Barcelona City Council will replace the metallic cat sculpture that went missing from Plaça Països Catalans in Sants. The replica, which will cost €6,300 including VAT, is due to be installed before the end of the year.
The original life-sized cat had sat on a roof in the plaza for more than 40 years. Architects Helio Piñón and Albert Vilaplana designed Plaça Països Catalans in the early 1980s, and they placed the cat there as a small human touch in a space dominated by concrete and steel.
Residents noticed the sculpture had disappeared in mid-December, around the time of construction work near Sants railway station. The council then said it would replace the piece. The cat is Barcelona's second best-known non-animated feline, after Fernando Botero's cat on the Rambla del Raval.
The council is now tendering a minor contract for the new sculpture's fabrication and placement. The project file says the cat is part of the process of humanising public space, and that it helps shape the identity and character of the area.
The new cat will be made from Corten steel sheet, the same material used for the original design. The council says this will give it mechanical resistance, stability and durability in harsher environmental conditions. It expects the replica to arrive ready for installation straight from the workshop.
The sculpture is listed in Barcelona's catalogue of Small Urban Landscapes, which is managed by the Municipal Institute of Urban Landscape. The inventory includes more than 50 objects and details that are meant to be protected, restored and kept in the city's collective memory. Community and Sport readers following local city changes may also want to keep an eye on how the Sants area develops around the station works.
Among the other items on the list are the child figurehead that gave Ninot Market its name, the hole from the orphanage's turning box at the House of Mercy, and the shrapnel marks on the façade of the Church of Sant Felip Neri. The council has also said it plans to add the bougainvillea at the corner of Rambla Catalunya and Còrsega Street in Eixample to the catalogue.
Originally published by La Vanguardia Barcelona. Read the original report.
