El Canal de la Viga.

Mobility and urban activities

Abstract

The Beam CanalMobility and urban activities The Canal de la Viga stood out throughout the 16th to 19th centuries as the main means of transport for accessing agricultural products from the south of the city to the city centre. From the end of the 19th century until its burial in the middle of the 20th century, the Canal gradually lost its function. However, the urban configuration of uses that developed along its banks was not eradicated until the warehouses for perishables and seeds were moved to the Central de Abasto in the 1970s. Once the canal was covered and turned into an avenue, it recovered its function as a means of transporting goods and products to the large supply market in the La Merced neighbourhood. The study of its development and consolidation as a navigable canal, the hydraulic system of which it formed part and the activities that were consolidated on its banks form an inseparable plot that explains the importance of the communication routes in the location of activities in the city.