Agbar Tower (Barcelona, Catalonia)
It’s curious; even though I live near Barcelona, I’ve only been there to take photos twice in my life. Perhaps it is because I am not much of a city dweller. But this year I am going to change that; I’m preparing a series of visits to Barcelona to photograph its most emblematic locations—many beautiful and sometimes forgotten parts of the city.
I took this photo of the Agbar Tower on a recent visit. This tower is part of the city skyline and one of the typical tourist attractions; but when it was constructed it was not immune to criticism because of it shape. In fact, the building is not only known by its name, but it is locally also known as ‘el supositori’ (the suppository), ‘l’obús’ (the shell), and other unflattering names.
I believe that the best time to visit the tower is at night, when a nice display of moving colors covers the building. At 38 stories and 144 meters tall, it takes 4500 luminous devices, which can operate independently using LED technology, to cover the tower. These lights enable the generation of animated images on the outside of the tower.
If you ever come to visit Barcelona, this should be one of your obligatory stops.
