Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, Barcelona

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, often popularly known as just Gran Via, is one of Barcelona's major avenues.

Location

It crosses all the city proper, stretching from the North-Eastern boundaries of the municipality, bordering Sant Adrià de Besòs, to its South-Western limits, in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, with some of Barcelona's most important squares in between: Plaça d'Espanya, Plaça Universitat, Plaça Catalunya, Plaça de Tetuan and Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes. It's over eight kilometres long.

History

The late 19th century urban planner Ildefons Cerdà included it as an essential part of his draft of the new "Projecte de reforma i eixample de Barcelona" (nowadays simply known as "Pla Cerdà"), as a wide road linking a number of villages around the coastal part of Barcelona, and called it "Lletra N, Número 11". It was renamed "Corts" in 1900, as a reference to the Mediaeval Corts of Barcelona. Later on, after the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931, it was again renamed as "Corts Catalanes". With the Francoist victory after the Civil War, its name was changed to "Avenida de José Antonio Primo de Rivera" in 1939. With the restoration of democracy, its name became "Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes" in 1979.The construction of a Trambesòs station is currently underway.

Metro

The first line in the Barcelona metro system, built in the 1920s under the name "Gran Metro", covered the distance between Plaça Catalunya and Plaça Espanya, which is nowadays part of Line 1.

There are several metro stations located on Gran Via nowadays.
* Ildefons Cerdà (L8)
* Magòria-La Campana (L8)
* Espanya (L1, L3, L8)
* Rocafort (L1)
* Urgell (L1)
* Universitat (L1, L2)
* Passeig de Gràcia (L1, L2, L4)
* Tetuan (L2)
* Glòries (L1)
* Besòs (L4)

Places of note

* Cinema Coliseum
* A 2001 monument to the victims of Fascist Italian aviation bombings during the Spanish Civil War, opposite Cinema Coliseum.
* Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes
* Banco Vitalicio Building
* "Homage to books", monument by Joan Brossa in reference to the annual Book Fair in the Passeig de Gràcia with Gra Via de les Corts Catalanes.

ee also

*Ildefons Cerdà
*Eixample, List of streets and squares in Eixample
*Barcelona

External links

* [http://www.bcn.cat/guia/ City map of Barcelona]