Between August 15th and 21st the Grácia neighborhood celebrates their Festa Major. It is a folklore celebration where the main attraction is the street decoration during the festivity days.
For each area, neighbors create a committee that during one year, prepare the decoration. A main theme is selected and is the base to all decorative ideas, using materials such as fine woods, card or plastic, true masterpieces are created. On the 14th of August while walking through the streets you will be able to see the neighbor’s last efforts to have everything ready by 8 a.m the next day. The first days are the best, as it is when all the decoration is at its best.
Sight seeing during the day. By night fun and dancing. All of the 22 streets have all day around animation. Mornings and afternoons are dedicated to children, there are games, different types of animation and snacks. On the other hand, the evenings are dedicated to big folklore dinners and dances. Through out the decorated streets one may find dances accompanied by orchestras or other kinds of music such as jazz.
ARTEH® – Hotels and Resorts suggests as a pit stop between streets the hotels Claris, Granados 83 and Neri H&R.
To make your reservation and/or to visit the Hotels please go to ARTEH®.
About Festa Major de Grŕcia
The first written reference to Grŕcia's Festa Major comes from Diari de Barcelona, in 1827. It seems that the feast did begin ten years before, in 1817, when the Jesús convent was built. It took less than 20 years to become the most important Festival from all the villages surrounding Barcelona.
In 1847, the municipal authorities decided to keep the city wall doors wide open for all those citizens coming back from Festa Major. The first written reference to any ornament is from carrer Verdi, in 1862. At the end of 19th century Festa Major achieved its greatest splendor: most of the streets, nearly 100 of them, were festooned.
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the Festa Major was suspended. The amounts collected by the Streets Committees were destined to build air-raid shelters under Grŕcia's squares. There's still one in Plaça del Diamant.
In 1939, only four months after the war was over, some groups of young people did deck some of the streets by cutting. The spirit did remain. In 1943 seventy streets' sections were decorated. There is a decadence period at the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies.
In 1968, ten streets were festooned; ten years after there were four streets only: Puigmartí, Fraternitat, Progrés and Libertat. Young people were not involved in the feast. That fact and the increasing number of families who did have a car to leave on holidays in August are two of the reasons of that decadence.
But the feast was revitalized along with the arrival of democracy. From only four decorated streets in 1978, the number raised up to 14 in 1980 and 27 in 1987. There was a great progression due to the Streets' Committees and other Associations from the neighborhood that did work together in order to keep the Festa Major from disappearing. It was that work and also the people feeling towards recovering the streets as a playful place.
In 1997, Grŕcia's Festa Major was declared a National Interest Traditional Celebration by the Generalitat de Catalunya. “Yes, it is a real popular celebration that we must preserve”.
Suggestion of ARTEH® Hotels in Barcelona, Spain
Hotel Claris
Hotel Granados 83
Neri H&R |
