The promenade of Barcelona
Whoever takes a slow stroll today from Plaça de Catalunya to Colón, and doesn't get distracted by the constant flow of people, may realize that they are walking on a promenade that had an unusual splendor in the midst of a tumultuous history.
As pointed out by the erudite historian Antoni Pladevall, the Canaletas fountain collects the water that fed the ancient fountain of the Estudi General or embryo of the University, which was between Santa Anna and Tallers, whose first stone was laid in 1536. It must be added, however, that as a sign of Felipe V's treatment of the city, in 1720 the University of Barcelona was closed and the building of Estudios Generales turned into a barracks.
The baroque church of Belén was set on fire by the "uncontrolled" individuals of the anarchist orbit in 1936 and suffered bombing by the Francoist aviation in 1938, so almost all of its interior is new, a work from the last civil post-war period.
Opposite Belén, on the other side of the promenade, rose the former palace of the Marquises of Comillas or Palau Moja, where Jacinto Verdaguer, the great poet of the Catalan Renaixença, resided.
The Rambla de las Flores is also called Rambla de San José because it used to have the aforementioned convent of the barefoot Carmelites.
The Rambla de los Capuchinos owes its name, as is evident, to the beneficent order of the Capuchins followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, who had previously had their convent at Santa Madrona de Montjuïc and later at the place where Plaza Real stands today.
Next to Plaza Real, the Hotel Oriente was built, basically on the site of the old Colegio de San Buenaventura founded by the Franciscans. The Liceo Theater was also built on the land of an old convent: that of the Trinitarians.
Approaching the sea, you reach Rambla de Santa Mónica. The church that bears its name was destroyed in 1937, during the Spanish and Catalan Civil War. The old convent, rebuilt, is now a parish. Across the Rambla is Palau Marc, an initiative of a businessman from Reus.
Finally, the monument to Christopher Columbus was built at the end of the 19th century, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. The initiative came from Barcelona personalities. Today it remains the tallest monument in the world dedicated to the discoverer of the New American Continent.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds of versifiers have dedicated rhymes, better or worse, to our main promenade. Pere Coromines, writer, banker, notable Barcelonan, spoke of La Rambla:
"stopping place for flautists, hub for comedians, peaceful labor of human mysteries", "happy the man who readily contemplates your ochres, under the green canopy of the proud plane tree, lost in the chimeras of a wonderful world"
