Sport in the city of Barcelona: a historical perspective

Conrad Vilanou Universitat de Barcelona

Without a doubt, sport is a modern, urban phenomenon linked to the development of cities, which grew exponentially in the 20th century. After its city walls were demolished, over the course of the 19th century Barcelona opened itself up to the sea with the first swimming baths and to the mountains with hiking and mountaineering clubs. The city was also well supplied with gymnasiums so that already by this period it boasted several trinquets, indoor courts for the ball game known as pilota. Naturally, a city like Barcelona — outside the protection of successive central governments — has seen participation in sport grow thanks to a series of events that have marked its history. These historical milestones include the Universal Exhibition of 1888, the International Exhibition of 1929 that saw the opening of the Montjuïc Stadium, the People’s Olympiad of 1936, the second Mediterranean Games of 1955 for which the city’s first indoor sports hall was built (on Carrer Lleida), the European Swimming Championships of 1970, with the opening of the Bernat Picornell swimming pool, the arrival of democracy in the city’s government in 1979 with a new concept of ‘Sport for All’, and the 25th Olympic Games and 9th Paralympics of 1992 — without underestimating the impact of a new postmodern culture from the millennium onwards that has meant that the city’s streets have played an ever more important role in sporting events, including the city’s marathon, first held in 1980. Broadly speaking, each of these milestones has marked a different period or phase which, correlating with political or social events, can be defined as follows:

1) The age of pioneers, the first self-proclaimed sportsmen, which began with the popularization of the bicycle and the proliferation of equestrian competitions, against the backdrop of the Universal Exhibition of 1888, where sporting events were thin on the ground, although the activities of the city’s gymnasiums — often confined to specific venues — continued to be significant, especially when we consider that some sports clubs (FC Barcelona, CN Barcelona) were founded at this kind of establishment.

2) From 1906 onwards — the year in which El Mundo Deportivo, a weekly sports newspaper, was first published — a new phase began, in which the sea began to play an important role, coinciding with the first school holiday camps and the exaltation of the outdoor life that would have effects on education and social life. Influenced by the Catalan cultural movement of noucentisme, which sought to revive the values of the classical Greek polis, children attended new schools such as the Escola del Bosc (1914) and the Escola del Mar (1922) (the Forest School and the Sea School, respectively) while the city filled with sports fields, velodromes and stadiums, including the Estadi Català de la Foixarda, which opened in 1921. At the same time, the outbreak of the Russian revolution in October 1917 also left its mark on the city’s sporting life, so that even today clubs such as the Unió Esportiva de Sants and Júpiter include a five-pointed star on their crests, a development whereby sport took on a political dimension.

3) After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic (1931) the city witnessed the popularization of sport, access to which until that time had largely been restricted to the moneyed classes. In fact, a tradition that dated back to an earlier age was revived, given that the labor movement and the unions organized various associations (Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular, 1902; CADCI, 1903; Centre Gimnàstic Barcelonès, 1933) which promoted sport (gymnastics, wrestling, boxing, sea bathing, etc.). Furthermore, in these !1 circles, sport became the object of ideological debate, and many clubs were associated with a given ideological current. Thus, it is not by chance that several basketball clubs emerged under the protection of the Federation of Young Christians of Catalonia (JAC de Sants, founded in 1935), while the new stadium in Montjuïc — which was first opened on the occasion of the International Exhibition of 1929 — witnessed sporting events of all kinds: athletics, gymnastic displays, including the acrobatic human pyramids of the falcons, motorcycling races, etc. This whole process, led by syndicalist groups and progressive politicians, led to the People’s Olympiad of 1936 — the ‘other’ Olympics, an alternative to the games held in Berlin under the Nazi flag — which was to have taken place between the 19 and 25 July, and which, sadly, was unable to be held, due to the rebellion led by Franco in Africa.

