La España Industrial

The primary manufacturing facilities were built within the village of Santa María de Sans, outside Barcelona as part of a general trend in the cotton industry which had outgrown the walled city.

[4] The initial plans were for a workforce of 1,420 as follows: [5] The Sants factory was inaugurated on January 1, 1849 and by 1853 it was fully operational with 41,748 spinning bobbins and 1,000 weaving looms, making it the largest in the country.

La España Industrial was always one of the most modern companies dedicated to cotton, with a famous brand of towels and corduroy and even produced its own paper packaging.

In 1985, after many neighborhood demonstrations, the site of the old factory was converted into a housing complex and a large park that adopted the name of the factory, becoming the Parque de la España Industrial, repurposing some of the old buildings including the Casinet d'Hostrafrancs Civic Center, the Pau Nursery, the building called Casa del Mig and the banana forest that form the central body of the current park.

For the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, the España Industrial Sports Center was built, where the weightlifting events were held.