Derelict Factory, A-44, Granada to Jaen, Spain.

In such a pale landscape this fading derelict factory, just off the A-44 Granada to Spain road, was filled with amazing colours – with every new wall providing a new canvas for some of the most stylish paintwork I have ever seen in a derelict building before including some by the favourite ‘El Nino de las Pinturas’.

This was a special find. And also one of my first proper explorations with my new pal, Mango – who took it all in his stride. A really defiant piece of eroding art…… I can’t find out any details about this place… So here it stands, lost in the rubble…

 

El PobleNou, Barcelona, Spain.

El Poblenou is an expansive district of Barcelona which borders the Mediterranean Sea to the South.  During the Industrial Revolution the area was the focal point of Catalan and Iberian Industry, giving it the name of the ‘Catalonian Manchester’.  After a period of decay, the area has undergone a vast transformation.  The once bustling streets and architecturaly impressive factory fronts now stand as silent echoing bricked-up reminders of the past.  Currently there are signs of regeneration taking place, however whilst walking around what you really notice are the amount of beautiful business buildings which are crumbling, bricks right up through all of the windows in order to keep out squatters and ‘gitano’ (gypsies)… I even found a brand new block of flats with the downstairs door wide open, electric wires hanging out from the ceiling, which had been taken over; scrawled on the wall outside the warning: ‘STOP. Territorio gitano!’  I almost went inside, but a young gypsy family entering the block of flats stared at me in a way which told me better!  There was a vast amount of street art and potentially amazing buildings to discover, behind all of those bricked up façades; their histories now lost in the rubble.