Article 03, paisea 020. Gallecs, an inherited landscape | Xavier Pablo
A few weeks ago I attended the presentation of a book called “Rural life in Gallecs. Diary of Joan Ros Herrero (1895-1978)”, for which the authors have brought together the life of an erudite farmer who wrote down what was going on around him on a daily basis. To situate this in the context of the world of landscape architecture, Joan Ros was a farmer in the same area where some years ago Enric Miralles created the Parc dels Colors in Mollet del Vallés.
Both men produced notable landscapes, though they were somewhat different both in the way they were created and in the way they are maintained. Gallecs is the work of anonymous men like Joan Ros who worked this land for hundreds of years, creating this unique landscape just 15 km from Barcelona. The fragile, ethereal beauty of this inherited landscape means that it has now become a big agricultural park. The Parc dels Colors is the result of the urban transformation of part of this area in one of the city’s new neighbourhoods.
Gallecs and the Parc dels Colors formed part of a large area of agriculture and livestock farming in an area that was considered
to be of great strategic value, so much so that in 1973, as part of the Development Plans, 1500 hectares were expropriated in order to create a new town. Fortunately, the economic crisis of that period, together with great social and political opposition, paralysed the project and the land was handed over to the Generalitat de Catalunya. Since then, half of the area has been urbanised and, with the approval in 2005 of an Urban Management Plan, the 750-hectare central section of Gallecs has been protected by the creation of a large Metropolitan Park which is helping to preserve its landscape.
Full article HERE
paisea 020 [cultural landscapes], available in online store HERE and in digital edition HERE
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