The shopping centre on Plaça d'Espanya is Arenas de Barcelona, the old bullring from 1900, which opened as a shopping centre on 24 March 2011. From October to May the shops open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 21:00, and the roof has a circular viewpoint that, according to Turisme de Barcelona, is free to visit.
People who search for Plaça d'Espanya are nearly always looking for something else: the metro, the shopping centre or the way up to Montjuïc. But the square was designed as the gateway to the 1929 International Exhibition, and almost everything in it tells that story: a bullring from 1900 turned into a shopping centre with a viewpoint, two towers copied from a Venetian bell tower and a fountain by Jujol full of symbols. If you are living in Barcelona for a few months, it is also a practical place you keep coming back to. This guide explains what is on the square, who built it and why.
Barcelona: all the guides and where to stay →
A gateway for the 1929 Exhibition
In the Cerdà Plan it was just a junction of the roads to the Baix Llobregat, near the city’s old boundary cross. After a first scheme by Josep Amargós in 1915, the work went to Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Guillem Busquets, and from 1926 Antoni Darder carried it on. They designed it as a circle, around a hemicycle with a Baroque colonnade inspired by Bernini’s St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. Turisme de Barcelona sums it up: it was not conceived as a giant roundabout but as the grand entrance to the 1929 Exhibition, and making an impression was part of the plan.
The exhibition hotels, by Nicolás Rubió Tudurí, were also built on the square. Only the one between the Gran Via and Carrer de la Creu Coberta still stands, and today it houses the Francesc Macià school and the Municipal Institute of Education.
Las Arenas: from bullring to shopping centre
The Las Arenas bullring opened in 1900, in neo-Mudéjar style, designed by the architect Augusto Font Carreras at the initiative of Josep Marsans. The last bullfight was held on 19 June 1977. The conversion, by Richard Rogers with Alonso-Balaguer y Arquitectos, kept the old façade, held up by large piers, and added a dome-shaped roof. Work began in 2005 and the Arenas de Barcelona shopping centre opened on 24 March 2011.
Today it has 100 units over six retail and leisure floors, with cinemas and a gym, and the ground floor connects with the metro station. Up on the roof, a circular terrace serves as a viewpoint; there is a panoramic lift and, according to Turisme de Barcelona, going up to the roof terrace is free. From there you see the square as it was meant to be seen: the fountain in the middle, the towers and the avenue climbing towards the Palau Nacional.
For everyday life, checked in October 2026: from October to May the shops open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 21:00, and from June to September, from 10:00 to 22:00. On Sundays and public holidays they only open on the days the centre lists as trading holidays, and from 15 May to 15 September on every Sunday, from 12 to 20 h. The gym opens Monday to Friday from 7:00 to 21:00.
The Venetian towers
At the start of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, two 47-metre towers imitate the bell tower of St Mark’s in Venice. In 1927 the City Council held a competition to lay out the entrance to the Exhibition grounds, won by the architect Ramon Reventós, who also worked on the Teatre Grec and the Poble Espanyol. The design for the towers was approved on 18 January 1928 and construction began in 1929.
They are identical: a base of stone blocks, a shaft of exposed brick with very narrow windows lighting the stairs, a colonnaded gallery at the top and a pyramid roof of copper. At first people could climb up to the galleries; today they are closed, with exceptions such as the 48h Open House festival in October 2014. For years the west tower housed the controls for the light and water shows of the Magic Fountain. They were restored in 1987-1988 and between 2013 and 2014, and are listed as a cultural asset of local interest.
Jujol’s fountain, which hardly anyone reads
In the centre, where the boundary cross of the old Madrid road used to stand, Josep Maria Jujol built the monumental fountain in 1929. Its original name is the Font dels Tres Mars, for the three seas around the peninsula. Above a triangular pool, three niches with groups by Miguel Blay represent the rivers Ebro, Tagus and Guadalquivir; at the corners, three groups by the brothers Miquel and Llucià Oslé represent Abundance, Public Health and Navigation. Around them, three columns stand for Religion, Heroism and the Arts, with figures such as Ramon Llull, James I or Cervantes, and the top is crowned by a brazier with three bronze Victories by Frederic Llobet. It was thoroughly restored for the 1992 Olympic Games.
Getting close is not easy: the square is a huge traffic junction where the Gran Via, the Paral·lel, Carrer de Tarragona, the Creu Coberta and Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina all meet. Turisme de Barcelona puts it nicely: here the traffic moves in circles, but the eye is drawn upwards. That is why the fountain reads best from the Las Arenas viewpoint.
Towards Montjuïc
Under the square is Espanya station, on metro lines L1 and L3 and the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat. From the towers, Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina climbs towards the hill, and escalators take you up to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya at the top. Halfway, at the foot of the steps, is the Magic Fountain.
Checked
Details checked on 17 October 2026 on the official Arenas de Barcelona website (arenasdebarcelona.com: opening hours, services and centre facts), on Turisme de Barcelona (barcelonaturisme.com), on the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya website (getting there) and, for the history, on the Spanish and Catalan Wikipedia (Plaça d'Espanya, Arenas de Barcelona and Torres Venecianes, the last citing the City Council’s heritage catalogue and the Generalitat’s architectural heritage inventory). Opening hours change with the seasons: confirm them before you go.
Quick questions
What was the Las Arenas shopping centre before?
A neo-Mudéjar bullring opened in 1900, designed by Augusto Font Carreras; the last bullfight was held on 19 June 1977.
Can you climb the Venetian towers?
No. At first people could climb up to the galleries, but today they are closed, with exceptions such as the 48h Open House festival in 2014.
Who made the fountain in Plaça d'Espanya?
Josep Maria Jujol, in 1929; the sculptures are by Miguel Blay and the brothers Miquel and Llucià Oslé.