Plaça del Diamant: Colometa's Square
Why is it significant?
At first sight Plaça del Diamant is an ordinary little square: a few trees, some benches, a row of balconies. Then you notice the bronze sculpture of a woman, and you realise that this ordinary square is one of the most famous places in Catalan literature.
Key Facts
| Place | Plaça del Diamant: Colometa's Square |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaça del Diamant, 08012 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.40410, 2.15590 |
| Part of Walk | Gràcia, the Village Inside Barcelona: Squares, Rebels and Gaudí's First House |
| Generated | Generated |
At first sight Plaça del Diamant is an ordinary little square: a few trees, some benches, a row of balconies. Then you notice the bronze sculpture of a woman, and you realise that this ordinary square is one of the most famous places in Catalan literature.
She is Colometa, the heroine of La plaça del Diamant, In Diamond Square, the novel Mercè Rodoreda published in 1962. It opens right here, at the Festa Major dance, when Natàlia, a shy young shop assistant, meets Quimet, a cocky carpenter who renames her Colometa, little dove, and later fills their flat with pigeons. Through her quiet voice we live the Republic, the Civil War and the hungry years that followed, all from the streets of Gràcia.
Rodoreda wrote it in exile, far from Barcelona, and it has become one of the most translated novels in Catalan. Gabriel García Márquez is said to have called it the most beautiful novel published in Spain since the Civil War. And near the end, Natàlia comes back to this square and lets out a scream that seems to carry everything she has endured, one of the most famous moments in the language.
Beneath your feet lies another memory of those years. During the Civil War, Barcelona was bombed from the air again and again, and neighbours dug shelters to protect themselves. Under this square they built an air-raid shelter, a network of tunnels that was forgotten after the war and rediscovered in 1992 during building works. It is a silent companion to the novel above it: the same war, seen from underground.
Stand here a moment and listen: a scooter, a child, a conversation from a balcony. Rodoreda's gift was to turn exactly this kind of ordinary life into literature. Now walk west along Carrer d'Astúries to the busy main street, Gran de Gràcia.