Public art in Barcelona is a designated group of monuments and outdoor sculptures in the city. The artworks in city's architecture and network of museums, parks, and gardens, put an artistic stamp on the Catalan capital. Public art in the city developed in the 19th century, although the first municipal commission was the 1673 monument to Saint Eulalia in Pedró Square.
Artworks are typically located in niches and on the façades of public buildings. They are concentrated because of the city's enclosure by medieval defensive walls. The walls were demolished in the 19th century, sparking a boom in public works such as Ildefons Cerdà's Eixample project.
The city annexed several municipalities in the early 20th century, increasing the space available for public art. Some were commissioned for particular events such as the 1888 and 1929 Expositions, the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures.
Overview
Public art in Barcelona is regulated by the city council and protected by Law 9/1993 of Catalan Cultural Heritage, which guarantees the protection, conservation and research of cultural heritage at several levels.
Urban planning includes architecture, engineering, gardening, industrial arts and sculpture. Urbanism relates to politics, economics, history, geography and sociology.
Monuments are generally located in parks and gardens, squares and intersections, or near public buildings. There are several types; until the 19th century the most common were the column, the triumphal arch and the equestrian statue, three types of monuments inherited from Roman art. Later monuments were busts placed in niches, medallions, fountains, steles and pedestals, friezes, reliefs, commemorative plaques, gravestones, followed by installations, land art and multidisciplinary works. Commonly-used materials include wood, plaster, terracotta and other ceramics, stone, marble, bronze, iron, steel, concrete and aluminium.
Themes include homage to a character or event: religious, mythological, symbolic, allegorical, historical, political, military, scientific or artistic. Public artworks commemorate many aspects of the history of Barcelona.
History
Middle Ages
Barcelona's first public artworks were created during the Middle Ages, when the city was part of the Crown of Aragon and an important commercial Mediterranean port. The 13th-century Council of One Hundred was one of Barcelona's first public institutions. The city was growing beyond its core – the present-day Gothic Quarter. The El Raval neighbourhood was developed during the 14th century when Barcelona's population was about 25,000.
At that time the city had fountains, and the Gothic city hall had sculptures in front dating to about 1400. In front stands a stone statue of the archangel Raphael. At either side were statues of St. Severus (bishop of Barcelona) and Saint Eulalia of Barcelona.
Early modern era
During the Renaissance, Barcelona became part of the kingdom of Spain that emerged from the union of Castile and Aragon. It was a period of economic and cultural decline, marked by social conflicts and fighting in the Reapers' War and the War of the Spanish Succession). Barcelona was still a walled city of almost 100,000 then, with its only expansion to the coastal district of La Barceloneta. Its architecture featured Renaissance and Baroque palaces and churches.
Barcelona's artworks were primarily fountains and statues in public buildings until the end of the seventeenth century, when a monument to Saint Eulalia was erected. A cross on a Solomonic column by Bernat Vilar in the courtyard of the Hospital of the Holy Cross was destroyed in 1691 and rebuilt in 1939. In the same courtyard are statues of Saint Roch and Caridad dating to the late 1630s. In the courtyard of the hospital's convalescent home is a 1679 statue of Saint Paul by , and on Calle del Carmen a statue of Paul from 1668 by Dominic Rovira.
Other works were commissioned by guilds; St. John the Baptist (1628), in the Square of Assaonadors Marcús, was sponsored by the tanners' guild and rebuilt in 1958 by . A 1763 statue of Our Lady of the Angels is on Via Laietana.