I'm a Barcelona native who has seen the arrival of the Olympic Games, two popes, five Champions League titles, and three places in the Glòries. The first one I remember, right in the middle of thedevelopmentalism, you could drive over an overpass that served as a pre-motorway, connecting with the Meridiana, unless you continued along Gran Via and went down in front of the Olivetti. The square also had a pedestrian skywalk, which ended up being installed at the Fòrum, half-hidden behind the Palacio de Congresos. Then came the drumbeat of '92, when we thought people would come to Barcelona by car, leave their cars in the park-and-ride parking at the entrance, and take public transport to work. But 30 years later, the only deterrent remains the Cercanías (local trains). And now, in 2025, Mayor Collboni's City Council has inaugurated the square, promoted during Mayor Colau's time.
In the first two plazas, Glòries was a primarily motorized affair. The current one is pedestrian (and includes appendages like electric scooters and bicycles, in a highly contentious coexistence). The fact is that the square aims to rectify what the late Oriol Bohigas told us a few years ago in the ARA, that if it took us so long to find the Plaça de les Glòries what it is because it was "one of the most important mistakes of the Cerdà plan": the meeting of three avenues doesn't work. With the Gran Via buried, and Diagonal and Meridiana closed, the space is now truly a plaza and not a hub, nor a place to escape legs, help me, but a space where it's good to stroll, play, and recharge. The new Plaça de les Glòries is like the new green axes, which require a lot of municipal maintenance, police surveillance, and civic responsibility. It's the only way for the square to endure, and for them toboomersWe will not have to see, in the future, our fourth Plaza de les Glòries.
