Barcelona City Council ban on the start of the demolition of the walls

Date: 1843

Archive: Municipal Archive of Barcelona

Document type: Textual

Reference code: CAT-AHCB-AHCB1-002-1M-3160

Link to the archive

Description: On June 27, 1843, the Provisional Supreme Council of Barcelona announced the demolition of the walls by the municipality, making proclamations of ¡Abajo las murallas! and about the immense benefits it would bring to the health and wealth of the city. The ban was issued at a time of great tension with the central government. The previous year, 1842, Espartero had bombarded the city after an attempt was made to demolish the citadel. A month before the publication of the ban, generals Prim and Milans del Bosch had revolted against Espartero himself, who would finally go into exile in the summer of that year. Despite these proclamations by the Supreme Council, however, the actual overthrow did not begin until ten years later, in 1854, lasting until 1856.
The clamor for the demolition of the city walls came from afar. Since the end of the 18th century, the health and social situation inside the walled city had become unsustainable. The increase in population was compounded by poor hygienic conditions (burials in cemeteries, insufficient sewage network) which often led to epidemics of yellow fever or cholera. The voices against this limitation came not only from the citizens but also from the council. In 1841, the City Council awarded the hygienist Pere Felip Monlau’s work Abajo las murallas, which quickly spread and led to the joining of new prestigious voices such as Jaume Balmes.
The demolition of the walls meant for the city a rapid process of growth and its projection towards a great urban metropolis, in what would later be specified in the Cerdà Plan of the Eixample and which was in line with the hygienic reforms and urban expansions that were taking place at that time in many other European cities.

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