Poble Sec and Rixdorf

Poble Sec has very definded borders because it is limited by Montjuic to one side and the big Manzanas of Eixample to the other side. The small and intimite strucures of Poble Sec couldn't be a stronger contrast to the wide and rigid grid of the neighbouring quarter.

Berlin's Rixdorf is similar in this aspect: enclosed by the two mainstreets Sonnenallee and Karl-Marx-Straße and the U-Bahnring that forms a border for all of Berlins inner quarters, the borders to Rixdorf couldn't be clearer. Its small and curved streets stand in contrast to an otherwise perpendicular grid and it is easy to see

Rixdorf

that it was a small independent town before it was assimilated to Berlin. Nowadays the old Richardplatz with its many restaurants and festivities like the christmas market is the social centre for the people of Neukölln. The Richardplatz by night Around 1900 Rixdorf was infamous for theatres, vaudevilles, dancing vanues and also for illegal gambling and drinking. The reputation was so bad that it was actually decided to change the name to Neukölln in 1912. This is another analogy to Poble Sec: It also has a history of theatres and

Christmas market

vaudevilles with the El Molino still existing and many bars, cafés and clubs attracting the people of the night.