Flooding and mobility in the Early Modern Barcelona

The 18th edition of the Barcelona History Congress, held between 22nd and 24th November 2023, was titled Towards an Environmental History of the City. The conference, organized by the Historical Archives of the City of Barcelona, aimed to investigate the relationship between the city of Barcelona and the surrounding areas over time, from different perspectives of environmental history.

The initiative contributes to a better understanding of the climate and environmental crises that have occurred in recent centuries and the possible responses that the municipal authorities, together with the citizens of Barcelona, have given to resolve them.

The Congress was a forum of research and debate among the various specialists of the scientific community who have as their subject of study and analysis the city of Barcelona.

Among the many important scholars, Alfredo Chamorro, a researcher of the DisComPoSE project, participated, presenting his paper Climatology and mobility in early modern Barcelona: the floods of the Llobregat river and their repercussions on the city’s communications in the context of the Little Ice Age. He analyzed the consequences of the numerous floods of the Llobregat river that occurred during the most extreme phases of the climatic cycle known as the Little Ice Age. He focused, in particular, on the effects on the transit of people, animals and goods along the royal road from Barcelona to Zaragoza, at a time when the city became an obligatory stop on the route between Italy and the Court of Madrid.

Through the intervention of Chamorro, DisComPoSE has contributed to better investigate the environmental history of Barcelona from the point of view of the risk of floods and any consequent micro-catastrophes. His analysis showed how events of local history had a general impact on the mobility of all those travelers who had to cross the dangerous Llobregat river, both to travel to and to return from the Court.

Go to the program of the conference

Go to the recording of the conference