The Clot market promoted by farmers

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Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
14 December 2023 Thursday 09:32
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The Clot market promoted by farmers

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

The primitive Clot market had its origins in the middle of the 19th century, when a series of farmers gathered on land in the area, owned by the Buxó family.

These farmers would congregate in an open-air field in an area surrounded by factories to offer the produce of their gardens after workers left work and to the general public. It was an area of ​​the old municipality of San Martín de Provensals, which was not annexed to Barcelona until April 20, 1897.

The Clot neighborhood had grown due to its great industrialization and had consolidated itself as an autonomous part of the municipality of San Martin de Provensals.

The Buxó family, seeing the evolution of the open-air market, decided to build a covered market to protect farmers and users from inclement weather.

They contacted the municipal architect of Barcelona, ​​Pere Falqués i Urpí, who at that time had built the San Andrés de Palomar church, his hometown, in 1881. Later, he built the streetlights that were located in the Plaza del Cinc d' Oros (currently, on Avenida Gaudí) and the Hidroeléctrica de Cataluña building on Avenida Vilanova with Roger de Flor.

Pera Falqués, who became president of the Association of Architects of Catalonia from 1899 to 1900, had an indirect blot on his career in 1883 in Besòs, with the Torre de las Aguas, also known as Torre Macosa, but this is another story. ...

The Buxó family saw in Pere Falqués the right architect to build the new market that would provide shelter for parade-goers and customers from inclement weather.

Its construction began in 1884, with a modernist style, with a rectangular floor plan. It had a two-slope roof, with the metal structure normally used in large open-plan constructions of exposed brick.

The two main facades stood out with the decorative ceramic elements that adorned them. The main one had three large stained glass windows that illuminated the interior of the room. On the sides, two entrances served market traffic.

The budget for the work at that time had an initial cost of 48,985 pesetas and included in the price materials, transportation and the labor of the workers.

No item was left to improvisation, since the budget even included the origin of the materials: among other things, it was specified that the stone had to come from the Montjuïc quarries, the lime would come from the Montgat kilns and the The bricks had to have been fired with the sound shock procedure, flat, well square and of uniform thickness.

The market was inaugurated in 1889. In the buttresses that are still preserved on the two current main facades there are decorative ceramic elements that remember that anniversary.

The passage of time and new trends in the presentation and conservation of perishable products advised the modernization of the market to adapt it to new times, with a total restructuring of all conservation services.

The works began in 1994 and were completed in 1995. The exterior of the building was preserved, the square was deepened to build the much-needed parking lot in the area and two underground floors to house the chambers and freezers.

The circumstance was also taken advantage of to improve the area's sewerage. The wooden slat walls that allowed ventilation were replaced by glazed panels.

New businesses have also been opened in the streets surrounding the market that complement the interior offering.

The market area was urbanized, making it pedestrian, placing benches and turning it into a meeting point for citizen events.