This has to start with a confession: only one of the journalists who make up the sanctuary of the ‘Living’ section of ‘La Vanguardia’ has climbed to the viewpoint of the Columbus monument in Barcelona, and it was just a few days ago, precisely on the occasion of the report you are reading. The statue is largely unknown to the local public despite being one of the most recognizable figures in the city. It is, as things stand, and although the views are great from its 50 meters of height, a tourist attraction with little rooting. Although it does not lack excitement and feeling for that reason. A couple of years ago, Oriol Espuny, one of the attraction’s reporters, proposed placing a guestbook at the small reception so that people could write or draw whatever they wanted. They have already filled three volumes and the idea, he says, has become a “wonderful analog Instagram.”
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Portal de la Pau is one more of the long list of squares in Barcelona that are actually traffic roundabouts. They are joined by Tetuán, Espanya, Drassanes, Francesc Macià, Urquinaona, Alfonso Comín, Karl Marx, or the bleeding Ildefons Cerdà, the worst possible tribute to the father of the Eixample. Perhaps the location of the monument is the first barrier and it may also help that we are at the foot of La Rambla, the promenade that few locals frequent anymore although its cultural offer, in the medium and long term, will make a significant leap. Add the detail that the entrance is barely noticeable. But make the effort, even if only to tour the underground base and not to go up (the entrance costs 10 euros) in what was Barcelona’s first elevator.
It took five minutes to reach the top and according to the chroniclers of the time – it was inaugurated in 1889 (please read the master Permanyer) – Mayor Rius i Taulet got stuck along with two journalists. Now it takes 30 seconds, but the 90-meter diameter tube with a capacity for four people is unbeatable. If the discoverers were sardined in the caravels, the feeling of getting into this metal suppository is not bad at all. Once at the top, the second test of fire: a strange and real sensation that the column moves with the wind. And it is so: there is a slight sway, just like in the Eiffel Tower.
Posthumous tribute
“Thank you for everything you brought to my life,” wrote a visitor to her mother, 50 years later
Many years after the accident-prone premiere, four people from Malaga and two Japanese were trapped in the viewpoint for six hours. It was May 1, 2012, a holiday; perfect storm. They had to be rescued with a huge crane and the monument needed more than a year to rise again. It reopened on June 13, 2013, a day after the Barça shirt (it was more like a nightgown) that Nike put on the discoverer in a campaign that went around the world was removed. The City Council charged 100,000 euros for that, but received a tremendous scolding from the president of RCD Espanyol, Joan Collet, who considered the municipal approval unusual and insulting.
Many years after the first scare, four people from Malaga and two Japanese were trapped in the viewpoint for six hours. It was May 1, 2012, a holiday; perfect storm. They had to be rescued with a huge crane and the monument needed more than a year to rise again. It reopened in June 2013, a day after the Barça shirt (it was more like a nightgown) that Nike put on the discoverer in a campaign that went around the world to the dismay of the Espanyol fans. The City Council then governed by Xavier Trias (although these matters were handled by his Urban Planning manager, Antoni Vives) charged 100,000 euros for that, but received a tremendous scolding from the president of RCD Espanyol, Joan Collet, who considered the municipal permit insulting, and the visceral rejection of all the local architecture and heritage bigwigs.
Years earlier, in 2005, Columbus was placed with an egg on his right arm to commemorate the Year of Food. In 2018, Open Arms put a life jacket on the admiral. And in 2019, Greenpeace activists sneaked in early, barricaded the viewpoint door, hung ropes, and climbed the statue to send a message about the climate.
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Breaking the fear
“It was an unforgettable experience,” wrote one of the Andalusian women who were trapped in the viewpoint in 2012 years later
More than a decade after those hours of uncertainty in May 2012, one of the Andalusian women returned to the viewpoint. It happened on May 22, 2025, and she signed her name and a comment in the guestbook. “It was an unforgettable experience,” immortalized the woman.
The book is full of comments from Barcelonans upset for never having gone up. It is documented by octogenarian visitors and many others who have lived in Barcelona for decades and did not even know the elevator existed. There are some, like Marcos, who on November 11, 2025, returned 50 years after his mother first brought him: “I am here with a mix of feelings. Thank you for everything you brought to my life.” Some admit to having been “scared stiff”; others say that from here “you can almost see the Almansa castle,” and many praise the kindness of the monument workers, the only one in Barcelona below sea level.
A visitor also remembered Oliana Molls. In one of the chapters of the legendary 80s TV3 series, the villains broke Columbus’s finger looking for a hidden message and one of the crooks got stuck inside, starting a delirious escape through a very different Paral·lel than now.
“I did not expect so many messages,” admits a happy Espuny, who flips through the pages as if it were the Gutenberg Bible. The only thing missing is for the monument to regain the splendor of other times: in 1994 it received 124,000 visitors. In 2024 it was just over 30,000
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