La Sagrera

La Sagrera is a neighbourhood of Barcelona. It is bordered to the north with Sant Andreu del Palomar and to the east by the neighborhood of La Verneda; included by the south end is the zone named Navas, and to the west the Congress area.

The neighborhood of La Sagrera is integrated with the 9th district of the city of Barcelona, having officially been given the name of Sant Andreu (Saint Andrew), although never was part of the ancient municipality of Sant Andreu del Palomar, but to Sant Martí de Provençals; as a matter of fact, La Sagrera keeps closer links with Sant Andreu del Palomar than with the rest of neighborhoods nearby.

The origin of this name comes from the 11th century, when the farmers of Catalonia lived under the threats and the assaults of the noble. The Abbot Oliba, seeing the need to protect to the farmers, imposed the creation of a space of 30 happen around the churches in which people and goods would be secured of any assault. In these spaces, the farmers built some small buildings called in the Catalan language "sagrers", that used to save the harvests of the rector and the people of the hovering.

The first notices documented date of the 998 and do reference to a group of houses, some with towers of defence, around the "sagrera" of the parish church of Sant Martí of Provençals.

This scarce population would maintain for long. At 1877 a core formed only for only some 48 houses could be found in place.

From the last third of the 19th century, this situation changes. The impact of the industrialitzation shook also this place that became an industrial neighbourhood, with predominance of the metallurgical and textile sectors. From this moment an urbanization process starts and the name of "La Sagrera" remains only to the core zone of existent houses.

Also of this period, specifically of the 1877, dates the creation of the steam Tramway that connecting this neighbourhood with Horta-Guinardó. The connection between Barcelona and Horta done by year 1885 by means of the tram, meant, for extension, the communication of La Sagrera with Barcelona, a connection that strengthened with the electrifying of the line by the year 1901.

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Wikipedia