Plaça de George Orwell
Plaça de George Orwell opens a triangular space in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, bordered by Escudellers, N’Arai and Arenes. Granite paving, a gentle slope and sparse trees give the square a distinctly hard-plaza character. A large surrealist monument dominates the centre, while bars and restaurants connect the space with Plaça Reial and La Rambla.
The city created the square in the late 1980s by demolishing a residential block in densely built Ciutat Vella. Construction finished in the early 1990s, and Barcelona gave the space its present name in 1996, recalling George Orwell’s time in the city during the Spanish Civil War. The writer joined the POUM militia and later described Barcelona in Homage to Catalonia. In 2011, renovation removed the steps and public toilet, improved lighting and planting, and added a children’s play area.
Leandre Cristòfol’s white reinforced-concrete replica rises about eight metres above the paving. The original, made in 1935, stands only about eighty centimetres high in the National Art Museum of Catalonia.
- City
- Barcelona
- Content updated
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Barcelona. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.