12 de July de 2022
Street names. The Barcelona Street Naming Commission today approved the introduction of five women’s names for streets and squares.
The Barcelona Street Naming Commission has approved the introduction of five women’s names for streets and squares in the city, such as the publisher Carmen Balcells Segalà (1930-2015), a key figure in the boom in Latin American literature who represented as many as six Nobel laureates. Her name will be given to the space located between the streets of Selva de Mar, Treball, Concili de Trento and Plaça d’Angeleta Ferrer.
In the District of Sant Martí, the name of Margarita Brender i Rubira (1919-2020) will also be added for the garden space located at the junction between the streets of Freser, Trinxant and Indústria. Brender i Rubira studied architecture in Romania, but in 1962 the Barcelona School of Architecture validated her qualification and she became Catalonia’s first woman architect. For many years she was the only woman in this profession in the province of Barcelona.
Carme Claramunt (1897-1939), the first woman to be killed by firing squad at the Camp de la Bota site after being held at the women’s prison in Les Corts, will give her name to a garden adjacent to the Monument to the Les Corts Women’s Prison, at the junction between the streets of Joan Güell and Europa.
In Gràcia, the road between Carretera del Carmel and Av. Pompeu Fabra will bear the name of Josefina Torrens Illa (1902-2006), regarded as a pioneer for swimming in Catalonia and an outstanding swimmer with the Club Natació Barcelona. Torrens Illa won several competitions, including the Barcelona Port Crossing in 1932. She was also a feminist and socially committed figure.
In addition to the names of these four women, the naming commission has approved the name of Treballadores de la Numax for the inner quadrangle between the streets of Sicília, Rosselló, Sardenya and Plaça de la Sagrada Família, where the Niza cinema once stood. Numax was an old electrical appliances factory where the mainly women’s workforce was involved in a long struggle to improve working conditions.
Other changes approved today include a name change in Barceloneta, where Carrer Almirall Churruca will take the name of Miquel Pedrola (1917-1936), a political activist, Catalan anti-fascist and militant with the Bloc Obrer i Camperol (BOC) from the age of just 15. In 1933, he was named as a member of the executive committee for the youth branch of the organisation during the 2nd Congress. Pedrola died on the Aragonese Front at just 19 years of age.
Approval was also given to use the name of Agustí Piñol (1898-1974) for a small square at the approach to the Parc de la Creueta, in Gràcia. Piñol was a nativity scene builder and one of the security guards at the quarry in El Coll. During his free time he built a mobile nativity scene which became a much-loved attraction among local people.
In Gràcia, approval has also been given to the name Placeta de l’Alzina, the space in front of the property at Carrer de l’Encarnació, 62, and Carrer de Manrique de Lara. In the same district, the space at Av. Vallcarca 111-117 is to be named as the Jardí dels Arabescos.
