Lost Landscapes. La Clota, Barcelona’s Last Rural Landscape

La Clota is a piece of village and a piece of woodland surrounded by the city which, at present, is losing its rural appearance, its landscape, its atmosphere; its identity.

If we walk through the urban areas, we find houses, vegetable gardens, wash houses, ponds, wells and stone walls. If we walk through the undeveloped areas, we come across stone walls that extend to enclose properties or bridge changes in level, historic paths defined by earth embankments and brambles, clay quarries —known in La Clota as timbas— covered with honeysuckle, the occasional farmhouse and streams that descend from Collserola towards the plain. Walking through La Clota is like moving several kilometres away from Barcelona. In a setting like this, you can hear roosters, frogs, owls... The city has disappeared; only the distant murmur of cars driving along Avinguda de l’Estatut can be heard. Green surrounds everything: the cultivated green of the gardens around the houses and the wild green of brambles, shrubs and trees that survive from old abandoned crops.

The city has already captured this space. The characteristic atmosphere of the neighbourhood is being swallowed up by new developments of giant blocks, 8 storeys high and over 2,000 m² in surface area, inserted into a setting made up of small single-family houses, most of them two storeys high and much smaller in size; detached houses with gardens or houses on short terraced streets.

The future of La Clota

Barcelona, one of the European cities with the greatest lack of green spaces, has not known how to preserve this privileged place and the atmosphere that attracts us so much.

We can only hope that the project for the Parc Central de la Clota moves away from the stereotypical image of Barcelona’s urban parks, understands the uniqueness of this place and is able to enhance its value. So far, we have not been lucky: the new streets are large avenues dominated by concrete and paving stones; although, admittedly, with flowerbeds that attempt to replace the greenery that has been removed.

Meeting point: L3 Montbau, exit: Parc de la Vall d’Hebron. Estimated duration of the route: 2 h. Difficulty: moderate. Please wear comfortable shoes with grooved soles and bring water. At the end: discussion with vermouth, provided by the participants. Guide: Mariano Serrano Sancho.