desaparició de la Ciutat Vella," in Ajuntament de Barcelona, La Vía Layetana Substituhint als Carrers de la Barcelona Mitjeval (Barcelona: Impremta Atles Geográfich d'Albert Martín, 1913), 5 - 16.
45. For more information about the development of this idea see, for example, Donald J. Olsen, The City as a Work of Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986).
46. Léon Jaussely, Proyecto de Enlaces de la Zona de Ensanche de Barcelona y los Pueblos Agregados: Memoria (Manuscript, Arxiu Administratiu de Barcelona, 1907). Part of the text can be consulted at http://www.-etsav.upc.es/personals/monclus/cursos/enlaces.htm.
47. Francisco J. Monclús, "Barcelona: Ideas de Ciudad y Estrategias Urbanísticas (1897-1923)," in Arturo Soria y el Urbanismo Europeo de su Tiempo, 1894-1994: Primer Centenario de la Compañía Madrileña de Urbanización (Madrid: Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid, 1996), 67 - 84.
48. Antoni Nicolau and Daniel Venteo, "La Monumentalització del Centre Històric: La Invenció del Barri Gòtic" in La Construcció de la Gran Barcelona: L'Obertura de la Via Laietana 1908 - 1958 (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2001), 100 - 27.
49. Joan Ganau, "La Ciutat com aMuseu: Les Obres de Reforma Interior i el Naixement del Barri Gòtic de Barcelona (1907-1930)" in Joan Roca, ed., Expansió Urbana i Planejament a Barcelona (Barcelona, Institut Municipal d'Història and Edicions Proa, 1997), 193 - 205.
50. Ramon Rucabado, "Un Barrio Gótico en Barcelona," La Cataluña 189 (1911): 308 - 11. For his part, Jeroni Martorell was the most active architect employed in the preservation of Catalonia's monuments. He was, among other things, one of the directors and main driving forces behind the Servei de Conservació i Catalogació de Monuments (Service for the Conservation and Cataloguing of Monuments) of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, from 1915 onwards. For more information about this organization, which for many years was managed by Martorell: Diputació de Barcelona: Setanta Anys de Catalogació i Conservació de Monuments (Barcelona: Diputació de Barcelona, 1986).
51. Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionaire Raisonné de l'Architecture Française du XIè au XVIè Siècle (París: Morel et Cie., 1854 - 1868), vol. IV, 15.
52. There is a well known definition of restoration attributed to Viollet-le-Duc: "Restoring a building, does not imply maintaining it, repairing it or reworking it, it means returning it to a state of completion that may never have previously existed." Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionaire Raisonné de l'Architecture Française, vol. V II, 14.
53. This process was particularly intense in the works directed by Viollet and his disciples, and also on account of the widespread diffusion of his ideas. However, in general, this occurred in the majority of European countries. In the United Kingdom, for example, where the diffusion of the work of Viollet was extremely limited, the same excesses were observed in the restoration of many buildings and, in their moment, these were denounced by W. Morris and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). On this subject, see the now classic: Jane Fawcett, "A Restoration Tragedy: Cathedrals in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," in J. Fawcett, ed., The Future of the Past (London, Thames and Hudson, 1976), 74-155; and Stephan T. Madsen, Restoration and Anti-Restoration: A Study in English Restoration Philosophy (Oslo, Universitetsforlaget, 1976). To a certain extent, the construction of the facade of the cathedral of Barcelona could be included within this same tendency.
54. Anna L. Maramotti, La Materia del Restauro (Milano: Franco Angeli, 1990); Pedro L. Gallego, "Viollet-le-Duc: La Restauración Arquitectónica y el Racionalismo Fin de Siglo," in A. Fernández, ed., Restauración Arquitectónica (Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, 1992), 29 - 50.
55. Ricard Giralt, "Urbanización del Barrio Barroco de la Virreina," La Construcción 11 (1917): 12 - 14.
56. Josep Torras i Bages, La Tradició Catalana (Barcelona, Edicions 62 i La Caixa, 1981), 140 - 42. The book was published first in 1893.
57. Art Nouveau.
58. Joan Ganau, "Town Planning and Conservationist Policies, " 23-31.
59. The Mancomunitat was an institution that had permitted Catalonia a degree of self-government in certain areas. This basically consisted of joining together the budgets of the different Diputaciones (the provincial governments of the four provinces that form Catalonia).
