This is Barcelona’s most popular and well-known street. With its large central pavement and narrower side pavements, it fills up with thousands of strolling visitors who are, at the same time, actors and audience in a great urban performance. Converted into a city street during the 18th century, it contains highlights like the Gran Teatre del Liceu Opera House, the Palau de la Virreina and the old Belen church. Always full of tourists, the avenue runs from Plaça Catalunya to the seafront location of the monument commemorating Christopher Columbus.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Just let yourself go with the flowing tide of people that fills up the central walkway where most of the newsstands, florists and bird sellers are to be found, as well as a huge variety of spontaneous performance artists doing th human statue. The Ramblas has three metro stations (Line 3).
The section at the top of the Ramblas, bordering Plaça Catalunya, is called Canaletas. Here there is a famous water fountain whose waters work like a talisman: it is said that any stranger who drinks from it will come back to the city one day. This part of the Ramblas is usually full of groups of people and is the scenario for celebrations of F.C. Barcelona’s sporting successes. Around number 135.
This 18th century church is one of the few in Barcelona to be built in Baroque style. Practically intact outside, it was destroyed inside by fire at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Rambla dels Estudis 107.
In 1977, Joan Miró, one of the greatest and most universal Catalan painters and sculptors, left the city a mural he had created on the floor of the Ramblas, near the Liceu opera house and the Pla de la Boqueria. Around number 51.
Opened on 4th of April 1847, this large artistic complex is Barcelona’s “opera palace” and has played host to some of the greatest names in the genre. Towards the end of the 19th century, in a turbulent historical period, it was the target of a bloody anarchist terror attack. The present building was rebuilt and enlarged following a fire that reduced most of the opera house to smouldering ruins on 31st of January 1994. It is also host to the Conservatory. La Rambla 51-59.
Going down the Ramblas on the left, just after C/ Ferran, we come across this emblematic porticoed 19th century square with its neoclassical façades, Gaudí designed street lamps and characteristic palm trees. The arcades are populated by a series of lively restaurants, bars and clubs.
Also inaugurated for the 1988 Universal Exposition as a symbol of the city’s maritime vocation, this monument can be found at the end of the Ramblas and commemorates the discover of America. It contains a cylinder-shaped lift that takes visitors up to the viewpoint offering impressive panoramic views of Barcelona. La Rambla-Passeig de Colom.
The “Golondrinas” (swallows) are the city’s oldest nautical attraction – a fleet of leisure boats that have been in service since the 1888 Universal Exposition. They follow two routes: the traditional run, lasting 35 minutes and sailing through the waters of the port to the breakwater; an another that leaves the port to sail along the city’s shoreline to the Forum area. This route lasts an hour and a half. Exit: nest to Rambla del Mar and Columbus monument.
A CURIOSITY: Andersen and the flooding of the Ramblas: On the 15th of September 1862, the Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen witnessed the spectacular flooding that destroyed this city artery from the old Hotel Oriente on the Rambla. A commemorative plaque on the hotel façade serves as a reminder of the event. La Rambla 45-47.
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