4) After the Spanish Civil War (1939) the city lost its pivotal role in the nation’s sporting life, especially as regards women, who had gradually made inroads during the preceding phase, through the Club Femení i d’Esports, founded in 1928. National Catholicism saw the body as a temple of the soul, so that sport, monitored by the Falange, was placed under the ideological control of the new regime, which changed the names of certain clubs (Júpiter), crests whose triangular shape was suspected to have Masonic origins (CN Mediterrani), or significant symbols such as the four stripes of the Catalan flag. Only certain running races such as the Jean Bouin — whose name was changed to the Premio Nacional — and other roller-skating races took place on the city’s streets. At the same time, the existence of the Pabellón del Deporte — a roofless sporting facility opened in 1951 — where hockey matches were played in front of enthusiastic crowds, and the emergence of a few exceptional athletes such as Joaquim Blume (who died tragically in 1959) broke the general mood of inertia, while the Montjuïc stadium fell into disrepair, providing shelter to people from the city’s sprawling slum neighbourhoods.

5) The Mediterranean Games, held between the 16 and 25 July, 1955, marked a turning point, representing a revival that made a connection to the period before the Civil War. At the opening ceremony, an amphora filled with water from the Mediterranean (an idea attributed to the journalist Carles Pardo) was carried by athletes, from the ancient Greek settlement of Empúries to the Montjuïc stadium, confirming that Barcelona was taking up the legacy of the Greek polis. This fact was to fuel the city’s Olympic aspirations, which, while they went back a long way, were not to be consummated until 1992. Be that as it may, between 1955 and 1979, sport in the city slowly recovered, although demographic growth and property development forced many sports fields and facilities out to the suburbs. The football pitches and equestrian facilities on Avinguda Diagonal, the Sants football ground on Carrer Galileu or the Club Deportivo Hispano-Francés in Gràcia are evidence of the trend. The city was growing, but places to take part in sport were being squeezed out. At the same time, the hillsides of Montjuïc, while older facilities (its swimming pools and stadium) deteriorated, saw the development of new facilities such as the Joan Serrahima stadium (1969), the Picornell swimming pool (1970) and the facilities of the Montjuic swimming club (1976). Without a doubt, Barcelona civilized the mountain of Montjuïc through sport.

6) With the arrival of democratic city government, sport under the motto Esport per a Tothom (‘Sport for All’) underwent a revival in the city, a process that sped up after 17 October 1986, when Barcelona was selected as host city of the Games of the 25th Olympiad and the 9th Paralympics, which were also widely welcomed. There can be no doubt that paralympic sports – the brainchild of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann — played a role in promoting sporting practices that had frequently been marginalized, or even completely silenced.

!2 What is more, the creation of the Consell d’Esport Escolar de Barcelona, the Barcelona school sports council, officially founded in 1981, although by that time it had already been operating for four years, encouraged school sports. Altogether, it made the mountain of Montjuïc the nerve centre of Barcelona’s sporting life, with a new stadium (which nevertheless preserved the original exterior walls, probably in memory of the Popular Olympiad of 1936) and a brand new Olympic Ring. At the same time, the city won back public spaces — the Can Dragó park (1990) on the Avinguda Meridiana is a clear example — that made patent a desire to establish a network of sports facilities in all the city’s neighbourhoods and districts.

7) Obviously, with the new millennium, the habits of the city’s residents changed to keep pace with postmodern or hypermodern culture, which has broken many of the rules of the society that preceded it, the modern world. In line with this trend, sporting practices have become more fluid, less rule-bound, and the city’s streets and squares are full of people taking part — often without belonging to any club or federation – in a diverse range of sports that are new to the city. In parallel, and as a effect of the Olympic Games (1992), the city of Barcelona is now replete with sports facilities, many of them public, which fulfil the need for physical activity of a population that, regardless of sex and age, uses this kind of facility more and more, following the example of other metropolises such as New York. In other words, spaces for play and recreation of a sporting nature have permeated and humanised the city.

8) At the same time, the rise of extreme or adventure sports was reflected in Barcelona in 2013 with the X Games, although, due to the economic crisis, the event was not to return to Barcelona. These are sports of a new kind, based on extreme activities that involve risk, such as skateboarding, BMX, motorcycling, etc., and are very attractive to young people, who often practice them on the city’s streets. There has also been also the emergence of gender identity-based culture, with organisations such as the Panteres Grogues and the LGTBQ games, after the 12th Eurogames (Barcelona, 2008), representing a new direction for sport. In this sense, sport in Barcelona has moved towards recognising the diversity and plurality of human bodies, respecting sexual orientation beyond timeworn stereotypes. Barcelona has opened its streets to sport, and most importantly of all, its residents — wherever they come from and whoever they are — can take part in sport in an atmosphere of respect and acceptance of all their differences.

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