Stores in Barcelona

Abstract

This article tries to be a historic revision of the main Stores that have existed, and in some cases, remain in the city of Barcelona. Throughout the most of a century passed since the opening of the first Store in the city, El Siglo Store in 1878, to the present El Corte Inglés Store, the Barcelona’ society has lived important changes that are reflected in their buildings. In the first part of the article, the main social, economic and productive changes happened in Barcelona between the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th are explained. These changes were represented in a new economic system based on the consumption. The second part of the article is, basically, the description of the technical and architectural characteristics of the buildings that lodge the Stores and their structural evolution.