The Generalitat has acquired the only known hand-drawn plan of Ildefons Cerdà’s original project for Barcelona’s Eixample, the district created beyond the former city walls. The document, commissioned by Spain’s Ministry of Public Works in 1855, will be deposited in the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, Catalonia’s national archive.
For Eixample residents and people interested in Barcelona’s urban history, the acquisition preserves a detailed record of the area before its modern street pattern and buildings were completed. The Generalitat bought the plan at auction for €11,000, according to the Department of Culture.
A 36-sheet record of the original Eixample project
The lithograph was drawn by hand by Cerdà or a close collaborator, although its authorship has not been established. Pencil was used for the urban blocks, while black ink identified streets, neighbourhoods and some buildings.
The map consists of 36 sheets, each measuring 43 by 29 centimetres, at a scale of 1:5,000. It shows about 90 Eixample blocks and the principal routes that structured the proposed expansion west of Barceloneta.
- The Madrid-València road
- The Sant Boi road
- The port road
- The Martorell railway route
The drawing places the northern limit along the railway and the eastern limit at Barceloneta. Its south-east to north-west axis runs from the Drassanes towards the València-Madrid road.
Plan records a city expanding beyond its walls
Cerdà’s Eixample was conceived as a large grid-like expansion outside Barcelona’s old walls, at a time when the city needed to accommodate a growing population. The name Eixample translates as “expansion”.
The plan will join the National Archive of Catalonia’s map collection, which also holds later records on assessments of the Cerdà project and exhibitions about the urban planner’s work.
Reported by Source Text Link, Núria Juanico Llumà, Redacció, Marta Bausells, Adrián Roque, Jordi Palmer, Erick Villagomez, Stephen Smith, cartemverso.com, Prats Vázquez, Juan, Betevé.
