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Rovira square, one of the oldest squares in the old municipality of Gracia, is dedicated to a person who could have radically changed the appearance of the Barcelona we know today.
Located in the town of Gracia, annexed to Barcelona in 1897, Plaza Rovira, despite its attachment to the big city, has always preserved its village origins. It is not in vain that a large number of places persist in Gracia.
Rovira Square, despite the modifications suffered to modernize it to current times and having lost its old tram track, has preserved that primitive charm of the 20th century.
The square is dedicated to the figure of Antoni Rovira i Trias, born in 1816, in the town of Gracia itself. He was one of the architects who participated in the competition opened by the city council for the city’s Ensanche project.
In fact, Rovira i Trias was, in 1859, the winning architect of the competition organized by the city council to urbanize the city, but his proposal was not executed since the Spanish government, once studying all the options and despite being the winner of the competition, opted for the project presented by Ildefons Cerdà i Suñer.
Later, Rovira i Trías himself designed the square that bears his name, following the desire of the promoters and patrons who promoted its construction: Manuel Torrente Flores, Miguel Massens and Ramón Rabassa, who, in gratitude, had the city council dedicated a street that passed through the square.
Torrente de las Flores and Rabassa has a rectangular surface, transversely sectioned by Providencia Street. Currently, the two north and south side streets that were previously there have been removed and it is paved with stone up to the current facades, forming two pedestrian islands. It is part of the squares of the neighborhood that, in the network of narrow streets, has its own identity.
On one of the benches in the square, in recognition of the work he carried out in the neighborhood, the life-size bronze sculpture of Antoni Rovira i Trias is placed on a bench, with a friendly attitude and contemplating a plaque at his feet. with the plan of the architect’s most ambitious project that was never carried out.
For many years the square was the origin and end of several tram lines that connected the neighborhood with the city until, in 1981, they disappeared permanently, being replaced by trolleybuses and the current buses that run through the city.
The lines that ran in the square were lines 30, 37, 38 and 39, although those with a longer route and, therefore, more important, were lines 30 and 39, which, although at first they had a common route , then their final journey was made along very different paths.
Line 30 had been inaugurated on November 28, 1940, initially it ran only from Atarazanas, passing through Ramblas, Plaza Cataluña, Plaza Urquinaona, Lauria, Bailen to Travesera de Gracia. In 1941, it extended its route along the Torrente de las Flores to Plaza Rovira, thus replacing line 37, which ran from Plaza Cataluña-Plaza Rovira.
On January 31, 1965, its service ended, which was absorbed by line 39, which was created on March 20, 1944, going down Paseo de San Juan to the Francia station, turning at Plaza Palacio to Barceloneta.
Due to the urbanization of Plaza Urquinaona, on June 3, 1963, it diverted its upward route along Paseo de San Juan, Plaza Tetuán, Avenida de José Antonio, now Gran Vía, going up Lauria to continue its usual route to Plaza Rovira. .
On February 5, 1968, the tram service on the Paseo Nacional, today Paseo de Juan de Borbón, was eliminated, replacing it with a bus service that extended its route to Camelias Street.
The event merited comment in the city’s newspapers: “The National Tram-free Walk”, aimed at public opinion opposed to the eradication of trams.
At 100 Torrente de las Flores Street (last name of the owner of the lot at that time), on the corner with Providencia Street, there was the Rovira 1909-1965 cinema.
This square has a long tradition as a meeting and meeting point for the residents of the area, which, despite being relatively small, contains a good part of the services that the neighborhood may need.
