Vallcarca is an abandoned coastal settlement in the

Garraf Massif The Garraf Massif (, ) is a mountain range of the Catalan Coastal Range, Catalonia, Spain. Its cliffs reach the Mediterranean waters. Its highest point on the coastal side is La Morella, 593 metres above sea level and further inland rises the hig ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is administered by the

Sitges ; , ) is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, renowned worldwide for Sitges Film Festival, its film festival, Carnival, and LGBTQ culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is know ...

municipality. Although most of the area is surrounded by the Garraf Natural Park, a highly-polluting cement factory near the abandoned railroad station is still active exploiting the nearby quarries for cement production.

History

Vallcarca was originally settled by a small group of workers at the ''Fradera''

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

plant and nearby quarries. The seaport was built in 1913 to ship the plant's products. Merchant ships carried cement across the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

to the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

and other places in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

's Mediterranean coast. Some return trips brought coal from mines in Pola de Laviana, also owned by Fradera.

Susqueda Susqueda () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Selva in Catalonia, Spain. It is located in the Guilleries Massif area, on the left bank of the Ter river in the north-west of the ''comarca''. The Susqueda reservoir A reservoir (; ...

and Sau

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

s and some buildings in the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

were built using Vallcarca's cement. In 1937, during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, aircraft belonging to the

Francoist Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

expeditionary air forces bombed Vallcarca. At that time it was an important military target owing to the cement plant and its harbor which connected the town with

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. The town housed workers in the Vallcarca industrial and port facilities, as well as from the

Renfe Renfe (, ), officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company. It was created in 2005 upon the split of the former Spanish National Railway Network (RENFE) into the Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias ( ...

train station which was the only means of transport for the workers and their families. There was a problem with the cement related pollution which covered the whole area in thick white dust. The cement company imported machinery from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

to remove the dust from the air, but the machinery soon broke down. Subsequently, in the second half of the 20th century, many of the younger inhabitants of the town refused to work in the near-slavery conditions of Vallcarca and looked for work in nearby Sitges and beyond. Today the ''Uniland'' company administers Vallcarca port. The train station was closed in 1994 and the old workers' houses are abandoned. Vallcarca port was particularly active during the expansion of the Barcelona harbor. Twelve million tons of rock from the Garraf Massif were used for the project.Transportaran per mar les pedres que s'extreuen del Garraf per ampliar el port de Barcelona
/ref> Some people visit Vallcarca during the summer, as its beach is still in a pristine state, but the leftover dust from the quarries during windy days can be unpleasant. The port is used exclusively for industrial purposes, as all the workers come from Sitges or elsewhere.

References

External links

Ajuntament de SitgesWikiloc - Garraf - Sitges (via Vallcarca)

{{Coord, 41, 14, N, 1, 52, E, display=title, region:ES_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Former populated places in Spain Sitges