Passeig de Gràcia

After the walls were demolished the extension to the city was organized, based on Cerdà's design (1859), between the historic centre and the agricultural villages of the plain. The bourgeoisie gradually built their homes in this "new city" and promoted the elite residential nature of the streets around Passeig de Gràcia. This was helped by buildings like the Samà Mansion, at the crossroads with Gran Via, designed by the architect Josep Oriol Mestres in 1868 (and demolished in 1936). On the left, part of Plaça de Catalunya can be seen and, in Passeig de Gràcia, the tracks of Barcelona's first tram line, opened in 1872, can be made out.