Plaça Reial

Plaça Reial is definitely one of Barcelona’s most attractive squares and, just a step away from Las Ramblas, it’s easy to understand its popularity – a favourite place for many to sit and watch the world go by.

Laid out originally in 1845, it was designed by Francesc Daniel Molina to occupy the site of a Capuchin convent that had been demolished ten years previously. Molina wanted to design a square in keeping with the architectural style of the nearby buildings, especially the Liceu Theatre, resulting in this beautiful palm-tree lined plaza. Before the redevelopment of the city prior to the 1992 Olympics, the square was notorious as a place of crime, drugs and poverty but now it is recognised as being an elegant, neo-classical masterpiece.

A popular meeting place, the Plaça Reial has some delightfully relaxing open air terrace cafes under the porticos of the perimeter buildings. It is also home of the famous Jamboree Jazz Club, where Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker are amongst the jazz icons to have performed, and Les Quinze Nits, one of the city’s favourite restaurants.

Originally, it was intended that there should be a monument commemorating Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Kings, in the centre of the square – hence its royal name. Instead, at the end of the nineteenth century, the Fountain of the Three Graces was brought from France and this delightfully remains today. Nearby are the two famous street lamps in the shape of trees designed by Gaudí when he was a developing architect – still unmistakably his work.

By day and night, Plaça Reial is a lively, bustling place, full of locals and tourists alike. If you’re walking along Las Ramblas, don’t miss the entrance to this delightful closed square- it’s the perfect place to sit awhile and see a perfect microcosm of life in the city.

Plaça Reial is nearly opposite the Liceu Theatre on Las Ramblas; you enter through a small arcaded passageway. On your left if you are walking from Plaça Catalunya, it is more or less halfway between the Metro stations at Drassanes to the south and Liceu to the north (both Green Line, 3).

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