Plaça de les Glòries, which brings together the three widest and longest avenues in the city (Diagonal, Gran Via and Meridiana) near the old centre of the city, its ‘Avenue’, next to the National Theatre, Glòries junction, the opening of the Diagonal on to the sea, District 22 and the Forum area. Plaça de les Glòries is in the middle of a huge (traffic) transformation process. Besides taking care of better transport at this central point in the city, they have also created a new park there, with basketball courts, a look-out tower and a dog park. Today, this article by ShBarcelona focuses on an area in the city that changes almost every week. Go check it out!
Related article: The 10 Districts that Make Up Barcelona
Photo by Marc G.C. via Visualhunt
In the same musical complex, there are the centres of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and the Museu de la Música. This makes the Auditori a focus of musical life in the city in the different fields of divulgation, teaching and research. Most often shortened to Glòries, is a large square in Barcelona, first designed by Ildefons Cerdà to serve as the city centre in his original urban plan (Pla Cerdà), but nowadays relegated to quite a secondary position. It is located in the Sant Martí district, bordering Eixample, at the junction of three of the city’s most important thoroughfares: Avinguda Diagonal, Avinguda Meridiana and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. There used to be a roundabout of elevated highways here. However, beginning in the early 2000s, and as of 2007, revamping project for Glòries has started and we are still right in the middle of the process. Its aim is to give the square a new role in Barcelona and revitalize the northern districts of the city, under the name 22@. These plans supplement other large-scale plans in Sagrera and the Fòrum area. The first installment of this project was the construction of the controversial Torre Agbar skyscraper.
Related article: What is Barcelona’s 22@ District of Innovation?
Photo via Visualhunt
Resembling nothing of what it was intended to be, most of the current Glòries was built in the 1960s, with further additions in the 1990s, as well as some adaptations for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Large portions of the square are occupied by parking lots and its central area is surrounded by concrete walls, part of the not very aesthetic elevated highways. The rest of the square hosts a shopping centre (the Centre Comercial Glòries), a secondary school (IES Salvador Espriu), and the Torre Agbar. The square also serves as the venue for one of the city’s most renowned traditional open-air marketplaces, Els Encants Vells.
What do you think of the area of 22@, Fòrum and Plaça de les Glòries?
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