Tucked away in the Jardins de Salvador Espriu, at one end of Passeig de Gràcia, stands this white marble statue of two nudes, which was created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Catalan poet Joan Maragall. The Noucentista-style sculpture titled L’Empordà was unveiled in 1961 and is the work of Ernest Maragall,…
Category: Public Art
Pink Barcino by Lluís Lleó
Pink Barcino is a three-metre-high stone monolith commemorating the 200th anniversary of Passeig de Gràcia, Barcelona’s most elegant and exclusive boulevard. The statue, which stands at the intersection with Avinguda Diagonal, was created by Barcelona-born artist Lluís Lleo and is estimated to weigh eight tons. Lleó designed the statue to pay homage to Barcelona’s Roman…
The Thinker of Poblenou
Tucked away in a narrow backstreet in Barcelona’s El Poblenou neighbourhood stands a mysterious, almost life-sized polystyrene replica of Auguste Rodin’s masterpiece, The Thinker. There’s not much information available online about the statue which appears to have been created by a company that built theatrical props, scenery, and backdrops and used to have a workshop…
Els Mistos: The Matches Sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Els Mistos is a twenty-two-metre steel statue of a book of matches, which was inaugurated in 1992 in the Vall d’Hebron neighbourhood of Barcelona. The monument, which was created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, depicts an open book of matches, one of which is burning with a blue flame. Some of the giant…
Discovering the Public Art on Barcelona’s Waterfront (walking itinerary & map)
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
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
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…
The Twenty-Metre Tall Granite Obelisk in Plaça Cinc d’Ors
If you keep walking along Passseig de Gràcia, past La Pedrera, towards the Vila de Gràcia, you’ll come to a large and rather chaotic intersection called Plaça Cinc d’Ors. The plaza, which is really just an overgrown roundabout, takes its name from one of the cards in a pack of Spanish playing cards; the Cinc…
Monument to Lluís Companys (Statue of a girl with a handkerchief)
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)
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…
Steel Pergolas on Avinguda d’Icària (Poblenou)
When Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games in 1992, they needed an area within the city to build an Olympic Village to house the approximately 10,000 athletes who took part in the games. Barcelona sits between the hills of Collserola on one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other. The only area with enough space…
Monument to Simón Bolívar
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
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
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
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 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
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 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 (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
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…
Neptune’s Fountain: History and Symbolism
Neptune is one of the best known Roman gods and there are fountains dedicated to him in numerous European cities including Rome, Florence, Madrid and Berlin. Neptune’s fountain in Barcelona was inaugurated in 1882. Originally located in the Port Vell harbour, in 1912 the fountain was moved to the Laribal Gardens on Montjuïc where it…
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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)
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…