pumice
Well-known member
Tabacalera - Cataluyna - July 2012
This was an awesome explore, one of me and my friends best! In Spain very recently, with a Spanish friend, on a road trip, intending to urbex as much as possible and with a route consisting of close to 2500km we found ourselves in Cataluyna. We (I say we, I mean I!) had been busted almost immediately on entering our intended explore by an angry Spanish man in his pants who was definitely happy to punch me given my lack of Spanish until he glanced my attractive friend who calmed and eased the situation magnificently. Still, this left us with a big, fat 2 day hole in our itinerary. Now, I am pretty good at making good cock ups (I've had much experience), but this seemed like too much time to fill and despite us being by a beach, we both wanted to see something to disprove the notion that Spanish urbexing isn't great. We headed back to the car, abandoned the idea of sleeping on the beach and dejectedly checked in to a hotel for a nights kip. The following day on heading to the beach we drove by what could only be described as a palace. We parked up and took a saunter over to gauge whether this vast site could be accessed and indeed, how abandoned it actually was...........
The location was definitely abandoned and on closer inspection, access seemed easy. We parked up, grabbed a random, but tasty Indian lunch and headed on in to this gigantic site unsure of what it actually was. On entering the site we soon realised that we were in a factory, but what kind and how come the ornate and opulent main and fantastic gated entrance. We stumbled around huge spaces that oozed dreamy light, walked up and down spectacular staircases and generally began to realise that this place was untouched. No graffiti or juvenile tagging could be seen and the site seemed to contain all manner of intrigue and relics.............
It was at this point that my friend noticed the main building that advertised, by way of stunning signage the true nature of the now redundant operation on the site. A tobacco factory and a huge one! Eager to see more and crossing over in to the main building we opened a door that lead to a cafeteria and kitchen area (still fully equipped). My friend began to photograph all that lay before her, but I had spotted the staircase with more relics and oddities. I paced quickly to the reception area atop the wonderful staircase and looked down 3 stories. Evident to me were 3 large cabinets at the bottom of the stairs containing who knows what. This time I ran down the stairs and was greeted by trophy cabinets full to the brim with the sporting achievements of the company. My heart at this point was beating very rapidly and as I turned, I saw a desk with paperwork, trophies and various objects to be deciphered and searched...........
.
It was at this point that my unreserved excitement got the better of us and with a shrill wail the alarms were set off. Shit! We both ran at top speed back from where we had came, jumped through the window, exited the gate and with adrenaline a plenty, laughed hysterically on a comfortable grass mound opposite the factory. It was here that we decided that we couldn't leave this town until we'd cracked this spectacular place and shock hands on an early start, aware of the location of the alarms and with my promise to apply a little more hast in the morning. We headed off back in to the town and downed a couple of glasses of ice cold beer in a bar near by that had, to our surprise, photographs of the site when it was in use..............
The morning dawned and we rose with anticipation, made it to the site, eased our way back through the gate and located the window we had used to gain access the day before. My friend went first and as I struggled to climb in, we noticed a torch on the windowsill that hadn't been there the day before! As I was just about to jump down, the shrill alarms sounded again! Shit, an easier but less than euphoric second exit! We sat disappointed on the grass mound again and discussed whether there was somebody else in the building, researched Spanish trespass law (yes, probably should have done that prior to leaving!) and fathomed that the only way we were going to get access would be to get permission........
Our desire to gain access first took us to the town hall where I remained mute as we were told that we would have to attend the culture/tourism office and ask them. We stood by the reception for thirty minutes, glanced through the local paper that held interesting details of the imminent demolition of the site we had been busted in two days earlier and spoke of bunkers near this site. We thought this may well serve as a back up if all things went pear shaped with access to the factory. Eventually we were greeted by a thorough jobsworth who promptly told us that he couldn't help and although he was sure we wouldn't be able to gain access, told us to return to another department at the town council................
On entering this location, we took a ticket and waited our turn. Fortunately, our luck had turned and we were greeted by a friendly lady who laughed and joked as she called the culture office, berated them and then decided that we should meet with the director of the history museum. She called his staff and arranged for us to pop round to the museum for a meeting. We promptly headed to the museum, met the reception staff, fell in love with the magnificent architecture the museum was held in and patiently waited for our chance to blag and plead our way in.............
Eventually we were summoned in to the directors office and with me feeling particularly English, I left the persuasion to my delightful Spanish friend. This was a decision well made as they spoke for 20 minutes about the town, the amphitheatre and of the fascinating history of the factory we wished to access.......
It turns out that this factory was built in the 1920s. Whilst they were excavating the foundations they discovered the tombs of over 2000 people and in fact there was a cemetery built here in the 3rd century AD. It is also believed that the remains of St. Fructuosus were placed in this necropolis. This delayed the construction of the factory for some time and it was completed in the 30s. The factory closed around 8 years ago and the buildings were sold to a French firm who intended to develop them. However, the Spanish financial crash occurred and the company offered the buildings back to the local authority for permission to build an office block next door. This was granted and the factory site now remains controlled by the state with the intention to convert in to a museum for Cataluynan history.
After this informative 20 minutes, the director said we could access the grounds, but couldn't enter the main building as it was too dangerous (if only he knew!) He contacted his chauffeur who turned up 15 minutes later in his van with keys for the site. He drove us down to the site and spoke avidly in Spanish about his desires for an independent Cataluynan state and him being in the independence party and also a member of a group that seek and find abandoned buildings in the area for preservation. This was all frightfully interesting, but the thumbs up from my friend in the front, unbeknown to me meant that he was asking if we wanted to go inside! Result!!!
We accessed the site with full permission, watched as he switched the alarms of and spent an hour with him hurriedly taking as many pictures as possible as he toured the site with us. This was thoroughly enjoyable, but there seemed so much more to see and we had only accessed the main factory building where we had been the day before. He spoke of the buildings by the front gate and how they were former homes for the executives of the company and how beautiful they were......................
To our abundant surprise as we were attempting to get some more pictures of the exteriors of the buildings, he asked if we wanted to come back and meet him at the gates at 9 the following morning as he had to meet with somebody there and wouldn't mind us taking another couple of hours to look around the executive quarters. We of course abandoned our plans to go to some deserted (but rather interesting looking) pools in Rubi and agreed, having been blown away by the quality of the explore so far.......
We met up with the gentleman at 9am the next day. Had another couple of hours in the most incredible building I have seen so far, got high photographing the stained glass ceiling of the staircase, the wood panelled board rooms and beautiful corridors before leaving to enjoy breakfast with this most helpful and interesting man! Although we spent around 4 hours on this site in total, I believe that we could have spent 4 days here. It really was a massive highlight of a great and fun filled trip, but I suggest if you visit, you take a little more care with the alarms than I did.
I hope you all enjoyed this report and I apologise for the amount of pictures, but I think this site warrants it. Also, please excuse the size of the watermark, I mistakenly added the larger font format and didn't want to export them all again from Lightroom. Many, many thanks for looking and I do believe this site adds a feather to the Spanish cap. I hope you all agree!.......
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