Rambla de Canaletas is the first section of Barcelona’s most emblematic street and a mandatory stop for all football fans.

La Rambla has always been a street full of life. Summing up these 1.2 kilometers of anecdotes, culture and history under the same name is an understatement. That’s  why La Rambla, Barcelona’s most emblematic street, is divided in five streets: Canaletes, Estudis, Sant Josep (or de las Flors), Caputxins (or del centro) and Santa Mónica. This is what you should know about the first one, Rambla de Canaletas, which goes from this city’s most famous fountain to Poliorama Theater.

1. Legend states that if you drink from the Canaletas Fountain, you’ll go back to Barcelona. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait a line for your wish to be fulfilled. Falling in love with the Catalan capital is quite common.

2. At Canaletes Fountain you can find, therefore, two types of people: travelers and culés, FC Barcelona’ s supporters. Since the 1930s, they meet here to celebrate the victories of their (dream) team.

3. Why Canaletes Fountain? History has the answer. In front of the fountain were the headquarters of sports newspaper La Rambla. The only way soccer fans had to know the results of the day was going there and wait for the journalists to write them in boards.

fuente de canaletas
FC Barcelona supporters celebrating at Canaletes Fountain.

 

The biggest Zara store in Barcelona

4. Rambla de Canaletas borders with Plaça Catalunya. Here is the largest Zara in Barcelona. The most striking point is not its enormity, but the fact that it is located in an old restored building from the 1930’s. It is worth going just to get impressed with the glass vault and its palatial appearance.

5. Have you noticed those original chairs that are scattered along the promenade? From the the eighteenth century to year 2000 you had to pay to sit on them.

6. Close to these banks there is Núria Restaurant, where the first beer shooter of Barcelona was installed. This business has been passed down from generation to generation since 1926.

rambla de canaletes
Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona.

 

Vintage stores

7. If you deviate to carrer dels Tallers you’ll find Boadas Cocktails, the first cocktail bar in Barcelona.

8. Around Boadas Cocktails there is carrer de la Riera Baixa, which is full of vintage stores. If you’re one of those who refuse to change vinyl and cassettes for Spotify, here you’ll find allies. One of the most popular shops is Wah Wah, one of the most popular CD spots in Spain.

9. A few steps away you’ll find Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) at carrer de Montalegre and Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) at Plaça dels Àngels. Both spots are very important to get into the new avant-gardes that are brewing in the Catalan capital and the artistic expressions of the future.

10. Rambla de Canaletas ends at the Poliorama Theater. If you doubt between them is two fifteen or two and twenty, the clock on the facade marks the official time of Barcelona.

barcelona en primavera
Nit dels Museus at MACBA.