Discovering the Public Art on Barcelona’s Waterfront (walking itinerary & map)

The Wounded Star by Rebecca Horn

Barcelona is renowned for its public art, and the city’s many parks and plazas are replete with monuments ranging from traditional statues paying homage to people and events of the past to intriguing contemporary pieces by international and local artists. But it’s not just the parks and plazas which are full of art. Wherever you…

Roman Scales by Jannis Kounellis

Roman Scales by Jannis Kounellis

One of a series of eight sculptures which were installed in public spaces in the run-up to the Barcelona Olympics of 1992, Roman Balance, or Balança romana in Catalan, by Greek artist Jannis Kounellis is a reminder of Barcelona’s seafaring and industrial heritage. The statue consists of seven large cast iron balance pans, each loaded…

From Orwell to ‘Tripi’: The History of Barcelona’s Plaça de George Orwell

Plaça de George Orwell

Tucked away in the labyrinthine heart of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, Plaça de George Orwell was created in 1989, when an entire block of housing was torn down. The creation of this, and other similar plazas, was conceived as a way of opening up the Gothic Quarter and presumably went hand in hand with the generalized…

Monument to Lluís Companys (Statue of a girl with a handkerchief)

Monument to Lluís Companys, Barcelona

Born in Tarrós in 1882, Lluis Companys was one of the founding members of the Catalan political party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and served as president of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1934 until he was executed in 1940. The first part of the twentieth century was a time of political unrest and upheaval in…

Monument to Santiago Roldán (The Ass Monument)

Monument to Santiago Roldán (the arse monument)

Barcelona is well known for its public art. Wherever you go in the city, you will see statues and monuments decorating plazas, parks and other public spaces. Designs range from classically styled monuments and busts to more unusual, modern and even surreal creations. One of Barcelona’s most unusual and quirky statues is the Monument to…

Monument to Simón Bolívar

Monument to Simón Bolívar by Julio Maragall

Sometimes referred to as the George Washington of South America, Simón Bolivar was a Venezuelan soldier and politician who fought to liberate Venezuela, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Bolivia from Spanish rule. The bronze statue of Simón Bolívar by Julio Maragall, which stands near the seafront in Barcelona, is replica of a similar monument in…

Júlia, the Life-Sized Concrete Mammoth Statue in the Parc de la Ciutadella

Júlia the mammoth

The Parc de la Ciutadella is Barcelona’s oldest and most central public park. Located on the edge of the old town, the park dates back to 1869 when the eighteenth-century citadel, which had previously occupied the site, was handed over to the city council. Home to Barcelona Zoo, the Catalan Houses of Parliament, a small…

Hercules Fountains & The Origins Of Barcelona

Statue of Hercules (Heracles) on Passeig de Sant Juan, Barcelona

According to legend, Barcelona was founded by the Greek God Heracles, who, together with his brother Hermes, accompanied Jason and the Argonauts, searching for the Golden Fleece. The brothers set sail with a fleet of nine ships, one of which was lost in a storm somewhere in the Mediterranean. After days of searching for the…

Monument to Francesc Layret

Monument to Francesc Lairet

Located in Plaça Goya, in Barcelona’s Sant Antoni neighbourhood, Monument a Francesc Layret pays homage to a left-wing republican lawyer who was assassinated in 1920. The monument’s centrepiece is a bronze statue of a young woman holding a flaming torch which symbolizes the struggle for liberty. Behind her, at a slightly lower level, three stone…

Monument To The Catalan Volunteers

Monument to the Catalan volunteers

Monument to the Catalan volunteers (Monument als Voluntaris Catalans) is a bronze statue by Catalan artist Josep Clarà located near the boating lake in the Parc de la Ciutadella. The statue is a memorial to the approximately 900 Catalans who fought with the allied forces during World War One, many of whom had enlisted as…

Monument to General Prim

Statue of Joan Prim i Prats, Barcelona

Barcelona’s best-known park, El Parc de la Ciutadella, takes its name from the fortress which once occupied the site. Built immediately after the War of the Spanish Succession to dominate the fallen city, the citadel became a symbol of oppression that was hated by the people of Barcelona. In 1869 the government of General Joan…

Plaça de Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer

Plaça de Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer

Plaça de Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer is basically just a large and fairly busy roundabout in the l’Eixample district of Barcelona. The plaza would probably go unnoticed if it wasn’t for the twenty-metre high monument which stands in the middle and the giant neon owl that stares down from the roof of a nearby building. Monument…

Desolation by Josep Llimona

Desolation by Josep Llimona

Desolation (Catalan: Desconsol) is one of the best known and most evocative statues by Catalan sculptor Josep Llimona i Brugera. Born in Barcelona in 1863, Josep Llimona is widely considered to be the most influential sculptor of the Catalan Modernism artistic movement. His earliest commissions were mostly monuments and funerary statues. In fact, Desolation is…

Statue of Little Red Riding Hood

Statue of Little Red Riding Hood

Who isn’t familiar with the story of Little Red Riding Hood? The tale of a young girl and her grandmother who are saved from a fierce wolf by a burly woodcutter. The Little Red Riding Hood fountain in Barcelona portrays a smiling Red Riding Hood casually stroking a friendly-looking wolf. Presumably, inspired in the girl’s…

