The treatment that Barcelona’s historical heritage receives is a chronic debate in the city. Although public opinion usually deliberates basically on the monuments that appear on tourist postcards, it also in the neighborhoods there is permanent controversy about emblematic buildings and corners that suffer over the years. Sant Andreu has its particular ground zero of assets at risk around the station square, which has thickened this winter with the closure of the railway terminal. This area was precisely the cradle of the old independent town of Sant Andreu de Palomar.
A month ago, the retirement of the old station grabbed headlines Sant Andreu Comtal, for being the one that accumulated more decades in service in the entire State (168 years). Since its closure, the building has already begun to collect dust: although the construction of the new Sant Andreu station (13 years of work) has given time for Adif and the City Council to prepare a quick transfer of the activity, the transfer to the consistory of the already empty property is still “being negotiated & rdquor;explain municipal sources.
The intention of the City Council has always been to preserve the property to convert it into a municipal facility, although no municipal government has come to specify the exact use. In fact, today’s official version is traced to that of years ago: “It will work based on the needs of the district and the proposals received from the entities,” state spokespersons for the consistory, already in the middle of the countdown to the elections. may municipalities.
One of the fears of the Sant Andreu entities is that the old station will join the long list of projects that are still waiting to elucidate their future. In this sense, the president and archaeologist of the Center d’Estudis Ignasi Iglésias (CEII), Jordi Petit, recalls that this group of historians already proposed “recovering the original appearance of the interior of the building& rdquor; and “leave a track with a locomotive to remember that trains used to run there& rdquor ;. The municipal response they received was not encouraging: “They told us that it would be seen and that the issue of the train will not be decided until the new access for cars to the city is built, so we understand that it will be a very long-term decision& rdquor ;, says Petit.
Projects on ‘stand by’
The lack of definition not only affects the railway building, but also various buildings that surround the Plaza de la Estació. The most imposing is the neoclassical estate of the Sant Jordi Clinic. Although it also has to pass into the hands of the City Council and become a public facility, it lacks a calendar for the transformation. The owner of the building is the HM Hospitales corporation, which ensures that it has all the will to carry out the plan projected more than a decade ago: to cede the property after building a new health complex. However, the council They have not yet been given the building permit. “It has been requested for a long time & rdquor ;, highlight company sources.
Although the structure of this building, which came to house Cafés Debray, can still withstand a few more years without requiring any reform, other properties in the vicinity do not have the same luck. An interesting group of houses barely stands up that there are about 100 meters further on, in the street of the Pont. Cataloged as the oldest in the primitive independent town of Sant Andreu de Palomar, they have been boarded up since 2017 to prevent them from being occupied again.
Paradoxically, one of its former occupants, Pau Sáenz, already warned after handing over the keys that “every day that they are closed, they will deteriorate more& rdquor;. In fact, the same district manager, Carme Turégano, admitted in a 2016 Barri Council that the council ordered one of them to be destroyed from the inside: “The City Council scrapped house number 8 due to the risk of sinking if new people entered& rdquor ;.
“Years ago we managed to save the houses from the pickaxe, with the idea of finding a new use for the equipment that suits them& rdquor ;, explains Petit. After all, the complex includes a house from the 18th century, another from the 19th century, a artisan residence and the so-called Officer’s House. The latter is of special interest because of the function it had: Sant Andreu had the obligation to host said military post here, yes or yes, when the Army was passing through the area
For the Casa del Oficial, there came to be a clear proposal: “The Rec Comtal interpretation center and a small museum of Sant Andreu had to be built there, but it is completely stopped& rdquor;, laments the president of the CEII. “Then we were told, in 2018, that a part of the tourist tax would be used to open a small information office, but we don’t know anything about that either & rdquor ;, he criticizes. For its part, the City Council told EL PERIÓDICO that “during 2023 the structural consolidation of the two houses that are in the worst condition will be carried out& rdquor; to curb at least the risk of collapse.
The chapel of the Reapers, directed
The desire of the entity of local historians is that the future interpretation center can be linked to the restoration of the Chapel of Sant Crist dels Segadors. This project does is already underway, thanks to its declaration as a Cultural Asset of National Interest this September. It was in this chapel where the somatenes and peasants from half of Catalonia met on May 22, 1640, who started the Revolt of the Reapers, a war conflict that has among its direct causes easements such as the Official’s House.
“The architects who have begun to work on its recovery have shown interest in our ideas when preparing the project,” celebrates Petit. Following this intervention, he hopes that an archaeological survey will be carried out under the floor plan of the church and the provisional gardens of the Dones de la Motor Ibérica.
If nothing changes, project funding for the chapel’s restoration will follow a model similar to that used to rehabilitate the adjacent church’s dome. That is, with investment from the Archbishopric, the City Council and the Generalitat. “We have already started the conversations,” revealed from the consistory, who hope to have the master plan that the entities have been demanding since 2015 in the coming months.
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If this investment mechanism prospers, the future of the chapel is promising. Despite having waited 17 years under a tarpaulin, the dome was able to be rehabilitated and with great results. Two months ago, it received the award for the best heritage restoration awarded by the Col·legi de l’Arquitectura Tècnica de Barcelona. However, the interior of the large parish building “is still awaiting the second phase of the restoration”, underlines the CEII.
The consistory makes it clear that “most of these projects will be developed in the next term & rdquor; and details that “we are already working with the idea that they can be executed between 2023 and 2027& rdquor ;. The wait, however, makes local historians desperate, who denounce that there is an important part of the heritage that “continues to be left by the hand of God& rdquor ;. After all, the area surrounding the Plaza de la Estación is the germ of the old independent Sant Andreu and its heritage recovery is sensitive material for the identity of a neighborhood that resists a barcelonization total.