LA MAQUINISTA TERRESTRE I MARITIMA IN SANT ANDREU

La Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima, 1917

Today, The Grandma has visited Sant Andreu, one of the historical quartiers of Barcelona. 

Sant Andreu de Palomar is a neighborhood of Barcelona. It's the oldest part of the Sant Andreu district. It was an independent old town with over 1,000 years of recorded history before being annexed to Barcelona on April 20, 1897. It has an area of 174 hectares and has a population of about 55,000 inhabitants. Its boundaries are: the Carrer Rovira i Virgili, Riera d'Horta, Passeig de Santa Coloma, Avinguda Meridiana and the railroad tracks.

The Grandma has wanted to visit the old lands of La Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima the most important metallurgical Catalan factory in 19th and 20th centuries. The Grandma has an old friend, Rafa, who worked in this interesting factory and she has wanted to homage him visiting his old place of working and remembering the history of this emblematic factory.

Before visiting Sant Andreu, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Ms. Excel course.

Chapter 11. Printing (II) (Spanish Version)

La Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima was a company founded on September 14, 1855, following the merger of the metallurgical workshops of Valentí Esparó i Giralt (Valentín Esparó y Consocios, acquired by the Bonaplata company in 1839) and the company La Barcelonesa (converted to Tous, Ascacíbar and Company in 1841) founded in 1838 by Nicolau Tous i Soler, Nicolau Tous and Mirapeix and Celedonio Ascacíbar, located in the Raval of Barcelona.

In its beginnings it was dedicated to the construction of all kinds of heavy machinery. The main shareholders were, besides the co-founders, Ramon Bonaplata, Josep M. Serra, Joan Güell and Ferrer and José Antonio de Mendiguren. His first workshops were built in the Barceloneta in 1861 with a total area of ​​17,500m² with 1,200 workers. Immediately, it became the main metallurgical transformation company in the country, and had a technical, economic, practical, landscape and collective impact, and a new perception and occupation of the territory.

Visiting La Maquinista

It was the main builder of metal works, industrial machinery, diesel engines for ships, steam locomotives, all kinds of parts for all industrial sectors, in 1895 he was in charge of building the floating deck the Port of Barcelona. And at the same time, it was a true school for Catalan engineers.

In 1917 it was built its second factory between the Barcelonins neighborhoods of Sant Andreu de Palomar and Bon Pastor, where there is currently the Parc de la Maquinista de Sant Andreu, with an extension of more than 100,000m², reaching a workforce of 3,000 workers. Towards 1965 the factories of the Barceloneta were dismantled, being maintained like warehouse of products that although finalized were not sold until later. 

By 1993 the Sant Andreu workshops were completely dismantled, moving to workshops built between the municipalities of Santa Perpètua de Mogoda and Mollet del Vallès, merging with the also veteran MACOSA and both bought by the French multinational GEC ALSTHOM, a group that in 1998 changed its name to the current Alstom.

In 1998 the company committee of La Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima obtained the Medal of Honor of Barcelona for the manifesto dictated in 1993 in order to preserve the company's identity marks.

More info: La Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima (1855-1989) (Catalan)

Sant Andreu's Maquinista Park is a big, open esplanade with an exceptionally large number of trees. A broad, peaceful, neatly organised green space for relaxing and taking a stroll in that is popular with residents from the neighbourhood it lies in: Bon Pastor.

Despite being an open park, there is a sort of main entrance at the end bounded by Carrer Ferran Junoy and Carrer Sant Adrià. From here visitors can admire the whole park in all its glory, which is worth doing, as it allows you to appreciate the sober and harmonious layout of the two areas it is divided into.

These are separated by a spacious strip paved with reddish tiles, with large grass parterres full of trees on both sides. There is a large elongated sheet of water shaped like an orange segment at the centre which divides the park and gives order to its structure.

The park lies on land formerly occupied by the factory of La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima, a company founded in 1855 that built train engines.

An engine constructed by La Maquinista, 1887

The company was involved in building the mainline railway station Estació de França and Sant Antoni Market, both of which have a wrought-iron structure.

Lots of the trees were planted during the first third of the 20th century, which is why so many of them are exceptionally large.

There are holm oaks (Quercus ilex), olive trees (Olea europaea), oaks (Quercus pubescens), cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens) and white poplars (Populus alba). One of the resting areas is shaded by tipu trees (Tipuana tipu) and very tall specimens of Aleppo pine trees (Pinus halepensis). Opposite, in the other resting area, the plane trees (Platanus x hispanica) and a large tree of heaven (Ailantus altissima) catch the eye.

Two huge groups of yuccas (Yucca elephantipes), a large Mediterranean dwarf palm (Chamaerops humilis) and a few honey locusts (Gleditsia triacanthos) dominate the setting by the lake, while the branches of Chinese weeping willows (Salix babylonica) hang next to the children’s play area.

Construction of the park pond, named after Narcís Monturiol, made the most of two old water galleries. Besides playing a role in the landscape, it also supplies water for the irrigation system.

One of the ends of the Narcís Monturiol pond is delimited by a metallic structure in the shape of a vessel with a sharp prow, alongside original-design street lamps that cross the centre of the park from end to end. A large wheel in the stern, the pond, and inside the water, recalls the industrial past of the land that is now a park.

The building houses the La Maquinista i Macosa Museum which keeps historical documents, maps, photographs, models and historical items that belonged to the company.

+Info: La MTM una empresa pionera de la industrialització barcelonina (Catalan)

The man who builds a factory builds a temple,

that the man who works there worships there,

and to each is due, not scorn and blame,

but reverence and praise.

Calvin Coolidge