60. Josep Puig i Cadafalch, "La Destrucció de l'Acròpolis de Barcelona," La Veu de Catalunya, December 10, 1924.
61. Although there has been no exhaustive study of the complex figure of Puig i Cadafalch, it is possible to consult: Enric Jardí, Puig i Cadafalch: Arquitecte, Polític i Historiador de l'Art (Barcelona: Ariel, 1975); Ramon Grau and Marina López, "La Teoría Histórica de la Arquitectura en Puig i Cadafalch," Artilugi 12 (1984): 1 - 4; Josep Puig i Cadafalch: L'Arquitectura Entre la Casa i la Ciutat, Architecture Between the House and the City (Barcelona, Fundació Caixa de Pensions, 1989). More recently, two new publications have shed more light on the figure of Puig i Cadafalch: Rosa Alcoy, Puig i Cadafalch i la Restauracio de Monuments (Barcelona: Institut Amatller d'Art Hisp̀nic, 2002), and Núria Mañe and Josep Massot, Memòries: Josep Puig i Cadafalch (Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, 2003).
62. Ignasi de Sol̀-Morales, Joan Rubió y Bellver y la Fortuna del Gaudinismo (Barcelona: Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Cataluña y Baleares, 1975), 56.
63. Joan Rubió, Taber Mons Barcenonensis (Barcelona: Imp. Casa de la Caritat, 1927).
64. For information about the universal exhibitions: Erik Mattie, World's Fairs (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998). For information relating to the importance of national architecture, a good example is provided by the Chicago Exhibition of 1893: Norm Bolotin and Christine Laing, The World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (Washington, DC, Preservation Press, 1992), and Arnold Lewis, An Early Encounter with Tomorrow: Europeans, Chicago's Loop and the World Columbian Exposition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997). Also see Timothy J. Fox and Duane R. Sneddeker, From the Palaces to the Pike: Visions of the 1904 World's Fair (Saint Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1997). These two works can be found summarized in: James Gilber, "Two Fair Cities" Journal of Urban History 26, no. 6 (2000): 808 - 14. For a more European perspective of national architecture and exhibitions in Italy, see: M. Picone Petrusa, M.R. Pessolano and A. Bianco, "L'architettura e le Esposizioni Italiane," in Le Grandi Esposizioni in Italia, 1861 - 1911: La Competizione Culturale con l'Europa e la Ricerca Dello Stile Nazionale (Napoli: Liguori, 1988). With respect to the specific case of Barcelona, national architecture and the exhibition of 1888, see Pere Hereu, ed., Arquitectura i Ciutat a l'Exposició Universal de Barcelona (Barcelona: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 1988).
65. Jean-Christophe Mabire, ed., L'exposition Universelle de 1900 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000).
66. As well as published photographs, the reproduction of the designs studied by Robida for the construction of the Vieux Paris were published and make it possible to get a very approximate idea of the objective and final result of the project: Albert Robida, Le Vieux Paris: Études et Dessins Originaux (Paris, Imprimeries Lemercier, 1901).
67. Perilla Kinchin and Juliet Kinchin, Glasgow's Great Exhibitions: 1888, 1901, 1911, 1938, 1988 (Wendlebury: White Cockade, 1988), 103.
68. M. Christine Boyer, "Cities for Sale: Merchandising History at South Street Seaport," in Michael Sorkin, ed., Variations on a Theme Park (New York: Hill and Wang, 1992), 180-204.
69. M. Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994), 318.
70. Among the bibliography on the Poble Espanyol, it is possible to consult: S. Martínez, O. Bohigas, J.M. Carandell, and J. Domènech, El Pueblo Español (Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1989), and more recently: Soledad Bengoechea, Els Secrets del Poble Espanyol, 1929 - 2004 (Barcelona: PEMSA, 2004).
71. Francesc Carreras Candi, "La Barcelona Retrospectiva en la Exposición de 1929," Las Noticias April 29, 1927.
72. Bonaventura Bassegoda, "Error Lamentable," La Vanguardia March 25, 1927.
73. A more complete account of these works can be found in Antoni Nicolau and Daniel Venteo, "La Monumentalització del Centre Històric," 116 - 17.
74. It should also be added that this service collected for the city of Barcelona some of the attributions of the previously cited Catalan Servei de Conservació i Catalogació de Monuments (Service for the Conservation and Cataloguing of Monuments) which had been created by the Mancomunitat and was managed by Jeroni Martorell until 1923.
75. It is possible to find out more about the work carried out in: Adolf Florensa, Conservación y Restauración de Monumentos Históricos (1927-1962), (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1967) and Adolf Florensa, "Restauraciones y Excavaciones en Barcelona Durante los Últimos Veinticinco Años," Cuadernos de Arqueología e Historia de la Ciudad 6 (1964): 5-36. More recently a monograph has been published on Adolf Florensa containing an evaluation of his work related with the historic center: Xavier Peiró, "Adolf Florensa i el Patrimoni Arquitectònic de la Ciutat de Barcelona: La Seva Labor en la Restauració de Monuments i Conjunts" in Oriol Bohigas et al., Adolf Florensa i Ferrer (1889-1968) (Barcelona, Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2002), 33-88.
