Subirachs' 1974 sculpture la Pinça

Locals call the sculpture la Pinça because of its striking resemblance to a clothes peg. It stands at the confluence of Ca n'Escorça and Riera Blanca, right at the entrance to the city from Barcelona. The work was created by Josep Maria Subirachs in 1974 as part of a series of works aimed at claiming identity and evoking the history and culture of Catalonia.

Subirachs created the piece during his neofigurative period, which began around 1965. Rather than realism, the sculpture uses a stylized, expressionist cut to transcend reality. The monument represents the coat of arms of Hospitalet, featuring a cross of Santa Eulàlia, the patron saint of the city. The artist used two vertical blocks of shuttered concrete to form the cross, topped with four red blocks fitted like wedges to represent the four bars of the Catalan flag.

Upon closer inspection, the sides of the cross are engraved with multiple inscriptions and symbols. These include names of neighborhoods, coats of arms, churches, buildings, and figures linked to the history of Hospitalet. These inscriptions reflect a constant in Subirachs' work: the use of letters and numbers as symbols of communication and intellectual progress.

The monument was inaugurated on April 26, 1975, by Mayor Vicente Capdevila. It remains a public work of the late trends of Hospitalet de Llobregat and is included in the Inventory of Architectural Heritage of Catalonia.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons