Barcelona now offers a new and unique perspective of the city. The one that can be admired from the top of the Clock Tower, in the historic building of the University of Barcelona, at the height of Plaza Universitat.
A careful restoration of the west tower of the academic complex ---in which 210,000 euros have been invested--- has allowed it to be opened to the public, with guided tours by appointment, starting this very week. This part of the building is the work of Elies Rogent and the bell tower dates from 1881 and is characterized by an iron structure that has been preserved: a four-armed belfry that covers the bells like an open Renaissance-style dome.
Accessing by the stairs that lead to the new viewpoint, which is at a height of 35 meters, in the first section, the visitor finds the clock mechanism behind the large Roman numeral dial that was originally designed by the Cabanyach family of watchmakers, although years later it broke down and the one there now is from after the Civil War.
Continuing with the ascent, one reaches a first balcony and, finally, the rooftop of the tower where the 15-meter belfry and the bells are located. Alumni et magistri academiae barcinonensis obtemperate sono (students and professors of the Barcelona academy, obey the sound) is part of the Latin inscription that can be read on the hour bell which, like the one that marks the quarters, was forged in the Miquel Forcada foundry, in Vic, in 1880, during the reign of Alfonso XII.
The emblem wanted to remind the entire academic community, which had inaugurated the first course of the new University of Barcelona in 1872, that in the Clock Tower quarters and hours would chime, with precision and rigor, virtues proper to teaching and study.
The hour bell has a diameter of 110 centimeters and weighs 750 kg, and the quarter bell, 97 centimeters in diameter and 500 kg in weight. Both have the coats of arms of the University of Barcelona and the motto Perfundet omnia luce (It will fill everything with light), topped by a large royal crown.
In the restoration works, the building's skeleton has been mainly reinforced, the rooftop cover has been rebuilt to make it waterproof, and the mechanism that allows the movement of the bells, which have chimed the hour for over a century, has been put back into operation, although the old mechanism has been replaced by a more modern one.
Opening the Clock Tower to the city was one of the commitments that the rectorate of the University of Barcelona set within the set of actions it wanted to have completed to celebrate the legacy of its 150 years of history. The start of the visits is, therefore, the unofficial kick-off of this commemoration, as the institutional event is scheduled for early October.
A century and a half of history
The vice-rector for Heritage and Cultural Activities, Agustí Alcoberro, has been in charge of directing the restoration works of the Clock Tower but also coordinating the entire organization of the commemoration. The vice-rector explained that, throughout the 2022-23 academic year, dramatized representations of the era when the university opened will be shown within the campus itself, and there will be several thematic exhibitions, one of which is a display of photographs from all eras that, in part, has been made possible thanks to the participation of all citizens who have sent original images to the UB.
Vice-rector Alcoberro detailed that this academic year they will feature talks and presentations by celebrated alumni of the University of Barcelona, such as this year's first guest, basketball player Laia Palau, who began her sports career precisely in the academic institution's basketball team; and he recalled that the university was the first university center in Spain with a matriculated female student, Elena Maseras, to pursue medical studies, with the approval of Amadeo de Saboya, who was king of Spain from 1870 to 1873. "This will be one of the many episodes we will remember to bring to popular memory the difficulties women have suffered to access university study plans," said Alcoberro.
Also, as part of the building's conservation plan and to celebrate its century and a half of history, the university has located for conservation eleven classrooms within the academic complex that incorporate some historical element (furniture, architecture, decoration)...). "We don't want to turn these classrooms into a museum, but rather to preserve those historical elements that make them unique," Alcoberro remarked.
Ultimately, it is about highlighting a historic academic institution that "we cannot perceive as an office building, it is much more than that," said the university's rector, Joan Guàrdia, who emphasized the "historical value and the link of this university to the city of Barcelona." "Everything that has happened throughout history in Barcelona, and by extension in Catalonia, has also happened within the University of Barcelona," Alcoberro concluded.