Las Ramblas

If there were just one street that most effectively defined Barcelona’s personality, it would be, without doubt, Las Ramblas. Although it’s only one avenue it has different names over its length: Rambla de Santa Mònica, de los Caputxins, de Sant Josep, de los Estudis y de Canaletes, and every section has a different character.

Originally it was an open space between the walls which surrounded the old city and its different convents and churches within. Its birth as we know it today was at the end of the XVII Century. The names of the different sections are based on theses temples.

On Las Ramblas we find some buildings that date back to the original street: el Palau de la Virreina, el Palau Moja or la Casa March de Reus. Others are more recent like the Liceo.

Barcelona’s Las Ramblas also includes some streets and squares with special meaning, like Carrer Ferran, which leads to Plaça Sant Jaume; la Plaça Reial, ideal for sitting down for a beer, or the Boquería market, one of the most popular places for visitors because its variety of produce and its modernist architecture.

But the most interesting part of Las Ramblas is the people, who amble between its flower stalls, human statues, newsagent’s and bars, they are the soul of Las Ramblas, a soul that now Spears dozens of languages.