Architectural Mix

We went to a concert in The Cultural Centre of El Born, in Barcelona this evening. The upper structure was originally a huge food market serving the El Born district. It was closed for years with grand plans to turn it into a library. In the course of the building works that eventually started, they unearthed remains of the city dating from before 1700 and which were largely destroyed around that time in some great defeat of the Catalans followed by the victors wish to build a huge fortress and clear a swathe of ground around it.

The decision to use the former market hall as a roof for the permanent display of the remains, I suspect, was more political than anything else. Whatever, it was my first pop into see them and, at first sight, they are impressive. I would need an archaeologist to talk more fully to the merits of preserving this particular site, though.

The concert was a funny mix too! A Brazilian singer with her own Bossa Nova and Samba inspired songs who spoke entirely in Catalan and even sang the lyrics of one her songs in Catalan. Bossa and Catalan should never be mixed, I discovered! Not the recipe for a good smoothie!