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This Sunday, 7 June, will be the 150th anniversary of the Reform Plan ('Pla de Reforma') and of the Eixample in Barcelona, designed by the engineer, urban planner and politician Ildefons Cerdą. The result of the 'Cerdą Plan', as it is known, was the Eixample, a leading example throughout the world of modern urban planning.

To mark the anniversary, Barcelona has organised Cerdą Year, which will run for 12 months, until June next year. Amongst other events, the programme includes exhibitions, conferences, city tours and an education project.

Although the official opening of Cerdą Year is not until 11 June, visitors have been able to see the 'Practical politics. Cerdą and Barcelona Provincial Council' exhibition for a few weeks already. The exhibition looks at the political and ideological side of Ildefons Cerdą.

This aspect of Cerdą is more important than it might appear. His progressive, advanced ideas were reflected on his Eixample plan, something that turned him into an object of criticism. Well, that and the fact that the plan had been imposed by the government of Madrid (seen in Catalonia as an act of Spanish centralism): the design competition held by Barcelona City Council had been won by the architect Antoni Rovira Trias, and not by Cerdą.