Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, Barcelona

Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, 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. Currently it serves largely as a roundabout of elevated highways. However, beginning in the early 2000s, and as of 2007, revamping project for Glòries has started, which is aimed to give the square a new role in Barcelona and revitalize the northern districts of the city. 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.

The square nowadays

Resembling nothing of what it was intended to be, most of what Glòries looks like nowadays was built in the 1960s, with further additions in the 1990s, and during the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Large portions of it 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 - Centre Comercial Glòries - the secondary school IES Salvador Espriu, and the Torre Agbar. The square also serves as the vanue for one of the city's most renowned traditional open-air marketplaces, Els Encants Vells.

The project

Glòries and its immediate area is planned to become a park with a multitude of services including a public library, a major underground train station (served by RENFE and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya), a public clinic, a sports centre as well as a museum of design. Integration with other buildings already completed in the area (Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, L'Auditori and Mercat dels Encants) is a key component of proposed redevelopment.

Furthermore, the three major thoroughfares that cross Glòries partially laid underground to make room for open green space. "Els Encants" will be moved to a new location in the square.

Buildings and structures

Completed

*Torre Agbar by Jean Nouvel
*La Farinera del Clot, a cultural centre. The building, a former factory, was recently rebuilt.

In progress

*Complex de Cinemes-Plaça de les Arts, by Zaha Hadid
*Edifici Ona, and administrative building for the city council.
*Centre del Disseny

Transportation

Metro

*Glòries (L1)

Tram

*Glòries (Trambesòs routes T4 and T5).
*La Farinera (Trambesòs route T5)

Bus

*Line 7 Diagonal Mar - Zona Universitària
*Line 56 Collblanc - Besòs/Verneda
*Line 60 Pl. Glòries - Zona Universitària
*Line 92 Pg. Marítim - Gràcia
*Line B21 Barcelona (Rda. St. Pere) - Sta. Coloma (Av. Ramon Berenguer IV)
*Line 192 Hospital de Sant Pau - Poblenou

Nit Bus

*N0 Pl. Portal de la Pau - Pl. Portal de la Pau
*N2 Hospitalet (Av. Carrilet) - Badalona (Via Augusta)
*N7 Pl. Pedralbes - Pl. Llevant (Fòrum)

Bicing

*Avinguda Diagonal

Transport projects

A new large station joining the different rail systems of Barcelona has been proposed, but is still under consideration [http://w3.bcn.es/fitxers/home/noticies/esquemaglories.878.pdf] .
*A controversial FGC rail and metro station planned by the Barcelona city council but still not approved by Generalitat de Catalunya.
*A Renfe train station which will probably replace Arc de Triomf train station. It will be served by R1, R3 and R4 Rodalies lines.
*A disputed extension into Avinguda Diagonal of Trambesòs. Convergència i Unió approved the project but Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya deemed it too expensive [ [http://masnovi.bloc.cat/post/3764/61675 Bloc de n'Isaac Garcia ] ] .

Culture

*Centre Cultural la Farinera del Clot, a theatre.
*Versus Teatre

Events

*Barcelona Visual Sound, a multimedia festival held in February in different parts of the city, hosts in Glòries its most important acts.

Hotels

*Hotel Diagonal Barcelona
*Hotel Glories, Padilla 173 - 08013 Barcelona

ee also

*Poblenou
*List of streets and squares in Eixample
*Glòries metro station

References

External links

* [http://www.glories.cat/ Glòries.cat]
* [http://w3.bcn.cat/fitxers/premsa/070312dossieraprovaciprovisionalglries.878.pdf Project dossier at Bcn.cat]
* [http://www.albaiges.com/ingenieria/condenadaplacaglories.htm An essay about the history of Glòries]
* [http://www.trenscat.com/tram/glories_ct.html Glòries tram station (with photos)]