City preview · BARCELONA

Why Barcelona’s street corners are cut off

Cerdà clipped the corners of Eixample blocks to widen the intersections. Inside the Sagrada Família, stone columns branch to carry the roof. In the old town, Casa Gispert keeps its wood fire to one side of the nuts it roasts. A monument to human towers in Sant Miquel square began with the wire net around a wine bottle.

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Plaça de Consell de Cent i Girona · Editorial illustration, not a historical photo

From Eixample intersections to an old-town oven

Clipped corners, branching columns, a side-fired roaster and a tower of steel tubes

Four complete stories and their public sources are shown here; the rest of the collection is in the app.

01 · Plaça de Consell de Cent i Girona

Why the corners are cut off

Four clipped corners make room at the intersection.

None of the buildings at this intersection ends in a sharp right angle. Cerdà cut the corners off his new city blocks, widening intersections and making approaching traffic easier to see. After the old walls came down, the street grid spread outward. Courtyards were meant to bring light and air into each block. Buildings later filled more of that space, but the cut-off corners stayed open.

Source: barcelonabusturistic.cat Source: bcnroc.ajuntament.barcelona.cat

02 · Basílica de la Sagrada Família

How stone columns branch

The branches carry a roof, not leaves.

The Sagrada Família's columns branch at different heights, transferring the weight of the vaults and roof to the foundations. Their shafts are not simple cylinders. Starting from polygons at the base, two sets of lines twist in opposite directions and overlap, approaching a circular form higher up. Gaudí also matched stone strength to load, using stronger stone for the central columns. The apparent forest is a load-bearing frame.

Source: sagradafamilia.org

03 · Casa Gispert

Keeping the flame off the nuts

The wood burns beside the nuts, never against them.

Casa Gispert's wood-fired roaster keeps the fire to one side, away from direct contact with the nuts. Workers slowly roast almonds, hazelnuts and other nuts over oak, giving them a smoky aroma as well as a roasted flavor. A batch holds about 65 kilograms, and takes longer than direct-fire roasting. The old shelves and counter remain, along with the oven that still roasts nuts sold here.

Source: casagispert.com

04 · Homenatge als Castellers — Plaça de Sant Miquel

A wine-bottle net becomes a tower

A wine bottle's metal net inspired these rising tubes.

Antoni Llena began his monument to human-tower teams with the metal net wrapped around a bottle of wine. Wine's festive associations seemed right for the subject, so he enlarged the mesh into a steel-tube structure. He did not sculpt each person in a tower. Instead, lines gathering upward create its height together. From below, daylight shows through the spaces between the tubes.

Source: arabalears.cat Source: poblesdecatalunya.cat

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