132 / 344
126
been no more than a swirling traffic roundabout, though current plans put
Glòries at the heart of the city’s latest wave of regeneration. By 2012, the
roundabout traffic is to be tunnelled underground, thus opening up a grand
pedestrianized park which will contain a cultural and design centre to house
the city’s municipal museum collections.
Glòries is already positioned as a gateway to the Diagonal Mar district, with
trams running down Avinguda Diagonal to the Diagonal Mar shopping centre
and Fòrum site. Meanwhile, the signature building on the roundabout is French
architect Jean Nouvel’s cigar-shaped
Torre Agbar
(142m), the headquarters of
the local water company, which is a highly distinctive aluminium-and-glass
tower with no less than 4000 windows, its shape inspired by the rocky protuber-
ances of Montserrat. A huge shopping mall lies across the Diagonal from here,
while further across the GranVia the park and play areas of
Parc del Clot
show
what can be done in an urban setting within the remains of a razed factory site.
Meanwhile, Jean Nouvel also designed the new
Parc del Centre del Poble
Nou
further down the Diagonal, an eye-catching contemporary park of giant
ferns, herb gardens, green spaces, sculptures and play areas set between carrers
Bilbao, Bac de Roda and Marroc.
On the north side of Glòries, on c/Dos de Maig, the open-air
Els Encants
(Mon,Wed, Fri & Sat 9am–6pm, plus Dec 1–Jan 5 Sun 9am–3pm;
o
Encants/
Glòries) is an absolute must for flea market addicts. It takes up the entire block
below c/Consell de Cent, and you name it, you can buy it: old sewing machines,
cheese graters, photograph albums, cutlery, lawnmowers, clothes, shoes, CDs,
antiques, furniture and out-and-out junk. Go in the morning to see it at its best
– haggling is de rigueur, but you’re up against experts.
Teatre Nacional de Catalunya
Off to the southwest of Glòries, the
Teatre Nacional de Catalunya
(
o
Glòries) makes another dramatic statement. Catalunya´s national theatre,
designed by local architect Ricardo Bofill, presents the neighbourhood with a
soaring glass box encased within a Greek temple on a raised dais, surrounded
by manicured lawns.There are guided building and backstage
tours
for anyone
interested in learning more (currently Tues & Thurs; €3; reservations required;
see website for details,
W
www.tnc.cat).
L’Auditori and the Museu de la Música
Set a block over from the national theatre, and forming a sort of cultural enclave,
L’Auditori
is the city’s contemporary city concert hall, built in 1999. Housed
within it, on the c/Padilla side, is the
Museu de la Música
(Mon &Wed–Fri
11am–9pm, Sat, Sun & hols 10am–7pm; €4, free first Sun of month;
T
932 563
650,
W
www.museumusica.bcn.cat;
o
Glòries/Marina),which displays a remark-
able collection of instruments and musical devices, from seventeenth-century
serpent horns to reel-to-reel cassette decks. It’s all very impressive, with soaring
glass-walled cases letting you view the pieces from all sides, and yet it struggles
to engage, partly because of the sheer number and variety of instruments and
partly because of the impenetrable commentary, with sections called things like
“The humanist spirit and the predominance of polyphony”. Make of that what
you will, or the chronological “timeline” that runs from Pythagoras in the fifth
century BC to 2007 when “the Rolling Stones continue to play”. Still, there’s
a bit of big-screen Elvis here and African drumming there, and if you ever
wanted to pluck at a harp without anyone shouting at you, this is the place.
THE EIXAMPLE
|
Sagrada Família and Glòries