Avinguda de la Llum
Avinguda de la Llum ( Catalan for street made of light ; Spanish : Avenida de la Luz ) was an underground shopping street in Barcelona , Spain that opened from 1940 to 1990 . The shopping street, the construction of which dates back to 1929, was located below Carrer de Pelai between Plaça de Catalunya , Carrer de Balmes , Carrer de Bergara and Plaça de la Universitat , but above the Catalunya station of the railway company that had an access FGC .
Construction, operation and decay
Avinguda de la Llum was part of the ambitious project to build an underground city from Plaça Urquinaona to Plaça de la Universitat. At times there were up to 68 businesses in the mall, including a cinema. With increasing decline in the area in the 1960s, businesses moved away from Avinguda de la Llum and the vacancy rate increased. At the time of the final closure of the shopping street in 1990, it had already been largely abandoned and was used as a place to sleep by the homeless.
Today the main corridor is part of the El Triangle shopping center and is used by the cosmetics company Sephora as the basement of their branch there, but other parts are still abandoned and not accessible to the public.
In popular culture
The Spanish film director Bigas Luna has a scene from his film Bilbao (1978) set in the underground shopping street. The rock band Loquillo y los Trogloditas dedicated their song Avenida de la Luz to Avinguda de la Llum . In Carlos Ruiz Zafón's book The Labyrinth of Lights , the protagonists follow and shadow a suspect in the Avinguda and in the cinema.