House quarters

We are now in San Miquel street, one of the many streets of Barceloneta. When you walk inside the neighborhood, you come across with the legendary quarter houses. These houses were designed as single family homes, to accommodate all those people who had lost their property by building the Citadel.

These constructions were initially of a single storey, about 66 square meters per floor, and were arranged in groups of 8. As far as population was growing neighborhood, the houses were transformed in order to accommodate more residents, the owners saw the opportunity to get a higher economic performance.

Later it began to expand dividing what had been originally a single House, split in two. Moreover, the owners began asking to raise more plants, so that in 1839 authorized the construction of a third floor was authorized. In 1858 Barceloneta was no longer of military jurisdiction, it now belonged to municipal jurisdiction, which started in charge of urbanistic issues. In 1868, the town hall authorized to add a third floor, although many had already been built illegally, and in 1872 it finally gives permission to build four plants. These were also divided with a wall due to the continuous residential pressure. This is why they calle them "quarter houses". They are between 28 and 35m2, which, apart from the problem of small size has the added problem of difficult access to the upper floors. Since 1953, with the new ordinance, they are allowed up to seven floors.

The result is that, for most of the twentieth century, Barceloneta becomes one of the most dense in terms of population. Since the height proportional to the width of the streets of the initial project has been completely lost, it also becomes a neighborhood with very poor living conditions for its inhabitants, because the buildings are much more higher then they should be, so it prevents light from entering the lower floors. Later, and due to the densely populated neighborhood, around 1970 residents began to demand improvements in housing conditions.

It is quite interesting to see, however, how things have changed until today. While the district continues to be in poor conditions, its location next to the sea and its natural charm have made it a neighborhood where apartments are very expensive. Renting an apartment could cost around €850.