Historicisms of the Liberal Revolution: Giving New Meanings to Barcelona’s Spaces

Abstract

Historicism was a common element of liberal culture in Catalonia, taking various shapes and guises among moderate and progressive sectors. This study focuses on the shape given to its formulations in the spaces of Barcelona. Through its popularisation, historicism enabled the wider public to become more closely engaged with liberal culture. The demolition of the Barcelona fortress known as the Ciutadella was to become the culminating project of popular, democratic historicism, and the materialisation of its leadership, in the urban transformation of the city, first instigated with the Liberal Revolution. Popular historicism soon formulated its own historicity of political change based on historicist discourses originating in moderate and progressive sectors.