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Horta-Guinardó · 38

la Teixonera

La Teixonera is not a wildlife name but an urbanisation with an author: Joaquim Taxonera subdivided the former Can Grau estate and promoted a summer colony from 1915. Its pattern of plots, wells and gardens later intensified into one of Barcelona’s densest hill neighbourhoods, compressed between steep ground and metropolitan infrastructure.

Begin at Casa dels Taxonera, Besòs 17–19. Do not search for a badger hidden in the name; look for the property logic of the colony. Follow a level street and then a stairway. The turn reveals how regular subdivision met the slope and later residential intensification.

La Teixonera began as a low-density development on Can Grau and was formed mainly between 1915 and 1930. Early houses occupied relatively level plots, often with a well and garden. Post-war migration brought subdivision and building on steeper ground while services arrived late.

It is now a very dense, physically small neighbourhood between Carmel, Sant Genís, Vall d’Hebron, Clota and the approaches to El Coll. Hospitals and ring roads generate movement, but they do not define it.

Where the name comes from

The name honours Joaquim Taxonera i Cassà (1858–1934), a shoe manufacturer and landowner who promoted Colònia Taxonera. The official modern spelling is Teixonera, while Taxonera/Teixonera should follow the historical source and context.

The live derivation from teixó, badger, is wrong and must be replaced rather than expanded.

Between Carmel, Vall d'Hebron and hill roads.

Before the neighbourhood

Can Grau, mountain routes, cultivation and land within the rural geography of Horta and Sant Genís came before the colony. Routes toward Collserola and water lines shaped the site.

The brickworks records another economy: soil, kilns, bricks, transport and manual labour supplying Barcelona’s construction.

How the streets were made

The colony plan arranged streets and plots more regularly than today’s image suggests. Houses with gardens and wells were built between 1915 and 1930; plots were later subdivided, buildings enlarged and gradients negotiated with stairs and retaining walls.

The ring road, hospital campuses and perimeter routes inserted metropolitan scale beside a very small domestic fabric.

Dates that changed it

  1. 1902: initial Can Grau subdivision project; confirm plan, approval and phases.
  2. 1915–1930: main formation of Colònia Taxonera, described locally as thirteen streets.
  3. Post-war–1980s: intensification, migration and campaigns for services.
  4. 30 July 2010: El Coll | La Teixonera L5 station opens.
  5. 2011: rain-related ground collapse forces evacuation in Plaça d’Esop; do not confuse it with Carmel.
  6. 2026: The Bòbila rehabilitation project proposes civic and cultural use; its phase and timetable remain subject to verified updates.

People and collective life

The colony’s first households, brick workers, post-war migrants, traders and residents climbing daily gave the neighbourhood continuity. Sant Cebrià parish acted for years as a social centre when public facilities were scarce.

Residents’ groups campaigned for street works, transport, accessibility and collective space. Present density has not erased the memory of plots, wells and face-to-face life.

People behind the buildings

Casa dels Taxonera connects the landowner with builders, carpenters and residents. The Bòbila—dated to 1906 in the current municipal project—connects brick workers and production with the extraction of earth used to build the city.

Civic reuse must not clean the industrial labour out of the building’s story.

Institutions

Centre Cívic Teixonera, Sant Cebrià, schools, local services and El Coll | La Teixonera station sustain daily life. The Bòbila may enlarge this network if its conversion is completed.

Nearby hospitals provide jobs and care but also traffic, barriers and a large daytime population moving along the neighbourhood’s edges.

Struggles that left a mark

Demand: Residents fought for water, paving, sewers, transport, safe stairs, connections and their own facilities. The Sant Genís–Teixonera neighbourhood programme recognised accumulated inequality, but each intervention should be described by delivered result, not programme branding.

Outcome: Partial connections

Demand: The Bòbila campaign joins heritage, working memory and the right to a civic facility.

Outcome:

What can still be seen

Casa dels Taxonera, colony streets, low houses between blocks, residual wells or gardens where lawfully visible, stairways, walls and the industrial scale of the Bòbila can still be read.

Notice where streets hold a contour and where the slope breaks them. That tension is the colony’s original map.

