Badalona
— — the long beach the city keeps walking back to.
Not only on a wall.
“A coastal city north of Barcelona, on a strip of sand that runs from the Besòs delta nearly to the Maresme. Founded by Rome as Baetulo in the first century before Christ; the Latin grid still shows under the modern streets in places. A pier called the Pont del Petroli walks about 250 metres out over the water from the beach near Riera de Canyadó. — from the studio
Badalona, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Badalona is a city of about 220,000 on the Catalan coast, immediately north of Barcelona and joined to it by the L2 and L10 metro lines. The Roman colony of Baetulo was founded here around 100 BC; substantial portions of the forum, the cardo, and the public baths have been excavated under the modern city centre and are visible at the Museu de Badalona on Plaça de l'Assemblea de Catalunya. The shoreline runs roughly five kilometres from the Besòs river mouth north to Montgat, backed by a continuous seafront promenade.
The beaches face the Mediterranean directly east, so the morning light comes off the water rather than down the coast. The Pont del Petroli, a pier built in 1966 to offload oil tankers and converted to public use in 2009 after the refinery closed, reaches about 250 metres into the sea and is the city's most photographed structure. Summer water temperatures hold around 25°C; winter swimming has a recognised local following, and the patron-saint festival in May marks the opening of the bathing season.
The Festa Major falls on 11 May, the feast of Sant Anastasi, the city's patron. The night before, the Cremada del Dimoni — the burning of a great figure of the devil on the beach — draws crowds along the full length of the shore and is one of the most distinctive midnight scenes on the Catalan coast. The festival has been celebrated in some form since at least the seventeenth century and now runs about a week, with concerts, sardanes, a fun-fair, and a final fireworks display over the sea.