Videos to (Re)Discover La Rambla VI. Flower Stalls of La Rambla

Formerly, the stalls consisted of trestles and wooden planks on which they placed the plants and flowers. Every day, the vendors set up and dismantled the stalls and stored all the material in warehouses located on streets near La Rambla. However, in the sixties, fixed stalls were established with the necessary services for commercial activity. Stalls that were completely renovated in the 1990s.

Currently, there are 8 flower stalls distributed along La Rambla Sant Josep, which is also known as the "Rambla de les flors" for this reason.

In October 2012, on the occasion of the Festes del Roser, organized by Amics de La Rambla in collaboration with the District of Ciutat Vella, the students of Escola Massana decorated the backs of the stalls (facing the sidewalk) with vinyls featuring flowers as the main theme.

La Rambla de les flors has inspired writers and poets, here are some examples:

"Like a balance, La Rambla has its faith and balance in the flower market, where the city goes to celebrate baptisms and weddings with fresh bouquets of hope and where it goes shaking tears and ribbons on the wreaths for its dead. These stalls of joy among the citizen trees are like the gift of the rambler and his amusement, and although they appear alone at night, almost like iron catafalques, they have a lordly and delicate air, which seems to say to the night owl: 'Get up tomorrow to see us; we belong to the day'."

Federico García Lorca. Speech on the occasion of the premiere of Doña Rosita La Soltera at the Principal Palace. 1935

"The Rambla de las Flores is a pure delight adorned by the four seasons of the year, one after the other and as painted by the botanists. For the greater delight of pedestrians, this Rambla offers, besides flowers, books. And the city that gives more and better, let it be known."

Camilo José Cela. 1967

"Do you know what's La Rambla de les Flors?
 There are more bald people than rich ones, more dumbfounded people
Than people with brains braced.
And too much smoke, distress and upset,
And a world a little queasy
One dances out of spite, the other the Mona.
The tender girls make their hearts dance here.
És, s a Barcelona ballroom
And the sun comes to make the gold carpet.
Orange change here, does not deceive...
Everyone, to slip there, is allowed.
They come from the sea and they come from the mountain,
To enter the dance, nothing is paid.
Sometimes, the cobla gets tangled
And the dance fills with shouts and loud cry.
And amid whistles, sabers, and drumbeat
A pistol is drawn and a man falls.
But it's an 'ouch' and the flood comes back.
And the dance returns, swinging up and down.
And the birds return to the treetop,
Trembling with crystal tremors.
And the flower sellers brighten up their stalls
And the dogs run away, gnawing a bone.
And the white teeth of the girls shine
In front of the flower stalls.
The red stalls, and one realizes
That this plush red, moist and warm,
Is the color that lasts the longest
On the fresh lip of Barcelona,
That never tires of laughing, day and night.
És a whole sky of blue and joy
This Rambla of mine and it makes me shudder
To think I can leave it alone for a day...
La Rambla and I must never part!
And when she's an old maid,
With all this flat and white hair,
They'll find me at the foot of the stall,
As if I were defending my blood.
And those who pass by and see me without sight,
Trembling, with a pom in my hand,
Will say: 'Look, Antònia, the flower seller,
Can no longer shout or walk.
And Xaruga, as she is, full of noses
And hurts, still has enough heart,
Faithful to the rose stall,
Until death comes to collect her."
And if I think so, she doesn't need to come to me
To tempt me, nor can she move my chest,
However sympathetic she is,
However much I thank her for what she told me,
And you come back with a sincere voice
and with the noblest of disclosed feelings.
Can't you see that I can't be any other way,
If I am so much of La Rambla de les Flors!"

Josep Maria de Sagarra. La Rambla de les Floristes (fragment)