The Rec Comtal de Barcelona finally enjoys official protection and with rank of “monument & rdquor;in writing in a Ambitious Master Plan. The city councils of Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac, the two municipalities through which the ancient ditch runs, have agreed on a document to value the 14 km of medieval canal layout and even protocols to better treat the remains that emerge from now on in works and reforms. Nevertheless, the great actions that materialize the patrimonial rescue continue without budget or calendar.
The Rec Comtal starts in the neighborhood of Can Sant Joan de Montcada i Reixac and goes to Ciutat Vella crossing 11 different neighborhoods of Barcelona, belonging to 5 of the 10 districts that the city has In other words, the history of this 10th century ditch is the history of half of Barcelona, literally. The new plan, agreed by the two consistories, proposes mark the route at 33 points concrete (26 in Barcelona and in Montcada), with special leading role in 9 green areas.
Thus, the channel would become leitmotiv spaces pending urbanization such as the Molí de Sant Andreu park, the back of the Sant Andreu de Palomar parish, the surroundings of the Nau Bostik or the Linear Park on the AVE tracks. It would also be the excuse to rethink enclaves in dense spots in a green key, such as the surroundings of the Monumental bullring or the Molí de les Basses de Sant Pere square (Ciutat Vella), as well as creating others from scratch such as a garden in Fort Pienc dedicated to the old mill of the commendatore.
None of these interventions has a date, nor is it even guaranteed that they will be carried out in the next four years. “From the next mandate, the actions will be specified and budgeted,” says the consistory. They will be made “as works and transformations are carried out & rdquor; in these areas, has recognized the deputy mayor Janet Sanz in the presentation of the Master Plan. Of course, the document – prepared by the young urban planning studio Carles Enrich – offers numerous virtual recreations of what the 9 most relevant enclaves could be like.
Curiously, neither the Plaza de las Glòries, where remains of the ditch were found in 2016, nor the section of the Diagonal between Castillejos and Padilla where the tram works also ran into it are not part of the prominent areas. Neither was the pacified Meridiana between Trinxant and Nació, where vestiges surfaced a year ago, were documented and were buried again better protected. In this case, they are already marked on the surface with a steel sheet and letters on the pavement, a format that could serve as a model for the rest of the points.
The only date on the table, Vallbona
The only intervention that has a calendar and budget is the result of another plan. The Consorci del Besòs has in writing a green corridor project between Vallbona and Trinitat Vella, which intends to renaturate the area. In passing, it will restore one of the 9 unique points of the Rec Comtal Master Plan, the crossing of Pont de la Vaca. The forecast is that the works start at the end of 2023, thanks to a budget of 2.4 million euros from European Next Generation funds. And it is that, In the short term, Vallbona (Barcelona) and Can Sant Joan (Montcada) will continue to be the only visible face of the Rec. They are the last neighborhoods through which it runs outdoors and concentrate 3 of the 9 singular points of the Master Plan.
The mayoress of Montcada i Reixac, Laura Campos, has stressed that the neighborhoods of Vallbona and Can Sant Joan cannot be understood as one without the other, even though they depend on different consistories, and that for both the Rec has a “strong link with the imaginary collective and memory & rdquor ;. In fact, she herself is the daughter of Can Sant Joan: “I am one of the girls who bathed in the Rec and my grandmother rented the clothes for her eight children here & rdquor ;.
Related news
Las casitas del Pont, “commitment & rdquor; off plan
For his part, the councilor for Democratic Memory, Jordi Rabassa, celebrated the fact that the Rec is finally officially recognized and future findings are protected with action protocols. “Its 14 kilometers already have the status of ‘monument’, and I would dare to say that they are ‘the’ monument of Barcelona! & rdquor;. Asked about the Rec Comtal interpretation center that requests the associative fabric of Sant Andreu in the hundred-year-old houses on Carrer del Pont, Rabassa replied that “it is a commitment that has been worked on with the entities and that will have to be carried out& rdquor; . Municipal sources add that the center is not included in the 33 actions of the Master Plan, but it is still planned and will be fitted.