5 Sculptures to do a low-cost tour around Barcelona (I)

We're only 10 days into January and the infamous 'January slope' already seems like an insurmountable Tourmalet. After a December running at half steam, filled with celebrations and extra expenses, the usual increase in the cost of living with the turn of the year makes these first 31 days feel endless. It's time to tighten our belts and cut back on expenses. And on top of that, a polar wave is coming... There's no way anyone wants to leave the house!

As we wait for the month to ease its slope, today we bring you an interesting activity to enjoy a low-cost day in Barcelona. With a T-10 ticket, a sandwich, and a bottle of water, we'll have more than enough to set up a low-cost plan to get out of the house. If in the past we proposed a tour through Barcelona via its fountains, its Sunday plans or a list of books to rediscover the history of our city, today we suggest an urban journey through some of its most iconic sculptures. Do you know them all? Put on comfortable shoes, because we're going on a route!

Botero's cat

If cats have seven lives, it could be said that this iconic sculpture by the Colombian Fernando Botero has already spent four of them. One for each location it has had in our city. After its acquisition in 1987, the city council placed it in the Parc de la Ciutadella, where it remained until 1992, the year it was moved to the vicinity of the Lluís Companys stadium for the enjoyment of those attending Barcelona'92. Once the Olympic bubble burst, the cat began a new life, this time in Blanquerna Square, next to the Drassanes, where it remained somewhat hidden until 2003 when it was moved to the Rambla del Raval, where it fully enjoys its fourth existence. It seems that, this time indeed, it's definitive.

For 15 years, it has silently witnessed the constant transformation of a neighborhood that aims to position itself within the vast cultural offerings of the city. This plump sculpture is undoubtedly one of the main attractions the district has to offer. Just a stone's throw from the center, hundreds of tourists daily flock to the boulevard to take pictures with this large and chubby feline, with a childlike face and long tail. The hashtag #gatodebotero on Instagram, with all imaginable perspectives of the popular cat, is good proof of this. The most daring even venture to climb up to its neck to capture a majestic pose as if they were riding on the back of an elephant.

The Marshal's Prawn

Not far from El Raval, a giant shrimp with lobster legs dominates the Paseo de Colón, on the waterfront of Barcelona. It is Javier Mariscal's shrimp, a giant sculpture commissioned from the creator of Cobi following the renovation of Barcelona's coastal area for the Olympic Games. What was initially intended to be an attraction for one of the various seafood restaurants that sprang up in the Moll de la Fusta, ended up becoming an emblematic icon of the maritime area. After the Olympics, the different establishments began to decline until they were forced to close down. It was then that the city council acquired this giant form, constructed in expanded polystyrene and fire-retardant polyester, and restored it for the enjoyment of tourists, who have found in it a great attraction to photograph during their visit to the port.

The matches

Vall d’Hebron Park is another of the many spaces that Barcelona gained as a result of the Barcelona '92 Olympic Games, an event that brought about a huge transformation of the area, resulting in the construction of various sports facilities, such as tennis courts and a multipurpose sports hall, as well as the building of residential areas combined with landscaped zones.

One of the attractions that the place retains is the Mistos sculpture, one of the most popular in our city. Conceived by the Swedish Claes Oldenburg, it consists of a giant matchbox, up to 20 meters tall. The sculpture represents a matchbox that has fallen to the ground. One of these matches appears to be lit, while the rest are bent towards the ground. Around the box, there are four more matches, scattered along the street that appear loose and painted black, as if they had been left to burn out.

Fish

Despite its enormous size, the sculpture found at the foot of the Hotel Arts is not a whale, as many initially think. It is Pez, the sculpture conceived by Frank Ghery with which the city council wanted to redefine its maritime facade. The Olympic port, the two towers... and a huge figure 56 meters long and 35 meters high that seems like at any moment it might dive into the waters of the Mediterranean in front of which it is situated.

Built on a metallic structure, it is its outer layer, made of golden-colored stainless steel, that gives beauty and uniqueness to the creation. Depending on the intensity of the light and the reflection of the sun's rays on it, this outer layer seems to turn into a scaly skin that brings the inanimate object to life, already visible from the Barceloneta beach. It is because of this play of lights that the sunrise from the sea and the sunset in the evening become the favorite moments for visitors to capture this colorful scene.

Woman and Bird

An example of how Barcelona was already embracing urban art before the Barcelona '92 boom. It was a gift that Joan Miró made to the city of Barcelona. Commonly known as Dona i Ocell, its original name was Woman-mushroom with a moon hat. The sculpture has the honor of being Miró's last public sculpture, as he passed away in 1983, a few months after its inauguration by the then mayor, Pasqual Maragall.

The sculpture, standing 22 meters tall and crafted from concrete resting on an artificial pond, depicts a female figure with a hat on which a bird perches. Its recent restoration by the Barcelona City Council has given the sculpture a true facelift, leaving it as gleaming as when Miró designed it and gifted it to the city of Barcelona.

The ones mentioned so far are just some of the most representative sculptures of our city. There are still many more that we could continue to describe in this article. However, to visit all of them at once would be a herculean effort, and the rush to see everything would prevent us from enjoying and savoring the details, so we prefer to continue the route on another occasion. Moreover, January is still very long and we will need another low-cost plan to alleviate its steep climb.