Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes
Centuries-old flea market crowned by a golden mirrored canopy over a buried highway roundabout.
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About this audio guide
This guide to Placa de les Glories Catalanes in Barcelona begins with Els Encants, a secondhand market trading on this ground since the 1300s, and Ildefons Cerda's 19th-century dream of a grand civic square that never got built. Instead three highways collided here, looping traffic over the market for decades while the traders kept haggling in the overpass's shadow. Look up as you stand in the square and picture the elevated roundabout that once hung overhead.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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