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Plaça de Catalunya
The huge
Plaça de Catalunya
square at the top of the Ramblas stands right
at the heart of the city, with the old town and port below it, and the planned
Eixample district above and beyond. It was laid out in its present form in the
1920s, centred on a formal arrangement of statues, circular fountains and
trees, and is the focal point for local events and demonstrations – notably the
mass gathering here on New Year’s Eve. The most prominent monument is
the towering angular slab and bust dedicated to
Francesc Macià
, leader of
the Republican Left, parliamentary deputy for Barcelona and first president
of the Generalitat, who died in office in 1933. It was commissioned from the
pioneer of Catalan avant-garde sculpture, Josep María Subirachs, perhaps best
known for his continuing work on the Sagrada Família cathedral.
For visitors, an initial orientation point is the white-faced
El Corte Inglés
department store on the eastern side of the square, whose ninth-floor cafeteria
has some stupendous views. The main tourist office is just across from here,
while on the southwest side, over the road from the top of the Ramblas,
El
Triangle
shopping centre makes another landmark. Incorporated in its ground
floor is the
Café Zurich
, a traditional Barcelona meeting place, whose ranks of
outdoor tables – patrolled by supercilious waiters – are a day-long draw for
beggars, buskers and pan-pipe bands.
Rambla Canaletes and Estudis
Heading down from Plaça de Catalunya, the first two stretches of the Ramblas
are
Rambla Canaletes
, with its iron fountain (a drink from which supposedly
means you’ll never leave Barcelona), and
Rambla Estudis
, named after the
university (L’Estudi General) that was sited here until the beginning of the
eighteenth century.This part is also known locally as Rambla dels Ocells, as it
contains a
bird market
, the little captives squawking away from a line of cages
on either side of the street.
It seems hard to believe, but this part of the Ramblas became a combat zone
during the Spanish Civil War as the city erupted into factionalism. George
Orwell (see box, p.48) was caught in the crossfire between the
Café Moka
– the
current café of the same name is a modern replacement – and the Poliorama
cinema, now the
Teatro Poliorama
. This was built in 1863 as the Royal
Academy of Science and Arts, and restored as a theatre in 1985. Further down
The Ramblas statues
You can’t move for human statues on the Ramblas, standing on their little home-
made plinths. Classical figures and movie characters have always formed part of
the parade, most daring you to catch them out in a blink, but there are also plenty
of statues prepared to join in the fun, like “Fruit Lady”, a one-woman mobile market
stall, or “Matador” swirling a cape for the camera. Many are actors (or at least waiters
who say they’re actors), and others make a claim to art – how else to begin to explain
“Tree Sprite”, clinging chameleon-like to one of the Ramblas plane trees, or the twin
“Bicycling Skeletons”? Then there’s the plain weird, like “Lady Under Rock”, crushed
under a boulder, issuing plaintive shrieks at passers-by, or the kennel-dwelling
“Human Dog”. They all put in long hours on the Ramblas, gratefully receiving small
change, though tourists or no tourists, many of them would probably just turn up
anyway, lock the bicycle, put down the battered suitcase and strike the pose. What
else is a statue going to do?
THE RAMBLAS
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Plaça de Catalunya • Rambla Canaletes and Estudis