What disappeared

Can Grau as a coherent estate, many gardens, wells, cultivated plots and early houses disappeared. Intensification often occupied the old pattern more heavily rather than erasing it.

The correct reading of the name also disappeared from many accounts. Restoring Taxonera replaces imagined wildlife with a history of landownership and development.

The neighbourhood today

In 2026 La Teixonera had 12,727 residents, 376.5 people per hectare, a 2023 census-section mean income of €20,277, 33.8 hectares, and 23.4% of residents held non-Spanish nationality.

This is extreme density on a small, sloping site. Urban quality depends on pavements, stairs, lifts, buses and places to rest as much as on housing units.

Non-Spanish nationality (2026): 23.4%

What is changing

Bòbila conversion, accessibility works, residential rehabilitation and relations with the Vall d’Hebron campus remain active processes. Proposal, tender, works and opening are distinct phases.

Mobility and metropolitan construction should be date-checked; do not present a completed neighbourhood programme as current activity.

What the guides leave out

Guides reduce La Teixonera to an appendage of Carmel or the hospital. They omit Colònia Taxonera, the promoter’s house, Sant Cebrià’s social role, the brickworks and the collision between level plots and vertical city.

Most importantly, they miss that the name records a person and a property operation, not badgers.

Read it on foot

Start: El Coll | La Teixonera (L5) · End: La Teixonera neighbourhood core

Walking (excluding stop time): 12 min · 920 m · Estimated visit (with stops): 42 min

The geometry follows the pedestrian network between the three marked points, but it has not been verified as step-free. This neighbourhood has steep gradients: check steps, lifts, works and access conditions before setting out. The approach from public transport is not included in the stated distance.

1
Casa dels Taxonera and colony streets
Plaça d'Isop 2 - 3
Observe how older estates and later streets explain the neighbourhood's origins.
41.42370, 2.14581
2
Steps, walls and vertical connections
Carrer de Coll i Alentorn 1X - 3X
leg: 350 m · 5 min
Compare steps, ramps, walls and bus routes as different ways of overcoming the gradient.
41.42532, 2.14917
3
Sant Cebrià, Bòbila and civic life
Passeig de la Mare de Déu del Coll 177 - 179
leg: 580 m · 8 min
Read the parish, civic facilities and meeting places as the neighbourhood's collective infrastructure.
41.42373, 2.15087

Sources for this page

Dates, figures and historical claims are linked to the records used for this page.

  1. [1] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Padró municipal d'habitants (pad_mdbas) — població per barri. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: pad-sexe-2026. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  2. [2] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2021). Densitat de població per barri. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: densitat-2021. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  3. [3] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2023). Renda disponible de les llars per persona. Seccions censals. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: renda-2023. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  4. [4] Ajuntament de Barcelona — Open Data BCN (2026-01-01). Població per nacionalitat i sexe. Barris. Type: statistical_dataset. Locator: pad-nac-2026. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  5. [5] Joan Busquets (2005). Barcelona: the urban evolution of a compact city. Type: book. Locator: busquets-barcelona. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  6. [6] MUHBA / Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). MUHBA — Museu d'Història de Barcelona (publicacions i jaciments). Type: museum. Locator: muhba. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  7. [7] AHCB / Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona — fons i cartografia. Type: archive. Locator: ahcb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  8. [8] Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Catàleg de patrimoni arquitectònic de Barcelona. Type: heritage_catalogue. Locator: heritage-catalog. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  9. [9] FAVB (n.d.). Federació d'Associacions de Veïns i Veïnes de Barcelona. Type: civil_society. Locator: favb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  10. [10] AMCB / Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Arxiu Municipal Contemporani de Barcelona. Type: archive. Locator: amcb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  11. [11] Ajuntament de Barcelona (n.d.). Nomenclàtor dels carrers de Barcelona. Type: gazetteer. Locator: nomenclator-bcn. Accessed: 2026-07-17.
  12. [12] TMB (n.d.). Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona — xarxa de metro. Type: transport. Locator: tmb. Accessed: 2026-07-17.

Last reviewed: 17 July 2026 · 12 sources consulted

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