Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona
The Plaça de Catalunya ( Catalonia Square German ) is a square in the center of Barcelona. Because he represents the link between the old town (Barri Gotic) and New Town ( Eixample), he plays a central role and is considered by the inhabitants of this city and its surroundings as the center of Barcelona. A characteristic feature of this place is considered to be star- shaped figure of blue, red and gray tiles designed surface and the traffic noise shielding planting with a fountain that surrounds the place.
Adjacent streets and buildings
In the southeast the Plaça de Catalunya is connected by the boardwalk Les Rambles with the former harbor. On the left side of the center strip of the Rambles is the Font de Canaletes, a cast iron drinking water dispenser, is the reputed that anyone who drinks from it, will return to Barcelona.
The Carrer de Pelai branches at the corner of Las Ramblas towards the Plaça de l' Universitat off, here is the shopping center El Triangle with the outbuildings of Massimo Dutti, Sephora and fnac.
On the northwestern side of the Passeig de Gràcia leads to the old town center of the district of Gràcia. It is a wide boulevard in which, among other architectural monuments and the Casa Milà and Casa Batlló, two important works of Antoni Gaudí find.
Two of the branches off from Plaça de Catalunya streets are called " Ronda " - the Ronda de Sant Pere and the Ronda de la Universitat - they are part of a system of arc- over district's roads, which blows in ever greater distances around the old city core to the outer Ronda de Dalt at the foot of the ridge of the Serra de Collserola.
The square is surrounded by representative, majestic buildings in the neoclassical style, traditionally housed banks, such as the Banco Español de Crédito between Passeig de Gràcia and Rambla de Catalunya or the Bank of Spain between the Ramblas and Portal de l'Angel Carrer. These traditional buildings were already equipped in the 1960s on their roofs with elaborate, splendid neon-sign.
An exception to this style of building is the location on the northeastern edge of the square branch of the department store chain El Corte Ingles, the largest urban department store in Barcelona. The building is made of reinforced concrete composite construction. It stretched initially only a part of this side of the square, then expanded on its back to another site on the Ronda de Sant Pere and did not make it first to combine both department store panels on the front, because a large pharmacy on the corner plot for years defied a takeover.
The place is considered to be revived and is surrounded by numerous shops, restaurants, bars and cafes that do not all have an old tradition. One of the oldest restaurants, Café Zurich. In addition to the Corte Inglés was formerly a piano bar, where the brother of the Belgian Queen Fabiola worked as a pianist. From here you can start a sightseeing tour in open buses that explore down 1500 meters Rambles to the port or, if you left holding the Rambles, walking in the Barri Gòtic through narrow streets, where a large number of old buildings are located.
The corner of Carrer de Pelai is a popular meeting place for appointments.
Junction
The Plaça de Catalunya is an important transportation hub: above ground for a variety of bus routes and shuttle buses to the city's airport, underground Metro and commuter rail system, spread over two levels. Two of the five metro lines in the city ( L1 and L3) crossing at the place. This station was taken in 1924 with the first metro line in Barcelona's operation. Here also begin two lines of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (L6 and L7).
This mode of transport used to be, in the Franco era and shortly thereafter, a private company called Ferocarriles de Catalunya ( Generalitat de Catalunya since 1979 Ferrocarrils de la ) and opened by a tunnel under the mountain Tibidabo through the hinterland (Sant Cugat del Vallès, Rubí, Terrassa and Sabadell) already decades before it was possible to build a road tunnel under the ridge of the Serra de Collserola. In addition, also hold some regional trains of RENFE in the underground station.
The place is also the starting point of the Aerobus from Barcelona airport, which connected to this every 6 to 15 minutes. The express bus stops or other venues in the city, for example on Passeig de Gràcia, Plaça d' Espanya and the Sants ( main train station ). The ride takes 35 to 40 minutes. Here meet beyond the two lines of sightseeing tours, the blue and the red line.
Since the year 2007, some public Fahrradmietstationen are on the court.
The last major renovation of the place was part of the preparation for the 1986 Olympics until 1992.
History
The history of the Plaça de Catalunya is by extension - characterizes the city of Barcelona - Catalan Eixample. Towards the middle of the 19th century limited the city with its former walls of the present city center and bursting at the seams. The extension was that the walls removed and the adjacent places were amalgamated as eg Gràcia. About the development of the large newly added area between Barcelona and these places was kindled in the context of an architectural competition, a dispute between Antoni Rovira i Trias, who suggested a star-shaped arrangement of the road network, and Ildefonso Cerdà, who pleaded for a rectangular road network, and as a shows view of the current map, the plans of the zweiteren were favored by the royal family in Madrid.
According to the plans of Rovira, who had found in the population more appeal, the streets would be star-shaped running up to today's Plaça de Catalunya, is resulting seen that this point can be considered as the center of the new, expanded Barcelona before the establishment of the square.
The foundation stone of the very first house of urban expansion, ie, the so typical of Barcelona rectangular road network by Cerdá, took place there, where today the Plaça de Catalunya, on September 4, 1860 by Queen Isabel II
The Barcelona before 1860 and the expansion of the city according to the plans of Cerdà ( Eixample) are very easy to distinguish even today on the map - here explore a maze of small alleys, as an absolutely regular pattern of a rectangular street grid and square blocks with traffic friendly bevelled corners.
Towards the end of the 19th century began, the land on which is now the place to expropriate, including the local cafes, theaters and exhibition building.
The square was built between 1902-1929 by the architect Francesc Nebot and was on November 2, 1927 by King Alfonso XIII. inaugurated.
As the first metro line in Barcelona, the link between the Plaça de Catalunya and the Plaça de Lesseps was inaugurated in 1924. She was later built so on that they bifurcates there, with a branch under the Ramblas to the port and another branch of the Via Laietana to the post office, which roughly corresponds to today's line 3. However, this was not the very first rail-based mass transit system from the Plaça de Catalunya.
A first overground rail link from the historic center by Sarria was inaugurated already in 1863, the terminus must have been held near the spot where later the Plaça de Catalunya was created. It is the forerunner of today's underground railway line of the former Ferrocarriles de Catalunya, SA, today Ferrocarrrils de la Generalitat Sarria addition, under the Tibidabo through the hinterland. Around 1929, this compound was first laid between Plaça de Catalunya and the station Muntaner under the earth, and during the 1950s and the remaining portion along the Via Augusta to Sarria. Around 1950 a branch line of the c / Balmes was the foot of the Avda. del Tibidabo.
1940 was inaugurated between Plaça de Catalunya and Carrer de Pelai the Avinguda de la Llum, the very first underground shopping arcade in Europe. It was closed in 1990.
The department store El Corte Ingles opened in 1962.
Until about 1970 went to Plaça de Catalunya over, along the Ronda de Sant Pere and Ronda Universitat de l' nor O buses. Tram lines led ( in the 1960s ) there directly not over, but there were those in the city center. On the main road junctions in the neighboring Eixample, the lights were as obelisk -like pillar in the middle of the intersection and wore an elongated, spire -like tip, in addition to the traffic light a series of small green or red lights gradually went out on the to view the remaining traffic light phase. Also typical was the 1960s that the edge of the inner round area of Plaça de Catalunya was equipped like an arena or a theater with several rows of chairs, for whose use they had to pay a small fee.
Approximately in 1972 burned on the corner of Carrer Portal de l'Angel / Carrer de Fontanella from the building of the then state-owned Spanish company Telefónica. This important parts of the local telephone network were destroyed.
As a result of the protests in Spain 2011/2012 the place was occupied. On May 27, the police tried to forcibly clear the square.