Barcelona has an unusual taxi color: it is black with yellow. On the Internet you can find an explanation that this is a reminder of the tragic death of the architect Antonio Gaudi. We checked whether the city legend corresponds to the truth.

On the Internet, on the request "Why is a taxi in Barcelona Black and Great color?" falls out More than a dozen links that describe the same story. It sounds like this: “Barcelona's free cabmen on June 7, 1926 drove past a man lying on the ground, who shot down a tram launched on this day. The taxi drivers took him for a beggar who could not pay for the fare. This man was the great architect Antonio Gaudi, the pride of Barcelona. The law enforcement officers took him to the hospital for the poor, in which he died three days later, without regaining consciousness. And the Barcelona city hall ordered all the cabmen and all the city taxi drivers from now on and forever use only black and yellow taxis: according to Catalan symbolism, black-the color of mourning, and yellow-the color of shame. So all the city’s taxi to this day wear mourning according to the architect, who created the brightest masterpieces of Barcelona. ” The given version can be found not only on sites, but also in books.

This version is popular in the Russian -language segment of the Internet. She became widespread in 2012 thanks to publications in the Live Journal (1 And 2). Probably, Russian tourists heard her from guides and recorded it upon returning from the trip.

It is quite easy to check that the first horse (horse-drawn city road that laid the basis for the development of the tram network) was launched in Barcelona much earlier-in 1872. And the first electric tram was represented in 1899. But all the same, the story of the death of Gaudi under the wheels of the first tram parted On blogs. In the English -speaking or Spanish -language segment of the Internet there are Single retelling The above version, and this suggests that it was Russia that was the place of its origin.

In Spain itself is common Another explanation Taxi flowers. Bring it with reductions in the book La Ciutat Transportada ("Contributed city"), published in 1997: ""In the early 20s In Barcelona there were about 250 registered taxis, the development of infrastructure was underway. In 1924, the City Council approved the Road Code, which, among other things, ordered taxi drivers to use the counter and draw a line under the passenger window and on the back of each taxi so that the cars are allocated in the traffic stream. The color of the line depended on the tariff: white - 40 cents per kilometer, red - 50 cents, yellow - 60 cents and blue - 80 cents.

To the 1929 World Exhibition, the Barcelona Taxi Park grew to 4000 cars - and this is in a city that did not have a million inhabitants. In addition, public transport developed in Barcelona: trams, buses, metro. All this provoked competition between taxi drivers for each client. The price of prices began when the tariff could depend on the number of passengers or the use of motorcycles with a stroller.

After the exhibition, the demand for a taxi fell, many companies closed, and those that remained were forced to reduce the prices. In July 1930, the City Council set a fixed rate of 60 cents per kilometer. In practice, this meant that the yellow color became the main one for the Barcelona taxi. Everywhere it spread only by 1934. From 1961 to 1977, black and yellow taxis appeared in many municipalities in the province of Barcelona. ”

It was not possible to check this version according to official sources. But in workThe similar idea is a similar idea dedicated to the development of public transport in a disruption-de-lane: “The City Council of Barcelona in the 1924 Road Code of the 1924 ordered to mark the red, blue or yellow stripes under the passenger window in order to distinguish them from cars intended for personal use.” On this basis, we can assume that the choice of yellow was indeed a decision of the city authorities.

However, it is worth emphasizing that, apparently, yellow and black do not have the symbolism that is attributed to them in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. In one of Catalan publications You can find information that black is a color that has symbolized the uprising of Catalonia several times throughout history. Yellow is one of the colors of the official Spanish flag and the unofficial flag of the Catalan lands. He had no clear importance in Catalonia, but since 2017 he became symbol Independence movements and requirements to free political prisoners.

In other words, the color of the taxi in Barcelona is in no way connected with the death of Gaudi and is obliged to either the decision of the city administration or the global practice, because yellow taxis are popular in many countries, and black and yellow options are found, for example, in India and Egypt.