The Montbau neighborhood grows with the Hospital

When the Hospital Vall d’Hebron was started, the Montbau neighbourhood did not exist. The land where the Hospital is located had belonged to the old municipality of Sant Joan d’Horta, where there were lands of various inheritances, such as can Barret, can Frares or can Gallart, in addition to some more modest houses where service, farm or maintenance activities were carried out.

The name with which it was baptized must probably be attributed to the place name “torrent de Mombau”, which appears on a geological and topographic map of 1900. Oral, Mombau and Montbau are pronounced in a similar way, which may explain the different written forms found in publications. The form Montbau is the correct adaptation to the rules of the Catalan language.

On March 19, 1959, the ceremony of laying the first stone of the 223-home estate was held, which represented the beginning of the Montbau neighborhood and the 1,500 homes planned to be built in that first phase promoted by the Municipal Housing Board. These apartments were built to respond to the great need for housing that the city of Barcelona had and that had been aggravated by the arrival of numerous immigrants from other parts of Catalonia and the Spanish State seeking better living conditions.

Given that the neighborhood was very far from the urban fabric and there was no other public transport than the Empresa Casas, which linked Plaça d’Eivissa with Avinguda del Tibidabo, it was planned with a provision of services that were to make it self-sufficient, at least in the most domestic areas. Some of the planned services were a parish, two schools and a daycare center, two sports areas, a shopping center, business premises and a cinema.

The buildings were built with hygienic criteria, open, without interior courtyards and with many windows, so that the homes had plenty of light and ventilation, and surrounded by green areas, to avoid overcrowding. Some of these homes were occupied by workers from the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, some of whom (they or their descendants) still live there.

Throughout the 1960s, the first phase was built, between 1961 and 1963, and the second, between 1964 and 1968. Many of the planned facilities were built much later and some were never built. What did proliferate were the businesses, which were established in all the available premises, since the large population and the poor communication with the city center made them profitable and essential. The neighborhood was growing, at the same time as the Hospital, which by the end of the 60s already had the new buildings of the Maternal Clinic, the Children's Hospital, the Traumatology Hospital and the Nursing School.

One of the first businesses to be established in the neighborhood was El Bar Mombau or Casa Carlos, which is now the La Llaminera restaurant. The first tenants, Conxa and Carlos, arrived in the neighborhood when neither the house nor the bar were finished. The bar served the neighbors and the Hospital staff, day and night. The current restaurant continues to provide service especially to the Hospital, both to the healthcare staff and to the relatives of admitted patients.

The metro arrives in Montbau

On November 6, 1985, the Metro arrived in the Montbau neighborhood, with the inauguration of four stations - Vallcarca, Penitents, Vall d’Hebron and Montbau - on line 3, which until then ended at Plaça Lesseps. This was a response to a long-standing demand by Montbau residents, who had always demanded public transport services that would better connect them with the city center.

The Olympic Games transform the neighborhood

The 1992 Olympic Games brought about a major urban transformation of the city of Barcelona. One of the major areas of action was the Vall d’Hebron area, where various sports facilities and the Press Village were built, as well as some sculptures such as Els Mistos, which modified its appearance. In addition, there was a radical change in terms of urbanization, with the modification of some streets, and the construction of new roads and the Ronda de Dalt.

The transformation of the area was accompanied by an improvement in means of transport, which allowed for greater integration of the neighborhoods of the northern area into the city as a whole.