Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia: The Bell That Rang Against the Army
Why is it significant?
Walk into the square and the first thing you see is a tall, slender bell tower standing alone in the middle, like a stone exclamation mark. Behind it is the old town hall of Gràcia, with its balconies and the town's coat of arms above the door.
Key Facts
| Place | Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia: The Bell That Rang Against the Army |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia, 08012 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.40010, 2.15770 |
| Part of Walk | Gràcia, the Village Inside Barcelona: Squares, Rebels and Gaudí's First House |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk into the square and the first thing you see is a tall, slender bell tower standing alone in the middle, like a stone exclamation mark. Behind it is the old town hall of Gràcia, with its balconies and the town's coat of arms above the door.
The tower was designed by Antoni Rovira i Trias, the very architect whose plan for the Eixample was overruled in favour of Cerdà's, and it was built in the early 1860s. It gave the town a clock everyone could see and a bell everyone could hear. Within a few years, that bell would make history.
In April 1870, Gràcia rose against the quintes, the military draft that sent poor young men off to Spain's wars while richer families could pay for a substitute. Women were at the front of the protests. Barricades went up, and the army surrounded the town and shelled it for several days. Throughout the siege, the story goes, the bell in this tower kept ringing, calling the neighbours to resist. When the troops finally marched in, the revolt was crushed... but the memory of those days was not.
The bell became a legend. A satirical weekly founded that same year took the name La Campana de Gràcia, the Bell of Gràcia, and for more than six decades it mocked generals, bishops and politicians with fierce cartoons. The tower survived the shelling, and so did its reputation as the voice of a stubborn town.
The town hall behind it, finished in 1905, is another work by Francesc Berenguer, completed only eight years after Gràcia lost its independence. For over a century this square carried the name of a Barcelona mayor, Rius i Taulet; in 2009 it got back a name that says what it really is, the town square of Gràcia. Now walk a short way north, through the lanes, to Plaça del Sol.