Barcelona will add women’s names to nine new streets and squares

The authority in charge of naming public spaces in Barcelona has approved new titles for 21 streets, squares and gardens in the city. 

Among the changes are nine new spaces named after women. Currently, only 8% of streets, squares, and gardens in the city are named after women. 

According to the city council, these are women who stand out for their local activism, politics and trade unionism, as well as the culture of the city. 

Two of the nine names will be for streets and seven will correspond to squares. 

The squares that will now have female names are Plaça de Valerie Powles in Sant-Monjuïc; Plaça de Ros Galobardes i Alsina and Plaça Ramona Fossas i Puig, both in Horta-Guinardó; Plaça de Lolita Torrentó i Prim, in Sant Martí; Plaça d'Angelina Trallero i Bullich, in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi; Plaça Francesca Vergés i Escofet, in Sant Andreu, and Plaça de Lluïsa Alba, in Nou Barris.

As for streets, the name of Carrer Comte de Santa Clara, in Barceloneta, is changed to Felícia Fuster i Viladecans, while Carrer Duc is renamed Carrer Josefa Vilaret, also in the Ciutat Vella district.

The Barcelona Nomenclature Conference also approved two changes to add the feminine gender in names that so far only referred to the masculine. They are the Placeta de les Àvies i els Avis, in Nou Barris, which until now was called Placeta dels Avis; and the Parc de les Treballadores and els Treballadores de la Maquinista, formerly Parc de la Maquinista, in Sant Andreu.

The approved changes are also aimed at promoting the recovery of names of places that locals used informally in the city.

Slave trader loses square

Barcelona has removed the name of Antonio López from the square at the bottom of Via Laietana, where the post office sits. 

The green light to change the name of the square was already given in June 2021, but the city had not made the change effective until now. 

The square has now been divided into two, on each side of Via Laietana, and they are now called Plaça Idrissa Diallo and Plaça Correus (Post Office Square). 

Idrissa Diallo was born in Guinea in 1991 and died in Barcelona due to respiratory failure in 2012, two weeks after jumping over the fence in Melilla to enter Spain before travelling to Catalonia. He had been held in the Center of Internment of Foreigners (CIE) in the city where he died shortly after. His death triggered a citizen movement to demand the closure of this facility.

In late January, an artist placed an anti-racist statue on the plinth where the former statue of Antonio López once stood. The bright red statue titled ‘Humanity’ featured a teddy bear and a young man hugging.