Àngel Guimerà

Sculptor: Jose Cardona and Ferrer,
current replica of Josep M. Codina and Corona, signed
Materials: Bronze on stone pedestal
Inauguration: September 23, 1983

There are ideas that sleep 60 years, such as the monument to the playwright Àngel Guimerà (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1845 - Barcelona, ​​1924). Driven by a group of friends since 1920, when he was still alive, this idea was unsuccessful, despite having collected 50,000 pesetas by popular subscription and having a project by the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch and a chalk by the sculptor Josep Cardona Furrer. As the first money had come from a group of people from Gracia, a first stone was placed where the Plaza of Gala Placidia is now. At the moment, everything seemed to stop until, after the death of Guimerà, the project seemed to resuscitate, but now there was talk about putting the monument in the Plaza del Pi, near where he had lived. But they did not achieve it. Years passed until there were two new attempts, the first in 1970, stimulated from Barcelona’s newspaper, ​​and the second in 1974, when the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Guimerà came. The Neighborhood Association of Petritxol Street, where the playwright had lived, continued to insist and, finally, the plaster of José Cardona was transformed into bronze by another sculptor, Josep Codina Corona, with whom a contract was signed on July 28. 1982. This contract mentioned the commission promonument in Guimerà, and it was said that the balance of the current account to make this sculpture was 137,554 pesetas. Codina would also make another sculpture of Guimerà, paid for by the Barcelona City Council, destined for the town of El Vendrell. The apprentices of the Community Employment Plan made a low base formed by two steps carved in stone of Montjuïc on ashlars of the old urbanization of the Plaza de las Balsas de San Pedro. However, the neighborhood association expressed its displeasure that the Plaza de San José Oriol was chosen and not that of El Pino to accommodate it. Although they are so close, they defended that the life of Guimerà passed, in recent years, between the street and the Plaza del Pi, as recorded by a plaque placed on one of the walls. In the process of improving the two squares, the puny Pine was replaced by Plaza del Pi with a new one, which is currently growing. The pine made difficult the integration of another element, like the monument to Guimerà, in the square.

 The Canarian authorities, with the president of the community of those islands, Jerónimo Saavedra, at the head, inaugurated the monument during the festivities of La Mercè, together with the Mayor of Barcelona, ​​Pasqual Maragall, and the President of the Parliament of Catalonia , Heribert Barrera.