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The Monument to Peace in Barcelona was built in 1876 in the center of the esplanade that existed at the end of the Rambla de Santa Mónica, one of the different boulevards into which the current Rambla was then divided.
It was built in front of the marshes and in front of what would later house the primitive building of the Port Works Board and in the place where today there is the monument in honor of the navigator Christopher Columbus.
At that time the city was tired of the continuous hostilities to which it had been subjected by the central government. For this reason, at the end of the Third Carlist War, the City Council wanted to celebrate their joy in a symbolic way.
With the construction of the Peace Monument, they wanted to leave behind all the injustice and suffering of the three wars suffered in recent years.
The municipal authorities decided to celebrate a festival for peace and commissioned the construction of the monument to Antoni Rovira i Trias, an architect already known for being the winner of the competition called for the urbanization of Eixample and who, in addition, was the creator of the Eixample fire department. the city.
Later, he was the architect who designed the municipal markets of San Antonio and La Concepción, as well as the old geology museum of the Parque de la Ciudadela.
The Peace Monument had an approximate height of 18 meters, composed of four volumes that decreased as it gained height. Plaster and wood were used for its construction, which implied its provisional nature.
The shields of the Spanish provinces were represented at the base. It was followed by another volume, in which the shield of Barcelona was sculpted. They had placed representative figures on each of the four sides alluding to the world of work, industry, agriculture and commerce.
In the third volume you could read the phrase "The Constitutional City Council of Barcelona for Peace." It was followed by a column with the royal inscription A XII and the monument was topped by a female figure with open arms.
It was inaugurated on February 28, 1876, with a great citizen festival. With this act by the city council, an attempt was made to promote the city, after the demolition of the walls and the urbanization of the Eixample, which for some led to it being designated as the headquarters of the Universal Exhibition of 1888. This event caused a general change in the entire city. the city.
The Peace Monument was demolished in 1885 to build in its place the new monument to Christopher Columbus which, since then, has occupied a prominent place in this place in recognition of the "discovery" of the new world.
Currently there are voices that advocate its disappearance, alleging that after its discovery many Spaniards became rich as a result of the slavery of the indigenous people who inhabited those lands.
Despite the disappearance of the Peace Monument due to the construction of the one dedicated to Columbus, Barcelona did not forget it and the square absorbed the name of the Gate of Peace, an unmistakable sign of the spirit of the Barcelona people.
