Les Ramblas

For centuries, the Rambla was an open watercourse and the city's outlet to the sea. Today an ample avenue shaded by luxuriant plane trees, it divides the Raval from the Gothic quarter. Structured around a wide central boulevard with traffic lanes on either side, the Rambla is a river of vitality with kiosks selling newspapers, flowers and domestic animals. Wider at the lowest end, the thoroughfare reaches its mean width on a level with Plaça Reial, a rectangular porticoed square dotted with tall palm trees and bathed by the sun. The Rambla is lined with the outdoor terraces of old cafés, establishments with Modernist façades and new souvenir shops, but perhaps most interesting point is the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the opera house, seat of Barcelona's important tradition as a city of opera lovers.

Joan Miró mosaic
	Groups of women making lace