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Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes
Architectural Armageddon, and a Happy Ending
Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes was once this was the city's greatest architectural shame and embarassment. Right now, they're spending a billion or so making it pretty again. When they're finished, the Glòries, as it’s known for short, will be the centrepiece of the new Barcelona that has been slowly taking shape since the 1980s.
An architectural Armageddon
When designing the Eixample, Ildefons Cerdà intended the Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes—the plaza where the Diagonal, Meridiana and Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes meet—as the new center of the city. In his mind it would have a spectacular showcase of Catalan glories.
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Text © Dana Facaros & Michael Pauls
Images by BTV, Canaan, Ildefons Cerdà i Sunyer, Julia.bosque.01, SergiL assumed (based on copyright claims)., THe Vanguard