A large number of historic buildings to be restored, owned by different administrations, are still pending to be recovered for years in Barcelona.
The best example is in Colón on the Rambla, right in the Ciutadella park. There are several public buildings that have been accumulated and pending rehabilitation for years. They are located in very central areas of the city, within sight of tourists and neighbors, and at a walking distance from the city center.Some of them have already completed more than 20 years without being used or restored.
Most of these properties
properties have heritage value
and belong to the Government, the Generalitat, the City Council or even the port of Barcelona. And slthough efforts have been made to advance the works, in the end the work has been delayed for various reasons.
Sometimes, problems or inconveniences of various kinds have forced construction work to stop. But tAlso due to lack of budget or, more commonly, because when there is a change in the administrations, the incoming ones prefer to leave aside the projects started and start from scratch.
Some of the forgotten historic buildings to restore
1. El Castell dels Tres Dragons (Ciutadella Park, Barcelona)
This modernist building was initially built as a restaurant for the Universal Exposition of 1888. It also housed the Museum of Natural Sciences until 2011 when it moved to the Museu Blau, in the Fòrum.
Municipal sources indicate that the use of the Castell dels Tres Dragons has not yet been defined. It can be part of the project to open the park to the sea and create the Ciutadella del Coneixement.
It is also part of a new complex for innovation and research funding with Next Generation funds.
They state that its façade is in the process of rehabilitation and is expected to be completed before 2023. Although it is apparently an empty building, there are still dozens of people working on the site, as they are collaborators of the former museum.
2. The building of the Government Delegation in Catalonia (Pla de Palau in Barcelona).
There is the old Palacio de la Aduana, a space with an interior courtyard and occupied since 2010 by the delegation of the Government of Catalonia.
However, the works that started in 2008 have been stopped and renewed several times. Delegation sources explain that this is due to the fact that the construction is very complex and experts are required to carry it out.
In fact, they add that in the inner courtyard there are some valuable “marbling”. Due to these particularities, the cost of the project was increased by 20% of what was initially foreseen. Then came the economic crisis.
By 2015 the works were renovated, however at present no one is working there anymore and it is also not known when the bidding will be done to update the project and the direction of the work.
Forgotten art, architecture, history and tradition.
