Barcelona has got an Arc de Triomphe, too. It shares some superficial similarities to the most famous of the world's Arc de Triomphes, that being the one on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This one is smaller (how much smaller, I do not know, as I did not bring a tape measure). It is red brick. And even though it is named "Arch of Triumph," it is not a war memorial.
Of course it would not be. Spain has not had much luck in wars for almost 500 years now.
(Ba-da dum)
It was built to be the entrance gate for the 1888 world's fair being held in Barcelona. In the Catalan language, it is the Arc de Triomf, which also is the name of the nearby Metro stop. In Spanish, it is the Arco de Triunfo. (Linguistic primer here: Catalan is not a "dialect" of Spanish. It is its own language. It seems to fit precisely halfway between Spanish and French, which makes sense given the geographic locale of Catalonia. Sometimes the Catalan word or phrase looks more Spanish; sometimes it looks more French. "Arc de Triomf" is an instance where the Catalan looks more like the French.)
Visited September 2015.
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