Opened in 1922, L’Escullera was the second swimming pool in Spain, only behind the one inaugurated in Sabadell in 1918. It was the first indoor and heated swimming pool in Spain, a revolutionary event that opened many Barcelona residents the world of swimming. Until then, swimming required jumping into the sea, spas and the first facilities that emerged on the coast with the birth of a new sports culture in the late 19th century. Until the 1920s, all water sports were played at sea, such as the first water polo matches or the Christmas Cup, which still stands. The first modern Olympic Games were also held at sea, such as those in Athens in 1896, or in the waters of the River Seine in 1900. In the 20th century, however, technology led to the creation of the first competition pools.
The Escullera swimming pool was the great project of CN Barcelona, an entity born in 1907 on the initiative of Bernat Picornell in a meeting at the Gimnàs Solé, the same place where Joan Gamper had founded Barça eight years earlier. On September 15 of that year, 18 brave men had jumped into the waters of the port, in the area of the swallows, in the first edition of the Copa Solé, a race promoted by Manuel Solé, who had thought it to be the first Spanish swimming championship. The success of the event led to the founding of CN Barcelona on November 10, 1907, at the headquarters of Gimnàs Solé, next to La Rambla, with Manuel Solé as first vice-president and Bernat Picornell, who was also professor of fencing and Barça footballer, as president.
The club managed to rent a venue on the Llevant breakwater in 1915, and forged athletes such as those who would go to the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, with names such as swimmer Joaquim Cuadrada or the first state Olympic water polo team, with Enrique Granados Cal, the composer’s son, who discovered the crawl style when he saw it practiced by American swimmers. In those Games, a delegation of which Joan Gamper was part went to Antwerp to defend a first Catalan Olympic candidacy. It started a time when a lot of sports venues of all kinds were built, such as stadiums, gyms and the first swimming pools. The CN Barcelona project was approved in 1920 with a budget of 250,000 pesetas, and was commissioned by the architect Jaume Mestres i Fossas, who was a member of the club and president of the Catalan Swimming Federation. Mestres, who had traveled to Antwerp with Gamper and company in 1920, built a swimming pool then still open, which was inaugurated on April 17, 1921 with the presence of the President of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, Josep Puig i Cadafalch. The first races and a water polo match took place that day in a swimming pool that took advantage of the sea water.
The deck was completed in 1924, when the heating that allowed swimming all year round was also started. It was a revolution. Since then, the Escullera swimming pool has hosted state championships, the Mediterranean Games, water polo finals and all kinds of races, until it closed in 2003, when CN Barcelona inaugurated its new swimming pool on the jetty. Now, CN Barcelona will remodel it, as part of a plan to transform its facilities. One of the uses of the Escullera swimming pool when it reopens will be the springboard jump. To achieve this, the CNB has reached an agreement with the investment group Green Track. The budget for this investment will cost approximately 3 million euros. “L’Escullera is the cathedral of Catalan swimming,” explains the club’s president, Bernat Antràs, who admits that the club needed to be modernized. “We will do it now, with this partner who will be able to exploit spaces and contribute the money needed to have top-level facilities again.” As the Escullera was when it opened, more than a century ago. He will come back to life now. History continues to be written.
