Avinguda de la Llum
Avinguda de la Llum (Catalan for Avenue of Light; Spanish: Avenida de la Luz) is a now closed underground mall in Barcelona, the first one of its kind to open in Europe,[1] open between 1940 and 1990, on a 2000 square-metre site built in 1929 and boasting 68 commercial establishments, including a movie theater. It was underneath Carrer de Pelai, between Plaça de Catalunya, Carrer de Balmes, Carrer de Bergara and Plaça de la Universitat, upstairs of the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) station Catalunya, between its vaults and the street.[2]
In spite of being initially part of an ambitious plan to build an underground city from Plaça Urquinaona to Plaça de la Universitat, the urban decay prevalent in the area from the 1960s onwards prompted its progressive abandonment. The Avinguda de la Llum was a decayed place with plenty of homeless people living in it by the time it was closed, on May 21, 1990. On the ground upstairs stood an empty, triangular in shape area between buildings which came to be called Triangle de la vergonya ("Triangle of shame"), which contributed to the adoption of measures to renovate the area in time for the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Nowadays its main corridor is part of the underground stage of a Sephora store in the El Triangle shopping centre, its successor, while some parts of it are still abandoned and closed to the public.
In popular culture
- It features in Bigas Luna's 1978 film Bilbao.
- The rock band Loquillo y los Trogloditas wrote a song on this mall called Avenida de la Luz.
References
- ^ "Avinguda de la Llum" (in Catalan). Archived from the original on 2008-10-04.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Ver Tema - Avenida de la Luz" (in Spanish). Trensim.com. 2008-03-27. Retrieved 2016-09-18.