After the Catalans lost the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1715) and the Spanish had conquered and submitted the nations of the Crown of Aragon -a sort of confederation in which Catalonia was a member of- the city of Barcelona was subject to strong repression and subjugation for several decades. The construction of the Ciutadella (the Citadel, the huge star-like construction in the right of the picture), today turned into a park, as one of the biggest fortresses Europe had seen to date to post Spanish soldiers to submit and control Barcelonians was only one of the punishments the Spanish inflicted to Catalans. Another was the prohibition to demolish the walls of the city to allow Barcelona to grow and prosper. This lasted for nearly 150 years, until the mid-1850s when the repression had decreased.
In the mid-1800s, Barcelona was a smaller, very dense area surrounded by walls (Ciutat Vella). With rabid congestion, increased epidemics and a high mortality rate, it was time to create urban solutions for healthier, more livable conditions for the people. City developers were looking to create the “Eixample” of Barcelona, which in Catalan, translates to “extension”. The godfather of Eixample’s city grid is urban planner Ildefons Cerdà. He believed in healthy everyday living through basic needs — among those are sunlight, ventilation, greenery, and ease of movement.
L'Eixample is 520 city blocks of parallel and perpendicular lines. The uniformity and continuity of squares was designed to eliminate segregation of all neighborhoods. Cerdà believed in healthy conditions for all social classes. It didn’t transpire that way — an aristocratic residential space was emerging around the Passeig de Gracia area, and a hierarchal structure was being set. Today, Passeig de Gracia continues to be expensive real estate. Before l'Eixample, in the fields where today Casa Batlló stands, in Passeig de Gràcia, there was an amusement park, Els Camps Elisis -in praise of Paris' Champs Elysées)- until the 1870s.
At the beginning of the l'Eixample, the bourgeoisie of the city were buying plots of land to build their mansions in the new "neighbourhood". The views at that time were in stark contrast with today's dense neighbourhood. Take, for example, Casa Terrades (aka Casa de les Punxes), as seen in 1905. Note the "emptiness" surrounding the building, lots of empty plots as well as agricultural land. See a view of the area in 2011.
A similar thing was happening in the plots near today's Sagrada Família, which at the time of starting construction in the early 1880s was, literally, in the middle of nothing. One could see flocks of goats and sheep grazing by the temple.
Bit of history for curious visitors!
