The rise of the electrical industry and the visit of engineer Pearson to the Lleida Pyrenees drew an optimistic outlook for the utilization of white coal destined for a major consumer: Barcelona.
Having verified the benefits derived from the Universal Exhibition of 1888, Francesc Cambó, Josep Puig and Cadafalch ii Pon agreed to value the interest that would be involved in organizing a great exhibition of Electrical Industries in 1917.
Puig, an architect and also a Barcelona councillor, took charge of the preliminary urban project for the time being. The proximity of Montjuïc was chosen to incorporate the hated military mountain into Barcelona life, not only as a gigantic green lung.
First the Great War broke out, which posed an insurmountable obstacle. After the armistice, General Primo de Rivera’s coup d’état was imposed, a dictatorship that not only definitively prevented the projected electricity competition, but also excluded the notorious Catalanist Puig.
Everything that had been carried out until then was reoriented towards the International Exhibition of 1929, put at the service of the known goals and interests of the dictator.
It was a success, but the most successful was the fun show: the Poble Espanyol and especially the Magic Fountain. In this context it is interesting to highlight the prominence obtained by the powerful games of light. The New York company Westinghouse and the material provided by the Dutch company Philips turned that epic entrance to Montjuïc into a colossal stage where a tremendous luminous, mobile, changing and unexpected scenography captivated all visitors.
The foreign press unanimously surrendered before that waste of disturbing and unprecedented modernity.
Well, the right idea was then to place a different exhibition at the heart of urban vitality, which thus acted as a stimulating advertisement to not resist the temptation to visit the Montjuïc Exhibition.
The place chosen was Plaça Catalunya. A very tall obelisk was erected in the center, the power of the spotlights distributed around the area was multiplied and even some noble buildings, such as the Colón Hotel, were lucky enough to be enhanced with luminous frames. The light flooded everything.
