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, 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, under the name 22@. 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.
History
Plaça de les Glòries, which was then well outside the city, was originally featured in the mid-19th-century Cerdà plan for Barcelona, intended as a large public square in a new city centre, but it remained sparsely developed, turning into one of Barcelona's major road and railway junctions. Eventually the railways were closed or went underground, and around 1990 the road junction was reshaped into the current large elevated roundabout with a park at its centre, with pedestrian access beneath the roads. In March 2016, ongoing excavations as part of the area's redevelopment uncovered extensive remains of el Rec Comtal, an important aqueduct possibly dating back to Roman times, which until the mid-20th century brought water from the Besòs river to the city.
Current uses
Large portions of the square 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, a secondary school, and the Torre Agbar. The square also serves as the venue for one of the city's most renowned traditional open-air marketplaces, Els Encants Vells.
Els Encants
Since 1928, Glòries has been the location of one of Europe's oldest open-air flea markets, known as els Encants Vells or Fira de Bellcaire, which is said to date back to the 14th century, and operates four days a week. The market was formerly housed on an area of land at the north-western side of the square, but as part of the redevelopment of the area a new development has been built at a site at the south-western end of the square, consisting of a multi-level construction to provide covered walkways, modern facilities for the traders, and parking for customers.
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, a public clinic, a sports centre as well as a museum of design. Integration with other buildings already completed in the area 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.
