Site of the Primavera Festival, the Forum is built on the site of the Camp de la Bota, a prison camp during the Franco regime, and prisoners were shot on the beach until 1952.  A fascinating website giving more information has been set up by artist Francesc Abad, whose work was recently displayed at Macba:  www.francescabad.com/campdelabota .  A plaque at the site commemorated the 1,619 people that were executed here by fire squads under Franco. However, the plaque was removed in the preparations for the opening of the Forum in 2004. There has been criticism of the way recent history has been wiped out in order to reframe Barcelona's cultural identity.