Sant Joan Despí
Encyclopedia
Sant Joan Despí (ˈsaɲ ʒuˈan dəsˈpi) (Old Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 for Saint John of the Pine) is a city and municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 located in the Baix Llobregat
Baix Llobregat
Baix Llobregat is a comarca on the coast of Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Sant Feliu de Llobregat.-Municipalities:Populations are from 2002.* Abrera - pop. 9,166* Begues - pop. 5,023* Castelldefels - pop. 52,405...

 area (Barcelona province
Barcelona (province)
Barcelona is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia.-Overview:It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, and by the Mediterranean Sea....

 in Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

). It is situated on the left bank of the Llobregat river
Llobregat
The Llobregat is the second longest river in Catalonia, Spain. It originates in Castellar de n'Hug at an altitude of 1,259 meters in the Serra del Cadí, and ends in the Mediterranean Sea, in the municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona...

. Es is a dialectal form of the masculine article el, hence Despí would be rendered Del pi in standard Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

.

Borders

(in order of length)
  • Cornellà de Llobregat
    Cornellà de Llobregat
    Cornellà de Llobregat is a municipality in the comarca of the Baix Llobregat inCatalonia, Spain. It is situated on the left bank of the Llobregat river.- History :...

     (SSE
    Boxing the compass
    Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion, without...

    )
  • Sant Just Desvern
    Sant Just Desvern
    Sant Just Desvern is a town near Barcelona, in the comarca of the Baix Llobregat, Catalonia,....

     (NNE
    Boxing the compass
    Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion, without...

    )
  • Sant Boi de Llobregat
    Sant Boi de Llobregat
    Sant Boi de Llobregat is a town of 80,000 inhabitants in the Barcelona province in Catalonia, located aside the Llobregat river.The town distributes its territory into six districts: Ciutat Cooperativa-Molí Nou, Marianao-Can Paulet, Barri Centre, Vinyets-Molí Vell, Camps Blancs-Canons-Orioles and...

     (SW)
  • Santa Coloma de Cervelló
    Santa Coloma de Cervelló
    Santa Coloma de Cervelló is a municipality situated in the comarca of Baix Llobregat, at the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The town has 7081 people....

     (NW)
  • Sant Feliu de Llobregat
    Sant Feliu de Llobregat
    Sant Feliu de Llobregat is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona. It is the capital of the comarca of Baix Llobregat, and the see of a Bishopric since June 2005, when the Archbishopric of Barcelona was divided in three....

     (NNW
    Boxing the compass
    Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion, without...

    )
  • Esplugues de Llobregat
    Esplugues de Llobregat
    Esplugues de Llobregat is a municipality of the Barcelona metropolitan area. It belongs to the comarca of Baix Llobregat, Barcelona province, Catalonia, Spain. It has some schools, such as the German School of Barcelona and American School of Barcelona, which attract rich families, thus increasing...

     (NEE
    Boxing the compass
    Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion, without...

    )

Districts

Currently, Sant Joan Despí has 31 438 inhabitants divided into 5 very disaggregated districts.
It also has an industrial quarter.

Barri Centre

Barri Centre (Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 for center quarter) is the original urban core of the town, formerly called Nucli antic (old core).
The district is bounded by the railway, B-23 motorway, Cornellà de Llobregat
Cornellà de Llobregat
Cornellà de Llobregat is a municipality in the comarca of the Baix Llobregat inCatalonia, Spain. It is situated on the left bank of the Llobregat river.- History :...

 and by the new Eixample district towards the Llobregat River.
It is plenty of modernist buildings, many of them designed by Josep Maria Jujol
Josep Maria Jujol
Josep Maria Jujol Gibert was a Catalan architect.Jujol's wide field of activity ranged from furniture designs and painting, to architecture. He worked with Antoni Gaudí on many of his most famous works.-Biography:...

 who was the official town council architect since 1926.
It also contains the oldest buildings of the town including Esglèsia de Sant Joan Batista (Saint John the Baptist Church) and a small Romanic chapel.
In the sixties, this quarter was still a small set of cottages, where accommodated people from Barcelona spent their holidays, and small houses, but since then, the urbanism has changed a lot substituting most of the houses by tall buildings and changing the green spaces by concrete parks.
Nowadays you can still find some of the old small houses, and most of the singular ones but surrounded in an urban space.

