Gràcia is a neighborhood filled with tiny streets and squares, and Plaça del Diamant is one of its oldest and most emblematic ones. Located in what was formerly known as the jewelers neighborhood, Plaça del Diamant owes its name to the Gràcia town councilor, Josep Rosell i Imbert, who engaged in the trade of precious stones. When he designed this plot in 1850, he came up with the idea of giving the streets and squares that still exist the names of precious stones: Carrer de la Perla (pearl), Or (gold) and Topaci (topaz).
Engraved in the popular memory by the famous novel La plaça del Diamant by Mercè Rodoreda, and its subsequent adaptation as a film by Francesc Betriu in 1980, in this delightful nook in the city one can still sit on a bench and listen to the birds singing and the children playing in the square. As a tribute to the novel, a sculpture of La Colometa by the artist Xavier Medina-Campeny was installed in 1984, depicting the main character with her doves.
The symbology of the square took an unexpected turn in 1992, when the air-raid shelter beneath the square was discovered during the execution of road works. Built twelve meters below ground level by the residents of the neighborhood during the Spanish Civil War, it gave shelter to more than two hundred people during the many air-raid attacks launched on the industrial district of Gràcia of that time, with its many factories that were the main target of the attacking aircraft. This shelter was one of the more than 90 in the neighborhood, and it is one of the largest of the 1,300 that were built in Barcelona, one of the first cities bombarded systematically from the air in a war. Today, with the objective of recovering the area’s historical memory, the History Workshop of Gràcia arranges guided tours to explore the site and it is well worth visiting the shelter and seeing its tunnels which saved the lives of so many people.
