Description
La Rambla is Barcelona's most famous street: a tree-lined pedestrian boulevard 1.2 kilometers long that runs from Plaça de Catalunya down to the Columbus monument and the old port. Crowded from morning to late at night, it is full of kiosks, flower stalls, street performers and cafés.
The poet Federico García Lorca called it "the only street in the world which I wish would never end." It began as something far less poetic: a sewage-filled stream that carried rain off the hills, just outside the city walls.
The name comes from the Arabic word for sand, and in Catalan a rambla is a dry riverbed. The pavement still remembers it, with a wavy pattern that ripples like water. It is really five streets in a row, each with its own name, hence the plural, Les Rambles.
Turn off into the Boqueria market, one of the city's foremost landmarks, with a very diverse selection of goods. A few steps from the Rambla dels Caputxins the small Plaça Reial opens up, with palm trees, porticoes and lampposts designed by Gaudí.
In the pavement at the Pla de l'Os is a mosaic by Joan Miró, laid in 1971. Nearby stand the Liceu opera house, open since 1847, and the Baroque Palau de la Virreina. The Font de Canaletes at the top is the traditional meeting point.
In 1377 the city walls were extended to include the Rambla, and in 1440 the stream was diverted. Slowly the ditch became a promenade for markets, festivals and games, lined with convents and monasteries. In 1835 rioters burned them, and the Boqueria, Plaça Reial and the Liceu rose on the empty plots.
Wealthy Catalans who had made their fortunes in Spanish America, some of them in slave plantations, then built opulent mansions along it. The first trees, in 1703, were 280 birches; the plane trees came only in 1859.
Be careful: the crowds are a favorite of pickpockets, and some restaurants here cater to tourists first, with mediocre paella. The best use of the street may be as a spine from which to dive into the Gothic Quarter on one side and El Raval on the other.
Don't miss
• The Boqueria market.
• Miró's mosaic.
• Plaça Reial.
• The Liceu opera house.
Did you know?
• Until 2010 the Rambla dels Estudis had an open-air market of caged birds.
• The Teatre Principal, founded in 1568, is the oldest theater in Barcelona.
• Locals call strolling here ramblejar.
The poet Federico García Lorca called it "the only street in the world which I wish would never end." It began as something far less poetic: a sewage-filled stream that carried rain off the hills, just outside the city walls.
The name comes from the Arabic word for sand, and in Catalan a rambla is a dry riverbed. The pavement still remembers it, with a wavy pattern that ripples like water. It is really five streets in a row, each with its own name, hence the plural, Les Rambles.
Turn off into the Boqueria market, one of the city's foremost landmarks, with a very diverse selection of goods. A few steps from the Rambla dels Caputxins the small Plaça Reial opens up, with palm trees, porticoes and lampposts designed by Gaudí.
In the pavement at the Pla de l'Os is a mosaic by Joan Miró, laid in 1971. Nearby stand the Liceu opera house, open since 1847, and the Baroque Palau de la Virreina. The Font de Canaletes at the top is the traditional meeting point.
In 1377 the city walls were extended to include the Rambla, and in 1440 the stream was diverted. Slowly the ditch became a promenade for markets, festivals and games, lined with convents and monasteries. In 1835 rioters burned them, and the Boqueria, Plaça Reial and the Liceu rose on the empty plots.
Wealthy Catalans who had made their fortunes in Spanish America, some of them in slave plantations, then built opulent mansions along it. The first trees, in 1703, were 280 birches; the plane trees came only in 1859.
Be careful: the crowds are a favorite of pickpockets, and some restaurants here cater to tourists first, with mediocre paella. The best use of the street may be as a spine from which to dive into the Gothic Quarter on one side and El Raval on the other.
Don't miss
• The Boqueria market.
• Miró's mosaic.
• Plaça Reial.
• The Liceu opera house.
Did you know?
• Until 2010 the Rambla dels Estudis had an open-air market of caged birds.
• The Teatre Principal, founded in 1568, is the oldest theater in Barcelona.
• Locals call strolling here ramblejar.