The Origins

When it had been six or seven generations since the Romans had taken Tarragona and turned it into a permanent military base, probably around the year 20 BC, they decided to create another permanent colony near Montjuïc.

This meant the construction of a seaside residential city, and a port where ships could easily anchor.

The chosen land, about ten hectares, was located between two streams. To the northeast, the one that in the Middle Ages would be called Junqueres or Torrent de l'Olla and which today is Via Laietana; to the southwest, the stream that, over the centuries, would be called the Rambla.

It was believed for a long time that the Rambla was nothing more than the old course of the stream called "de Collserola," also known as Sant Gervasi, or even the riera d'en Malla, one of the many that came down from the mountain range that marks the northern border of the Barcelona plain. The eminent geographer Pau Vila had a different opinion, but the clarification of this issue should be left in the hands of the scholars.

Be that as it may, the word rambla means nothing more than "torrent or stream, through which water flows when it rains." In the Catalan documents preserved from the 10th and 11th centuries AD, the torrents or streams coming down from the Collserola range were called arenys, a word derived from Latin. But after the conquest of Valencia by Jaume I, the Arabic word rambla-with which the Muslims named what the Christians called areny-was incorporated into Catalan, according to the linguist Joan Coromines, and used to designate our main promenade.

Everyone knows that the bed or banks of torrents and streams, when dry, are used as passageways by farmers, shepherds, hikers, or walkers. It is curious, however, that in modern English vocabulary there is the word "ramble," meaning walk, stroll, or hike. Where the Anglo-Saxons got the word from, we do not know. But this may help explain the popularity of our Rambla among British tourists.