Carrer de Roger de Llúria,
Girona

A surviving central courtyard in the Eixample, comprising a grid of trees, a shallow pool used by children in the summer heat, and an old water tower.

Enter the courtyard along a long passageway from the eastern side of Carrer de Roger de Llúria into the block north of C. de la Diputació.

The grid-like district north of the old city is known as the Eixample (the Extension) and was laid out in 1859. The Catalan engineer Ildefons Cerdá drew up plans for a series of over 500 blocks, each enclosing a central public space, garden or low rise mews. Cerdá's impressive social vision however was scuppered by greedy developers who built quickly on the space he had set aside. For this reason the Eixample has practically no recreational space left.

The city is trying to reclaim some of these spaces; one of the very few existing is Pati de les Aigües, the Water Tower Courtyard. Though somewhat stark and claustrophobic, the space is dominated by a handsome water tower with a shallow pool at its base -- a magnet to overheated local children. Coincidentally, in the block to the west a fine example of a central mews survives, giving just a glimpse of what Cerdá had in mind for the entire area.

contributor: Nigel Hayler