https://collections.ecu.edu/files/original/20/559/Las_Ramblas_2.jpg f4995bc63dfcfad7ec7e946bb22f21e0 https://collections.ecu.edu/files/original/20/559/Las_Ramblas.jpg 5b96a3949420f2d14d7737ff975f5b49 https://collections.ecu.edu/files/original/20/559/Tricia_Malcom_Jayati_Vyas_-_La_Rambla.pdf dc992d49a631a0b02b43fb436434862e PDF Text Text La Rambla La Rambla, also known as Las Ramblas or Rambla del Raval, is a street in central Barcelona that attracts tourists and visitors alike. A pedestrian mall lined on both sides with luscious trees, La Rambla stretches for 0.75 miles. It forms the boundary between the quarters of Barri Gòtic to the east and El Raval to the west, and lies south of the Plaça de Catalunya. It is referred to as ‘Las Ramblas’ for the multitude of shorter streets that it is comprised of, including Rambla de Canaletes, Rambla dels Estudis, Rambla de Sont Josep, Rambla dels Caputxins, and Rambla de Santa Mónica. There was a period of time when La Rambla lost its charm—when the city of Barcelona was in a state of political and social transition. During this time, “the Rambla became a somewhat traumatic red light, with not infrequent cases of drug-fuelled physical attacks and even murder serving to disconnect the old town from la zona alta” (McNeill 2002: 251). A long, wide thoroughfare that replaced and cleansed the degraded zones of poverty and prostitution that is now used for festivals, markets, and sports, La Rambla is crowded throughout the day and well into the night. “The street is increasingly log-jammed, its old kiosk-inspired role as an informal ingestion of news replaced, or at least hindered, by an array of performance artists, the protrusion of metallic café chairs, caricaturists, and trinket stalls” (McNeill 2002: 250). La Rambla was initially a simple river bed. It then was transformed into a street and became a major part of the city (“Barcelona: The History of La Rambla” 2012). As Hall says, “It was now that La Rambla acquired the character of a promenade, as the watercourses were covered and trees were planted” (Hall 1997: 127-28). It also solved the city’s need for nature, because as Kent declares “Among the extreme architectural solutions to the need for parks […] is the Rambla de Mar…” (Kent 2002: 234). During this period, Hughes describes that, “Today, for most people, the Ramblas is Barcelona” (2004: 79). This streetway was always busy with visitors or various vendors selling �different products or goods. One of products frequently sold are flowers, in fact, one thing that Catalans are known for are their overly gaudy flower arrangements. Next door, people are selling different species of birds, such as finches, toucans, and macaws. Hilariously, the birds would occasionally escape and fly to the Parc de Ciutadella, joining the other escapees (Hughes 2004: 79). The most distinguishing feature of La Rambla, besides the assortment of business and restaurants, are the trees surrounding the roads on both sides (Hall 1997: 127-128). The best way to illustrate how important the Ramblas are would be described by Robert Hughes, “The Ramblas is and always will be one of the great, seedy, absorbing theatres of Spain, or for that matter of Europe” (2004: 80). —Edited by Irina Swain and Benjamin Fraser with text from Tricia Malcolm and Jayati Vyas � https://collections.ecu.edu/files/original/20/559/Bishop_Victoria_-_Las_Ramblas.pdf 09f18b62fe5515d8295077505cef30c3 PDF Text Text Las Ramblas When tourists are not at Sagrada Familia, another popular place to visit in Barcelona to experience the culture is Las Ramblas. There are many sites located on Las Ramblas that many tourists want to stop and see such as the Boquería, the statue of Christopher Columbus, the port, and shops and restaurants to try out. There is no shortage of people on the Las Ramblas and there is always some aspect of Catalan culture to look at, admire and take in the when on Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is a place in Barcelona that extends from Plaça de Catalunya to the Port of Barcelona. Las Ramblas “became the first true avenue in Catalunya” (Hughes 2004: 79) making it quite the accomplishment in Barcelona, especially considering the fact that Las Ramblas is located in the old part of the city. In fact, “today, for most people the Ramblas is Barcelona” (Hughes 2004: 79) making it one of the top places that tourists come to see. At the end of Las Ramblas is the Port of Barcelona, where cruise ships come in and dock giving those passengers easy access to Las Ramblas. It is set up in a way that is very friendly to pedestrians—there is a large space in the middle of the road to walk up and down and look at everything that is going on, and cars drive by on each side. There are many crosswalks making it easy to cross the street and get to the shop that catches someone’s eyes. This is quite the place for tourists to go and get a quick glimpse at Barcelona. Also on Las Ramblas there are many vendors who set up and sell paintings and other crafts to the tourists. There are also stores on Las Ramblas that tourists can go into to get their souvenirs, along with kiosks that line the middle of the avenue. There are painters and street performers who line the street, including people who play the part of a statue. Hughes describes them: “here are ‘human statues’ poised immobile on their crates, bizarre and infrangibly silent” (2004: 79). There are so many different kinds of statues that line the streets, everyone can probably find one that they 1 �enjoy—and they are hard to miss because they are so common. When walking past the people standing there it can be easy at first to mistake them for actual statues, until they start to move to strike a different pose for those passing by to take a picture of them. Displays like that are what make the avenue a place that is to produce a “successful cultural product” (Vilarós 1995: 45). Las Ramblas is quite the place to experience the culture of Barcelona, and get a little bit of everything. While Las Ramblas has a lot of culture from Barcelona, there are some places on the avenue that may be familiar to international visitors. Because Las Ramblas is a poplar place for tourists to visit there are some chain restaurants located along the avenue, some of them are even popular here in the United States. Starting at the beginning of the Avenue in Plaça de Catalunya, there is a Hard Rock Café, the café is surrounded by shops that are from Spain, but it can give a sense of home to tourists who are visiting the city. There is also a Subway, KFC, and McDonalds located down the avenue, which plays to the international crowd that comes to visit Las Ramblas. In No Word From Gurb Eduardo Mendoza describes Las Ramblas as “full of the most varied specimens of the human race, and just seeing then would be enough to confirm that Barcelona is a seaport” (Mendoza 1990: 79). This shows how diverse that crowd on the avenue is and how being right off the port diversifies the crowd even more. Las Ramblas offers a wide array of activities to do, places to see and culture to witness. It gives the person who is visiting Barcelona that does not have much time an easy way to absorb a lot of the culture in a relatively short amount of time. So many wonderful things happen on Las Ramblas that it is totally worth a visit if one is ever in Barcelona because it will provide an experience that is unforgettable. 2 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Digital Barcelona Subject The topic of the resource Sights around Barcelona Description An account of the resource The items (text documents, audio, video) used in the collection were created by the students from Fall 2016 HONS 2011.003: Barcelona: An Urban Cultural history class taught by Dr. Benjamin Fraser. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin Fraser Irina Swain Camille Kresz Language A language of the resource English, Spanish Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Digital Barcelona Date Created Date of creation of the resource. January 2017 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Irina Swain Camille Kresz Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Las Ramblas Subject The topic of the resource Las Ramblas Description An account of the resource Las Ramblas are located in Barcelona, Spain Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Victoria Bishop, Tricia Malcom, Jayati Vyas, Benjamin Fraser, Irina Swain Type The nature or genre of the resource Document, Still Image Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Irina Swain Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 02/16/2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Victoria Bishop Language A language of the resource English, Spanish Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 02/16/2017 Barcelona Jayati Vyas La Rambla Las Ramblas Spain Tricia Malcom Victoria Bishop