76. An objective that, from a number of different perspectives, was pursued from the very first reform plans of 1860 until the Pla Vilaseca, of 1932, during the Second Republic. But despite the different plans that were passed, the real interventions in the historic center proved clearly insufficient. A recent analysis of the intervention projects for the historic center of Barcelona can be found in: Joan Busquets, La Ciutat Vella de Barcelona: Un Passat amb un Futur; El Centro Histórico de Barcelona: Un Pasado con Futuro; The Old Town of Barcelona: A Past with a Future (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2003).
77. Aloïs Riegl, Der Modernen Denkmalkultus. Sein Wesen und seine Entstehung (Wien: Verlag der K. K. Zentralkommission, 1903).
78. The main values recognized by A. Riegl were commemorative value (Erinnerungswert), historic value (historiches Wert), artistic-historic value (kunsthistorisheswert), antiquity value (Alterswert), novelty value (Neuheitswert), and instrumental or utility value (Gebrauchswert). From the combination of these values, which at times coexist in the same monument, but at others cause evident controversy and perhaps even incompatibilities, Riegl developed his theory about what the posture should be with respect to the conservation of the monument. A recent revision of Riegl's values: Thordis Arrhenius, "The Cult of Age in Mass-Society: Aloïs Riegl Ttheory Conservation," Future Anterior 1 (2004):75-81.
79. For further information about the repercussions of Sitte's work in various different countries, see: Guido Zucconi, ed., Camillo Sitte e i Suoi Interpreti, (Milano: Franco Angeli, 1992).
80. Ignasi Sol̀-Morales, L'Exposició Internacional de Barcelona, 1914-1929: Arquitectura i Ciutat (Barcelona: Fira de Barcelona, 1985), 140-41.
81. Adolf Florensa, Nombre, Extensión y Política del "Barrio Gótico," (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1958).
82. AgustíDuran, Per la Història del Barri de la Catedral de Barcelona (Barcelona: R. Tobella, 1928).
83. Agustí Duran, "Història del Barri Gòtic," in Barcelona i la Seva Història (Barcelona, Curial, 1972), vol. I, 222. In 1952 he had also written that "The term Barri Gòtic-which was certainly rather inadequate-had been given to this nucleus as a result of a spontaneous decision of the local people": AgustíDuran, El Barrio Gòtico y su Historia (Barcelona: Aym̀, 1952), 10.
84. Joan Ganau, "Invention and Authenticity in Barcelona's Barri Gotic," Future Anterior 3, no. 2(2006): 11-23.
85. Adolf Florensa, La Plaza de San Felipe Neri Ayer, Hoy y Mañana (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1958).
86. All of the issues of the magazine that appeared until the early 1950s have been systematically checked for references. In 1948, an article by Ramon Alberich about carrer de Montcada referred to the Barri Gòtic as "a marvel that could give Barcelona additional character" (Barcelona Atracción 319, 40 - 45). In 1950, in a survey organized by the Institut d'Història de Barcelona, in which 1, 200 people participated, the Barri Gòtic was already regarded as the second "artistic treasure" of the city, after the Sagrada Família. P. Verrié, "Las Seis Joyas Artísticas de Barcelona," Barcelona Atracción 327 (1950): 94-97.
87. One example of this international diffusion can be seen, for example, in an article by M. Oliva that appeared in the New York Times (July 1, 1962). The article was entitled "Barcelona walking tour" and contained the clarifying subtitle: "The ancient quarter of the great Catalan metropolis, called 'Barrio Gòtico,' evokes dramatic past" It showed a route, with a map included, that highlighted the main attractions of the Barri Gòtic.
88. Some references about turning patrimony and historic centers into theme parks: Brian Goodey, Drawing the Line on Town Centre Theme Parks? (Oxford, Oxford Polytechnic, 1991); Ignasi Sol̀-Morales, "Patrimonio Arquitectónico o Parque Temático," Logia 5 (1998): 30-35; and also: Giandomenico Amendola, La Citt̀ Postmoderna: Maggie e Paura Della Metropoli Contemporanea (Roma: Gius Laterza, 1997), 211 - 50; Stephen F. Mills, "Open-Air Museums and the Tourist Gaze" in David Crouch and Nina Lübbren, eds., Visual Culture and Tourism (New York: Berg, 2003), 75 - 90.