Conjunto de doce fotografías sobre colonias industriales en Cataluña (A Set of Twelve Photographs on Industrial Workers’ Settlements in Catalonia)

In rural areas in inland Catalonia one of the most representative expressions of Spanish industrialisation developed from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, as this set of photographs attests. The catalysts were new territorial policies, for instance the Workers’ Housing Law of 1855, which revitalised entrepreneurship with a view to curbing emigration, and the Workers’ Housing Law of 1868, which granted exemptions to build on land.

Importing the British model of the factory-city, some of these settlements for the textile industry were primarily designed next to the watercourse of the Ter and Llobregat Rivers to make use of hydraulic energy as an alternative source to coal. Around the factory, where at times labour was carried out predominantly by women, small population nuclei sprouted up that were controlled morally and financially by the industry owners. In addition to the buildings concentrating power and authority, for instance the church and the employer’s residence, housing was the main indicator of the hierarchy within the colony. Therefore, the typology of housing illustrates the existence of semi-detached and terraced housing, independent multi-family buildings, as well as others which, through verandas, landings and street blocks, advocated the development of community life.



Francisco Javier Rodríguez Sepúlveda