El Port Vell wins a walk open to the public and prepares for the America’s Cup

2023-11-02 17:22:43

Barcelona The Port of Barcelona and Marina Vela inaugurated this Thursday the new promenade of the breakwater, which comes from behind the Hotel Vela, at the end of Paseo Joan de Borbó, and is open to the public from today. It was not a good day to inaugurate anything by the sea. It was an unpleasant day, one of those that turns your umbrella if you lose your way, as has been seen on several occasions. However, the presentation of the new East dike has meant that some “look at that, it’s cute” could be heard among the attendees.

The works, carried out by Marina Vela, concessionaire of the space, have cost 6.4 million euros. Although the East dike was already finished in 2018, today they finish a series of works that began last summer and which consist of the theming of the space and the construction of a viewpoint that will offer four different spaces , when occupied by the new tenant. As explained by the general manager of Marina Vela, Alberto García, the intention is for the operator to offer four services in the same infrastructure: on the ground floor, under the promenade, there should be a canteen for the employees. At the height of the promenade, an affordable bar for all audiences. On the first floor, a restaurant. And on the terrace, a viewpoint, where it is planned to reserve a small space for a bar.

The viewpoint’s services will be open during the Copa América, a competition that explains, to a large extent, the renovation process that Barcelona’s Old Port is doing. Lluís Salvadó, president of the port authority, recognizes the importance of the sailing event, but considers that this action is the “culmination of a process of transformation and development” of the Old Port, which the city and the country must feel like your own In total, about 120 million public-private investment will be invested. The work on the East dike, in Nova Bocana, is expected to be one of the main ones. Salvadó has noted the pride he feels for the “impressive historical and cultural sensitivity” with which he believes the promenade has been developed, which stands out for the “thematization”.

This concept has been explained by Joan Alemany, historian and curator of thematic works. Although it was studied to keep blogs of the breakwater original and the cranes that built it, it was decided that due to the technical requirements of the promenade – it is located above the navy buildings – this was not possible. Thus, it was decided to recover the history of the East dike through thematization: the creation of a route that explains the history of the old breakwater through explanatory elements, from 1914 until the opening of the Nova Bocana. “It is a new and innovative project, as the Port of Barcelona has always done, which was the first to have a construction board, or to introduce electricity, and now it is the first to theme a public space,” said Alemany .

“A balcony to the sea”

Between the whistling of the wind when it passes through the trees of the viewpoint, you can hear the snapping of the moorings that keep the sailboats on the pier. And, despite the wind and rain, two port police officers took advantage of the fact that no one was looking at them to stick their heads out on the footbridge that juts out from the seawall and hangs directly over the sea. Salvadó has described the new Rambla del breakwater like a “balcony to the sea”, an analogy that is relatively true to reality. From this location, one can perfectly admire the yachts of billionaires with flags of countries that we can only try to guess; the Hotel Vela, which presides over the whole pier, and the cruise MSC Seaview, of which you can even smell the fuel it consumes, if the wind blows head-on. At the end of the promenade, decorated with subtlety and elegance, there are some chairs – made of metal and anchored to the floor – that evoke the ones that Barcelona residents spread out on the breakwater in its beginnings. You can also see from the front row how the planes descend, preparing to land at El Prat airport, just 15 kilometers away.