Onades (Waves) by Andreu Alfaro

If you arrived in Barcelona by ferry or cruise ship, you will already be familiar with the Onades (waves) sculpture by Andreu Alfaro Hernández.

Likewise, if you took a taxi from the airport to the city centre, depending on which area of the city you are staying in, there’s a good chance that you will have seen the sculpture just before you turned off the Ronda Litoral highway.

Photo of Andreu Alfaro's waves statue taken on a sunny day in February in Barcelona. You can see the Barcelona custom house, the Maritime Museum and an open top tour bus in the background.
Onades by Andreu Alfaro

Onades (Waves) by Andreu Alfaro

The 42 metres high Onades sculpture is made up of seven stainless steel arches, weighs 15 tons and was erected in the Plaça del Carbó plaza in 2003. The undulating abstract slender steel tubes evoke images of waves crashing and bubbling on Barcelona’s beaches.

To say that the sculpture dominates the plaza at the entrance to Barcelona’s cruise port and ferry terminal would be an understatement. It’s so large that 2 of the giant steel hoops actually cross over the roads leading to the World Trade Centre.

About the artist

Andreu Alfaro was born in Valencia in 1929. He was entirely self-taught and first exhibited his work in the Sala Mateu in Valencia in 1957. He is best known for his abstract steel and aluminium sculptures such as La Rella, Monument a l’amour and Catalan Power. Many of his best-known pieces can be seen in parks and plazas throughout Spain in cities such as Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid

Photo of the onates "waves" statue in Barcelona taken with a fisheye lense
The stainless steel Onades statue by Andreu Alfaro

How to get there

Several buses stop near the Onades statue, including the open-top Barcelona Bus Turístic and the T3 Portbus which runs from near the Columbus monument to the cruise ship terminals. The nearest metro stop is Drassanes on the green line (L3)

Other attractions nearby

Map

Plaça del Carbó, Barcelona

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