Les Planes

Les Planes (Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 for the plains) is a district which appeared during the 1960s and the 1970s to house the incoming immigration from other Spanish regions specially Extremadura and Andalusia.
Les Planes is separated from the center quarter by the Polígon Fontsanta industrial quarter and from the TV3 quarter by the Parc Fontsanta park and indeed, it is urbanistically continuous just towards the Padrò quarter of Cornellà de Llobregat
Cornellà de Llobregat
Cornellà de Llobregat is a municipality in the comarca of the Baix Llobregat inCatalonia, Spain. It is situated on the left bank of the Llobregat river.- History :...

.

This quarter is characterized by relatively tall buildings and narrow streets.
Democratic councils have alleviated that by turning many of those streets into pedestrian streets.

Pla del Vent/Torreblanca

This district is placed at the other side of the B-23 motorway and to east of the railway.
It is closer to Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Sant Feliu de Llobregat is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona. It is the capital of the comarca of Baix Llobregat, and the see of a Bishopric since June 2005, when the Archbishopric of Barcelona was divided in three....

 and Sant Just Desvern
Sant Just Desvern
Sant Just Desvern is a town near Barcelona, in the comarca of the Baix Llobregat, Catalonia,....

.
This district has two names because is the union of two older quarters.
Pla del Vent (Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 for Wind Plane) was a set of small houses along a road communicating Sant Joan towards Sant Just Desvern
Sant Just Desvern
Sant Just Desvern is a town near Barcelona, in the comarca of the Baix Llobregat, Catalonia,....

.
Torreblanca (Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 for White Tower) was a new urbanization built during the last half of the eighties besides the monumental Torreblanca Park which gave the name to the quarter.
Later urbanizations joined both squares into a single district.

Residential Sant Joan (TV3)

This district was urbanized at the mid 80's after the building of the main studios of the Catalan autonomic television, TV3
Televisió de Catalunya
Televisió de Catalunya is Catalonia's public broadcasting network, officially composed by eight channels: TV3, 33, Super3, 3/24, 3XL, Esport 3, TV3 HD and TV3CAT. K3 was replaced by Super3 in 2009 and 300 was replaced by 3XL in 2010...

, which is the reason why the quarter is popularly known as the 'TV3' quarter.
It is a wealthy quarter surrounded by the large green zone called Fontsanta park which connects it with the Polígon Fontsanta and Les Planes.

Eixample

Eixample (Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 for extension) is a new quarter, being built since 1998, during the real estate bubble in Spain
Spanish property bubble
The Spanish property bubble refers to the massive growth of real state prices observed, in various stages, from 1985 up to 2008 in Spain. The housing burst can be clearly divided in three periods: 1985-1991, in which the price nearly tripled, 1992-1996, in which the price remained somewhat stable,...

, as an extension toward the Llobregat
Llobregat
The Llobregat is the second longest river in Catalonia, Spain. It originates in Castellar de n'Hug at an altitude of 1,259 meters in the Serra del Cadí, and ends in the Mediterranean Sea, in the municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona...

 river of the Barri Centre.

Polígon Fontsanta

Polígon Fontsanta is an industrial district which is in the geographic center of Sant Joan Despí.
For many years, such polygon was the attracting factor for new population to the town, which explains why new quarters were built around it instead of around the old town.
Important brands had their factories in the square including Gallina Blanca, San Miguel, Trinaranjus...

Transportation

The town is communicated with Barcelona downtown through several public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...

:

Bus

  • TMB
    Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona
    Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona is the main public transit operator in Barcelona, made up of two formerly separate companies, Ferrocarril Metropolità de Barcelona, SA. and Transports de Barcelona, SA....

    : 63, 157, 78
  • EMT-AMB
    Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona
    The Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona , often referred to as Greater Barcelona, is administrative area integrated by three territorial executive bodies. As a whole they serve 36 municipalities and a population of 3,218,071 within an area of 636 km2...

    : L10, L46, L52
  • Nitbus
    Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona
    The Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona , often referred to as Greater Barcelona, is administrative area integrated by three territorial executive bodies. As a whole they serve 36 municipalities and a population of 3,218,071 within an area of 636 km2...

    : N12, N15 (night service)

Demography

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