SANTS & TERRA D'ESCUDELLA, ENJOY THE TRADITION

Enjoying in Plaça Osca, Sants

Today, The Grandma is in Sants, a beautiful neighborhood in the southern part of Barcelona. She has received a wonderful visit when Laura Collins, Tonyi Poppins and Isa Doe have arrived to participate in Festa Major, the Sants Festival, and have dinner in Terra d'Escudella, one of the best restaurants of the Catalan city.

Sants is formerly an industrial town on the plain bordering Barcelona, known as Santa Maria de Sants, it belongs nowadays to the district of Sants-Montjuïc and is bordered by the districts of Eixample to the northeast, Les Corts to the northwest, and by the municipality of l'Hospitalet de Llobregat to the south.

Sants is a neighborhood with a clear identity because of its historical origins. It was the main core of an independent village until 1897 when it became part of Barcelona, the former municipality of Sants included most of the actual neighborhood of Sants-Montjuïc district. By then, Sants had a population of 19,105 inhabitants, and the neighbourhood had a strong industrial character, home to some of the most important manufacturers of textiles, such as Espanya Industrial and Vapor Vell.

More information: Sants-Montjuïc District

In the spring of 1883, the municipalities of Sants and Barcelona decided by mutual agreement to merge the two respective municipalities. One year later, the central government annulled the merger due to technical issues. The process was again put in motion the following year. 

Tonyi Poppins dancing with Toni Manero

City hall sent a request for aggregation to the Diputació Provincial de Barcelona, but this request was not fulfilled for more than two years. In March 1889, the Civil Government asked the Deputation to solve the case, which ultimately reflected the interests of the city. A commission presided by Rius i Taulet traveled to Madrid to help move along the case. However, once more, the Deputation took no action.

The main artery of the neighborhood is Carrer de Sants, popularly known as Carretera de Sants, which unites Plaça Espanya with the neighbouring municipality of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. It is one of the most commercial streets in Barcelona. Among the places that stand out in Sants are the Barcelona Sants railway station, the major railway station in Barcelona, and the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial.

More information: Història de Barcelona (Catalan version)

The most famous feast is the Festa Major, which is celebrated yearly in honor of the patron saint, Bartholomew the Apostle. During the week-long feast, the traffic is cut off in several parts of the neighborhood, where multiple popular activities are organized outdoors, such as butifarrades, xocolatades -gatherings where people drink chocolate-, concerts, Sardanes, and Habaneres. The neighbors decorate the streets with allegorical themes. Another feast, the Festa Alternativa, is celebrated simultaneously with great success.

Enjoying Sants and Terra d'Escudella

Festa Major de Sants 2017 started on Saturday 19th August 2017. Many of the main activities are being place in Parc de l'Espanya Industrial and it's nice to walk around the 22 streets in the Sants Festival area which are decorated by residents in colourful themes.

Visitors can enjoy papier-mache giants and big heads -called gegants and capgrossos- on various events including the opening parade and at the giants ball. There are also a chance to see festive and impressive Catalan traditions like the correfoc firerun which usually starts at Plaça Osca for children and for aducts and there is usually a human castle building event at Plaça Bonet i Muixí. Sporting highlights of the Sants Festa Major are the bike race and the 2 kilometres run.

The Sants neighbourhood Festa Major festival finishes with a Piromusical fireworks and music display at Parc Espanya Industrial. 

Isa Doe, Laura Collins, Tonyi Poppins and The Grandma have enjoyed a wondeful afternoon-evening in Sants taking lots of photos of its streets, enjoying the charming character of its inhabitants and having dinner in the best restaurant of the neighbourhood: Terra d'Escudella.

More information: Terra d'Escudella

Welcome everybody to this Festa Major and enjoy it!.

Popular productions have their own identity, 

unmistakable and very difficult to define, 

the folds of the human soul 

are immensely multiple and diverse, 

as are the folds of the collective soul, 

or of the people.

Joan Amades

THE STREET OF SOULS. A MYSTERY IN SANTS, BARCELONA

Souls Street in Sants, Barcelona

The Grandma is in Sants, a suburb of Barcelona. She's visiting a special street with an incredible story that wants to share with you: Souls Street.

The Romans founded the Colony Iulia Augusta Faventia Barcino between 15 and 13 BC and planned all the city inside and outside. They wanted to know which lands they were going to control and keep but to do it they needed a large net of roads to allow them the total control of the city. They profited some roads which were Iberian probably. 

One of this roads connected the little colony with the Via Augusta. In the western part, crossing the Raval in Avinguda Mistral direction, this road arrived to Hostafrancs and Sants and was named Camí Ral during the Middle Age.

During 1344, a big cross was built in this road and some years later, the cross was covered naming the real suburb Creu Coberta. The road continued crossing a place named the Inforcats a name with a Latin origin, inforcatos, that means crossroads, and obviously, this name demonstrates the different directions that you could take: Martorell, Sant Boi and Llobregat Delta.

More information: Historia de Barcelona

If you continued across Creu Coberta and passed near the current church of Santa Maria de Sants, the road arrived to one of the most mysterious streets nowadays in Barcelona: el Carreró de les ànimes (the street of souls).

The Grandma in Souls Street

This street took this name because there was a little cemetery of animals in the past. It seems that appeared soft lights that floated on the air. This is a real phenomenon with some scientific theories but there's still a little controversy. Some theories say that these fires appear thanks to the rot of the organic materies that produces the oxidation of the phosphine and the methane gas, other say that the real cause of those lights is a phenomenon caused by the natural phosphorescence of the calcium salts of the bones.

The popular voices created the legend of these fires saying that they were the souls of the deads that appear to the mortals.

Some years later, in the 20th century, on the wall of a private house in 260, Sants Street, there was a tile that announced the presence of these souls from the purgatory which were consumed by the seven capital vices.

Nowadays, the street of the souls keeps its magical structure and it's one of the most lovely and appreciate places for the neighbours who live sadly how the new constructions are changing the suburb and how the City Hall is not interested in the idea of keeping and promoting the history of the suburb, a history that is an homage to the past generations and a great proud for the neighbourhood.