Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes

About

Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, (Spanish: Plaza de las Glorias Catalanas; both meaning "Catalan Glories Square") 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.

For decades, its main purpose was to function as a roundabout of elevated highways. However, in the early 2000s, a revamping project for Glòries started, which 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 Torre Agbar skyscraper.