05/11/2015

Passeig de Gràcia Barcelona

Passeig de Gràcia is part of the 5 KM shopping line and is an important road in Barcelona. The wide boulevards on either side of Passeig de Gràcia add to the feeling of opulence that this road gives you. Passeig de Gràcia is also home to two of Gaudí's most important creations here - La Pedrera and Casa Batlló.


Passeig de Gràcia Barcelona
Formerly known as Camí de Jesús ("Jesus Road"), it used to be little more than a quasi-rural lane surrounded by gardens joining Barcelona and Gràcia (then still a separate town), until the first urbanisation project in 1821 devised by the liberal city council, and led by Ramon Plana, who had to suddenly cancel his work due to the epidemics that were raging in Barcelona at the time. 


Passeig de Gràcia Barcelona
After the demise of the liberal government with the return of Absolutism in 1824, the project was taken up again by general José Bernaldo de Quirós, marquis of Campo Sagrado. The new avenue was 42 metres wide in 1827 and became a favourite place for aristocrats to display their horse riding skills and expensive horse-drawn carriages all through the 19th century.


Passeig de Gràcia Barcelona
In 1906 the architect Pere Falqués i Urpí designed the avenue's now famous ornate benches and street-lights. By that time it had become Barcelona's most fashionable street, with buildings designed by modernista/Art Nouveau architects of fame such as Antoni Gaudí, Pere Falqués, Jose Puig i Cadafalch, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Enric Sagnier and Josep Vilaseca.

Passeig de Gràcia Barcelona

The government of the Basque Country (Eusko Jaurlaritza) was based in Passeig de Gràcia, 60 during the Spanish Civil War. The Catalan poet Salvador Espriu resided in Casa Fuster (Passeig de Gràcia, 132).


Passeig de Gràcia Barcelona

How To Get There

Metro Passeig de Gràcia -(Green Line, L3) and (Yellow Line, L4) (southern most end) Diagonal (Green Line, L3) and (Blue Line, L5) Northern most end

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