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.

Shadows are greatly sought after in the Clariana de Glòries, a public garden snatched away from vehicles and smoke, thanks to the demolition of the horrible spaghetti junction and the construction of a new tunnel. Shortly before noon, Barcelonians – and especially tourists – have taken over the shade under the trees, seeking shelter from the sun.

The tunnel in Plaça de Les Glòries opened early this morning and now allows vehicles to leave the city more quickly. The work had already been finished for days and had passed all the safety tests, including one that had not been foreseen, the heavy rains that fell a week ago. All that remained to be done was to repaint the stripes on the ground to guide drivers who wanted to leave the city and make them enter the new tunnel. The workers worked through the night and just before 3 a.m. it was possible to open one lane. At 5.20 a.m. they opened the entire tunnel, which consists of two lanes for private vehicles and one for buses. At 7 a.m. 1,300 vehicles had already used the new infrastructure, according to Manuel Valdés, Barcelona's manager of Mobility and Infrastructures.