Plaça de la Virreina: The Vicereine's Square
Why is it significant?
You are in one of the prettiest squares in Gràcia: paving stones and trees, the church of Sant Joan closing one side, café tables spilling out under the branches and children chasing pigeons between them. Its name, the Vicereine, carries one of Barcelona's great romantic tales.
Key Facts
| Place | Plaça de la Virreina: The Vicereine's Square |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaça de la Virreina, 08024 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.40490, 2.15720 |
| Part of Walk | Gràcia, the Village Inside Barcelona: Squares, Rebels and Gaudí's First House |
| Generated | Generated |
You are in one of the prettiest squares in Gràcia: paving stones and trees, the church of Sant Joan closing one side, café tables spilling out under the branches and children chasing pigeons between them.
Its name, the Vicereine, carries one of Barcelona's great romantic tales. Manuel d'Amat i de Junyent was a Catalan aristocrat who served as viceroy of Peru in the eighteenth century. In Lima he was known for his building projects... and for his affair with a celebrated actress nicknamed La Perricholi, a scandal that later inspired a play by Prosper Mérimée and an operetta by Offenbach.
Back in Barcelona, already an old man, Amat was to see his nephew married to a young noblewoman, Maria Francesca de Fiveller. The story goes that when the nephew failed to turn up, the old viceroy married the bride himself. Whether or not it happened quite like that, they did marry, and he built the Palau de la Virreina on La Rambla. He died only a few years later, and she became known simply as la Virreina, the Vicereine, the name that clings to that palace and to this square.
Look around at the houses: three or four storeys, narrow fronts, iron balconies. Many were built for artisans, shopkeepers and textile workers in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Gràcia became one of the most populous towns in Spain, full of small workshops, cooperatives, workers' clubs and choirs. That mix of craftsmen and idealists explains a great deal about the neighbourhood's character: independent, a little rebellious, fiercely attached to its streets.
Sit for a while if you can. This is a square where the whole neighbourhood seems to pass by in an hour. Then leave from the lower end and walk a couple of minutes west to Plaça del Diamant, the most famous square in Catalan literature.