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Until 1860, the year in which Barcelona finally broke
out from behind its city walls, the city extended no
further than the hexagon of the 15th century enclosure
( the present-day Casc Antic) that lies between these
streets: the Rondes de Sant Pau, de Sant Antoni, d'Universitat,
and de Sant Pere, the Passeig de Lluís Companys, the
Avinguda Marquès de l'Argentera, which continues as
the Passeig Colom, and the Avinguda del Paral.lel. The
only wide street at the heart of the city was La Rambla,
an old stream whose name derives from the Arabic "ramla"
meaning "sandy ground".
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Until the beginning of the 18th century La Rambla consisted
merely of a path beside a stream running between convents
on one side and the old city walls on the other. It
was in 1704 that the first houses were put up at the
Boqueria on the site of the old city walls and the first
trees were planted. In 1775 the old city walls by the
Drassanes medieval shipyards were demolished, and toward
the end of the 18th century the street began to be systematically
developed: la Rambla became a kind of tree-lined avenue.
From upper end, which runs into the Plaça Catalunya,
to the lower end below the monument to Columbus, this
unique street in fact bears five different names, each
describing a section of the street: first, there is
La Rambla de Canaletes, a name used by the people of
Barcelona because of the Font de les Canaletes fountain,
found there since ancient times. Folk tradition has
it that anyone who drinks from this fountain will subsequently
keep returning to Barcelona. The next section of La
Rambla is known as La Rambla dels Estudis, after the
mid-15th century building of that name, the Estudi General
or Universitat. This university in Barcelona was suppressed
by Philip V and the building used as a barracks. In
1843 it was demolished. If you continue down toward
the sea you will enter the stretch known as La Rambla
de les Flors, the only place in 19th-century Barcelona
that flowers were sold and which even today preserves
its that old special charm. Next comes La Rambla del
Centre, also known as La Rambla dels Caputxins, because
of the old house of Capuchin friars there. And finally,
there is the stretch of La Rambla called La Rambla de
Santa Mònica, giving access to the port, called after
the parish church there which previously had been the
religious house of the Agustins Descalços (Barefoot
Augustinian order).
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