More than twenty-five years after it was first projected, Barcelona has this Friday set a calendar and resources to move forward with one of the most important pending pieces of the transformation of Plaça de les Glòries. The mayor, Jaume Collboni, and the special delegate of the State to the Consorci de la Zona Franca, Pere Navarro, have signed a protocol that sets a date for the public tower that had been planned next to the Torre Glòries, just on the other side of Diagonal. A tower that will finally not have the 100 meters of height that were initially planned.

As the residents said, there's still a lot to do, certainly. But the new Plaça de les Glòries has finally been inaugurated. This is great news, because it had been under construction for so many years, its future was under discussion for so many years, this central hub of Barcelona was underused by the public for so many years that it seemed we'd never see it again. Now, this spring, what can now be considered Barcelona's new central park will be put to the test, and it's time for tweaks, criticism, and also praise. What is certain is that people will use it intensively, because if there's one thing lacking in the Catalan capital, it's parks and recreational spaces. There's a lack of greenery throughout the city, and the Ciutadella is already stretched thin. Therefore, although there's still a lot of vegetation to grow in Plaça de les Glòries, and this may frustrate expectations somewhat, there's no doubt that it's a space large enough and varied enough to facilitate the enjoyment of the public.

After nearly twenty years of construction, Barcelona closed the scar of Glòries this Saturday. Two decades and €640 million later, a major civic celebration welcomed what is now one of the city's main green spaces. A transformation that began in 2003, with which the Catalan capital aims to leave behind the times when this space—the only point where the city's three main avenues intersect and which was once a headache for Ildefons Cerdà—seemed cursed.