Plaça dels Països Catalans is a square in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

(the capital of

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) on one side of the city's central railway station, Estació de Sants, in the district of

Sants-Montjuïc Sants-Montjuïc () is one of the ten districts into which Barcelona has been split since 1984, numbered District 3. Comprising very different areas of the city, it covers the southern part of Barcelona, joining the two former districts ''II'' (made ...

. It borders Carrer de Tarragona, Carrer de Numància and Avinguda Roma. It was so named in 1989 after the

Catalan Countries The Catalan Countries (, ) refers to the territories where the Catalan language is spoken. They include the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencian Community, and parts of Aragon ('' La Franja'') and Murcia ( Carche), as ...

. The square was inaugurated in its current form in 1983, built over the station

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for k ...

, and it is notable for its lack of vegetation. Architects Helio Piñon and Albert Vilaplana were awarded that year's FAD Prize by the Foment de les Arts i el Disseny. The central part of the square features two

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

roofs sustained by a number of tall supporting columns. Architecturally it is dominated by the station and the high-rise Torre Catalunya with its trademark

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

spire. Barcelona's main prison, La Model, is at a short distance and its panoptikon dome be seen from it. The square is popular with skaters, and demonstrators have often gathered there, most infamously by ultra

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

groups during the 1990s and early 2000s. Under the name ''The destruction of the Plaça dels Països Catalans '' an exhibition took place at the Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya in 2011 documenting the effects of

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban decay. ...

in the area in stark contrast with the architects' original concept and intentions.Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya blog
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Transport

Estació de Sants is Barcelona's main transport hub with train, bus and coach urban, regional and long-distance connections. Most of

Rodalies Barcelona Rodalies de Catalunya (; "Commuter Railways of Catalonia") is the main Commuter rail, commuter and regional rail system in the Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. It is administered by the Generalitat de Catalunya, Government of C ...

commuter lines stop at the station. It is also served by

Barcelona Metro The Barcelona Metro (Catalan language, Catalan and Spanish language, Spanish: ) is a rapid transit network that runs mostly underground in central Barcelona and into the city's suburbs. It is part of the larger public transport system ...

lines L3 and L5.

References

External links

Photography blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Placa dels Paisos Catalans, Barcelona Plazas in Barcelona Sants-Montjuïc