Plaça Reial (Royal Square)

Chapter 5/11 · Barcelona

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The Plaça Reial stands on the site of an old Capuchin convent dismantled after 1835. In 1848 the project by the architect Francesc Daniel Molina was chosen, and the square and its buildings were built between 1850 and 1859. It is a rectangular arcaded square in Neoclassical style, with Isabelline façades and palm trees.

It is named in honour of the Catholic Monarchs. A statue of Ferdinand the Catholic by the sculptor Josep Piquer was meant to stand in the centre, but the plaster model put up in 1856 was disliked and local people smashed it with stones. In the end the Fountain of the Three Graces, from the French foundry Durenne, was installed.

Look at the two six-armed lampposts: they are by Antoni Gaudí, from 1879, one of his first commissions after qualifying as an architect. Between 1982 and 1984 the architects Federico Correa and Alfons Milà removed the traffic and paved the square. On Sunday mornings there is a coin and stamp market.

We go out to Carrer de Ferran and follow it straight on to the Plaça de Sant Jaume.

← La Rambla and La Boqueria Market · Plaça de Sant Jaume: Generalitat and City Hall →