Squatters (and squatter bars)

Okupa (as in 'occupied') in today's Barcelona means a squat, part of a low-key but thriving and increasingly well-organized squatter movement. It isn't surprising, in a city where property is so expensive that many young people feel they will never have the opportunity to own a home. There's a strong anarchist tinge to it, carrying on Barcelona's longstanding tradition.

For squatters, there's safety in numbers, and some okupas are big compounds, which as elsewhere in Europe try to play a role as social/cultural centres. One of these is La Teixidora, which occupies a historic building at C/ Marià Aguiló 35 in Poble Nou that in the 1880's was the headquarters of the Federalist-Republican movement of Francisco Pi i Maragall, who had been president of the short-lived First Spanish Republic in 1873. Can Masdeu, on the Collserola hill, manages big urban gardens and concentrates on environmental issues (up in the woods off Plaça Karl Marx in an abandoned hospital, metro Canyelles; open to visitors all day Sunday, with tours at noon)