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Description
Description
Located on the edge of the Sants-Montjuïc district, the Tres Chimeneas is a free-standing construction that is flanked by the Fecsa-Endesa offices in the middle of the Jardines de las Tres Chimeneas, a plot delimited by Avenida del Paralelo and the streets of Cabanes, Vilà i Vilà and Palaudàries.
The Three Chimneys are the last vestige of a much larger industrial complex that has now disappeared. These are three isolated buildings that have become a visual landmark and the identity symbol of the Poble Sec neighborhood. Each of the chimneys is 72 m high and up to 4 m in diameter. These are large frustoconical constructions made entirely of red brick on parallelepiped bases of the same material. The chimney shafts are currently banded with metal rings that counteract the many cracks and loss of poise caused by the degradation of their materials. The exterior surfaces of the chimneys do not present any ornamentation, beyond the cornice in the form of a circular eave that crowns the mouth of the chimneys. Currently, a metal staircase runs the entire height of the chimneys until it reaches a platform, also metal, at the foot of this cornice.
History
History
The Spanish Electricity Society, founded in 1881, was part of those facilities for the production of electrical energy that proliferated in the outskirts of the city at the turn of the century. Work on its thermal power plant, located on Avenida del Paralelo, began in 1883 by the engineer Narcís Xifra y Masmitjà and the master builder Domènec Balet i Nadal. But it was not until 1896, when the company was already known as Compañía Barcelonesa de Electricidad, that the first chimney was built. The other two would be built in 1908 and 1912 as a result of increased demand. In 1919 the Parallel power plant, which in 1911 had been acquired by Riegos y Fuerzas del Ebro, from the engineer Frederick Stark Pearson, became the scene of one of the main chapters of the Catalan labor movement, the Canadian strike.The Paralelo plant was a pioneer facility in Spain, as it participated in the processes of technological change and the main innovations in energy reception and transformation systems. Located right next to the urban agglomeration because, at the time, technology did not allow the transport of energy over long distances. This would change during the 1920s, with the construction of the first large hydroelectric facilities in the Pyrenees and the installation of high-voltage lines to transport energy. From then on, the parallel plant would become a reserve and would serve to receive, transform and distribute energy on the southern flank of the city.In the mid-1950s, taking advantage of low oil prices, the plant began to use fuel oil as fuel, until in 1987 the plant was dismantled for environmental and safety reasons. From then on, the old power plant was demolished, with the exception of the chimneys, which would be fitted into the new Fecsa-Endesa headquarters, within a plot converted into a public park. The reconstruction and remodeling works of the plot were carried out between 1988 and 1995 and were carried out by the "RGA architects" office.
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
Plans
Plans
Plan of the main facade of the Power Plant, which due to its large size (>2m) was difficult to photograph.
Enlarged image of part of the façade with the main door.
Distribution plan of boilers and water and coal deposits
Location plan of the power plant
Video
Video
The arrival of electricity in Barcelona - It will happen here | betevé
The arrival of electricity in Barcelona - It will happen here | betevé
Barcelonan Tomás Dalmau founded a company to electrify Barcelona a few days after another world pioneer Tomás did: Thomas Alba Edison.
In the Parque de las Tres Chimeneas, the electrification process began in Barcelona. Around 1880 a way is found to produce electricity for commercial purposes.
Tomás Dalmau, a shopkeeper on the Rambla who dedicated himself to putting lightning rods on buildings, created the Spanish Electricity Society at the beginning of 1881, which later moved to the Three Chimneys. It was one of the first companies in the world created to produce electricity.
The introduction of electricity changed people's lives. A cleaner and safer lighting system was available, before it was done with a flame, and this allowed the working day to be lengthened. Progress was also made in new leisure technologies such as the cinematograph and the gramophone, which Dalmau himself introduced in Barcelona.
*The video does not have subtitles
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