Vallcarca is an abandoned coastal settlement in the Garraf Massif, Catalonia, Spain. It is administered by the Sitges 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.
Vallcarca was originally settled by a small group of workers at the Fradera cement plant and nearby quarries. The seaport was built in 1913 to ship the plant's products. Merchant ships carried cement across the Mediterranean Sea to the Balearic Islands and other places in the Iberian Peninsula's Mediterranean coast. Some return trips brought coal from mines in Pola de Laviana, also owned by Fradera. Susqueda and Sau dams and some buildings in the University of Barcelona were built using Vallcarca's cement.
In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, aircraft belonging to the Francoist 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. [1]
The town housed workers in the Vallcarca industrial and port facilities, as well as from the Renfe 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 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. [2]
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. [3]
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.
Sitges is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, renowned worldwide for its Film Festival, Carnival, and LGBT Culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is known for its beaches, nightspots, and historical sites.
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Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, 1st Count of Güell was a Catalan entrepreneur who profited greatly from the industrial revolution in Catalonia in the late 19th century. He married Luisa Isabel Lopez y Bru, daughter of Antonio López y López, 1st Marquis of Comillas and notorious slave trader, in 1871, and the couple had ten children. One of Güell's daughters, Isabel Güell i López, became a noted composer.
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C-31 or Eix Costaner is one of Catalonia's primary highways. It is the result of merging several sections of previously existing roads, autopistas and autovías after the 2004's renaming of primary highways managed by the Generalitat de Catalunya. According to this new denomination, the first number (C-31) indicates that is a southwest-northeast highway, while the second number (C-31) indicates that is the closest to the Mediterranean Sea.
Penedès is a natural and historical region of Catalonia, Spain. It is located in the south of the Principality of Catalonia between the pre-coastal mountain range and the Mediterranean Sea. The comarcal division of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 1936 and 1987, divided Penedès into three administrative comarques: Alt Penedès, Baix Penedès and Garraf, and their capitals are Vilafranca del Penedès, el Vendrell and Vilanova i la Geltrú.
The Permanente Quarry is a limestone quarry in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County, California, just west of Cupertino, California. The quarry is a limestone and aggregate mining operation and cement plant, owned by Lehigh Southwest Cement, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement. Since 1939 the plant has been in operation and is responsible for the production of more than half of the cement used in the Bay Area. Roughly 70 percent of the cement used in the communities of Santa Clara County is acquired from the cement plant.
Cunit is a coastal town on the Golden Coast in the Baix Penedès region part of the province of Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. It is on the northeast coast of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea.
Garraf is a small seaside village located between Sitges and Castelldefels, in the Garraf comarca, Catalonia, Spain, surrounded by the area of the Garraf Natural Park.
Penedès is a Spanish Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) for wines in Catalonia, (Spain). Penedès DOP includes all of the Penedès region and municipalities of four other counties: Anoia, Alt Camp, Baix Llobregat and Tarragonès. The area is framed by the coastal hills of the Garraf Massif and the higher inland mountains which skirt the Central Depression.
The Catalan Coastal Range is a system of mountain ranges running parallel to the Mediterranean Sea coast in Catalonia, Spain. It is part of the Catalan Mediterranean System. Its main axis runs between the Foix River and the Roses Gulf and the average altitude is around 500 m. The highest point is 763 m at the Montnegre.
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 higher, although less conspicuous, Montau.
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