Homage to Picasso by Antoni Tàpies

Homage to Picasso by Antoni Tàpies

Homage to Picasso is a large abstract sculpture that was commissioned by Barcelona city council in 1981 to celebrate the centenary of the artist’s birth. Created by Antoni Tapies, the sculpture consists of a collection of Art Nouveau furniture traversed by iron beams and tied together by rope. One side of the pile of furniture…

Monument to Anselm Clavé

Monument to Anselm Clavé

Josep Anselm Clavé was a musician, composer, writer and political activist. A committed socialist and founder of choral societies aimed at working-class people, Clavé played an important role in the development of popular Catalan culture during the nineteenth century. Monument to Josep Anselm Clavé Inaugurated in 1888, the monument consists of a bronze statue by…

MALIP: Monument to Lost Dreams

Malip - Monument to lost illusions

The Monument to Lost Dreams (Catalan: El Monument a les Il·lusions Perdudes) is a sleek, abstract sculpture by cartoonist and multidisciplinary artist Toni Batllori. Installed in Poblenou in 2015, the pale granite statue was created as part of a fundraising drive for Clowns Without Frontiers (Payasos Sin Fronteras) a registered charity that sends clowns to…

Monument to Frederic Soler

Statue of Frederic Soler

Better known by his pen name Serafí Pitarra, Frederic Soler was a Catalan playwright who wrote over a hundred plays as well as several books of poetry. The white marble monument which was erected in his memory stands directly opposite Barcelona’s oldest theatre, Teatre Principal. Biography of Frederic Soler Frederic Soler i Hubert was born…

Carmela by Jaume Plensa

Carmela by Jaume Plensa

Carmela is one of four sculptures by Jaume Plensa which were exhibited at the Palau de la Musica Catalana in 2016. The statue was such a hit with the neighbours that they started a petition on change.org asking the organizers and Barcelona city council to keep it there indefinitely. Carmela Sculpture Carmela was created from…

Fountain of Diana

Statue of Diana the Huntress

Located on the intersection of Gran Via and Roger de Lluria, the Fountain of Diana is a six and a half metre tall marble fountain topped by a statue of the Roman goddess Diana the huntress. The Renaissance styled Fountain by Venancio Vallmitjana was commissioned by Barcelona city council in 1913. Apparently, the young goddess…

Monument to Santiago Rusiñol

Monument to Santiago Rusiñol

Santiago Rusiñol was a key figure in Catalan Modernism, an artistic movement encompassing art, architecture, design and literature. Born in Barcelona in 1861, he was the son of a wealthy family which owned a textile manufacturing company founded by his grandfather Jaume Rüsiñol. As a teenager, Rusiñol started sketching and painting in his free time…

Monument to Narcís Monturiol : Inventor of the Steam Powered Submarine

Monument to Narcís Monturiol

Located on Avinguda Diagonal, this four and a half metre concrete and bronze monument to inventor and political activist Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol was inaugurated in 1963. Created by Josep Maria Subirachs, the monument includes a replica of Monturiol’s most famous invention, the steam-powered submarine Ictíneo II, first launched in the Port of Barcelona in…

A Thoughtful Bull and a Very Flirtatious Giraffe (Statues)

Flirty Giraffe by Josep Granyer

The streets of Barcelona are often likened to an open-air museum or art gallery. From the famous Art Nouveau architecture to monuments, sculptures and street art, there’s something to catch your eye at every turn. Two of the most unusual statues are Thinking Bull (Brau Pensador) and Flirty Giraffe (Girafa Coqueta) which are located at…

The Wounded Star Sculpture by Rebecca Horn (L’Estel Ferit)

The Wounded Star by Rebecca Horn

The Wounded Star (Catalan: L’Estel Ferit) by Rebecca Horn is one of several contemporary sculptures that were installed on Barcelona’s waterfront in preparation for the 1992 Olympics. The rusty iron tower is a homage to the rundown chiringuitos (beach bars) and seafood stalls that stood here before the area was refurbished and gentrified in the…

Barcelona Balconies by Cité Création

Balcons de Barcelona mural by Cité de la Création

Balcons de Barcelona (Barcelona Balconies) is a large scale Trompe l’oil style mural painted on the southwest elevation of an apartment building in the l’Eixample neighbourhood, near the Sagrada Familia. Part of a campaign called Barcelona posa’t guapa (Barcelona get pretty) the mural was painted in 1992 in the run-up to the Olympic games. Despite…

Statue of Marià Fortuny

Monument dedicated to Marià Fortuny

Marià Fortuny i Marsal was a renowned 19th Century Catalan painter whose best-known works are on display in the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) and the Prado Museum in Madrid. Born in Reus in 1838, Fortuny studied art at the la LLotja art school in Barcelona before moving to Rome to continue his studies.…

Keith Haring’s Mural: Todos Juntos Podemos Parar el SIDA

Together we can stop AIDS by Keith Haring

One of Barcelona’s best-known pieces of public art is a 30m long blood-red mural intended to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. The mural was painted in 1989 by American artist Keith Haring, who was diagnosed HIV positive three years earlier. Famous for his graffiti-inspired artwork on the New York Metro, Haring was invited to…