There is still no date for the Barcelona City Council to execute the sentence condemning the disappearance of the impostor building in Montjuïc, the hangar known as the Italian Pavilion and which, since it was born, around the eighties of the last century, he has supplanted the identity of his predecessors, these yes, Italians on all four sides.
The Z6 building, the official name of the ship that occupies a privileged place, in Plaça Carles Buhigas, next to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, has been on death row, threatened by the woodpecker, for at least the last 20 years . As early as 2003, a debate was opened on the survival of this structure which is certainly out of tune with the environment and which, as Lluís Permanyer has repeatedly explained in the pages of La Vanguardia, has nothing Italian in it despite the fact that even today, in the documentation used by Barcelona City Council, owner of the facility since March of this year, insists on attributing this name to it.
Last week, during the Font de la Guatlla neighborhood council, the Sants-Montjuïc councilor, Raquel Gil, publicly announced what some residents and organizations had known for a week: the condemnation of the so-called Italian pavilion . Apparently, the City Council had now realized what it hadn't been able to see for many years, that this charmless hangar has a "birth defect" - it occupies a space qualified as a classic park - and its situation, therefore , is "unsalvageable".
This condition of a green area was included in the modification of the General Metropolitan Plan for Montjuïc mountain in force since 2014, during the term of mayor Xavier Trias. At that time, the Z6 building, also known at some point as pavilion 3, belonged to Fira de Barcelona, which retained ownership until March, when its reversion to the City Council was signed. It was then when the previous Councilor for Urbanism, Janet Sanz (BComú), responding to the demand for sports spaces from Poble Sec entities and hurried by the imminence of the elections, announced the new uses of the hangar, which in its last stage as a Fira de Barcelona facility had hosted numerous private events, cultural competitions such as the SWAB contemporary art fair or brand stands participating in the Motor Show.
The transfer of the pavilion to Barcelona City Council was the first realization of the project to reform the Montjuïc fairgrounds, which must coincide, six years from now, with the centenary of the 1929 International Exhibition. In the exhibition that was used to urbanize the mountain, there was an authentic Italian pavilion, an eclectic display of fascist taste that combined reminiscences of ancient Rome and the Renaissance. The second pavilion of genuine Italy was erected in 1960 on the occasion of the XXVIII Barcelona International Trade Fair. According to the General Archives of Fira consulted by La Vanguardia, this installation, initially thought to last only three years, was demolished in the 1980s after "several structural deficiencies were detected that raised debates about its viability". The horrible Z6 building was erected in its place.
The announcement of the opening of the demolition file has coincided with the tender for works (to the value of 49,209.02 euros VAT) for the "surface adaptation of the multi-sports courts of the Italian Pavilion", basically an anti-slip treatment to prevent the slips that are the daily bread of the half a dozen sports clubs that train in this place - an occasional homeless shelter - but cannot compete because they do not meet the minimum conditions to do so . This is a quick intervention (seven working days) on the 63x36 meter rectangle. Curious paradox: dressing the condemned while the countdown to the execution begins.
