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La Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes is one of the most important cities of Barcelona, which crosses lengthwise covering more than 8km. The numeration of the buildings reaches up to 1,198.
Popularly named the Gran Via, it starts from the limit with Hospitalet de Llobregat, next to the square of Ildefonso Cerdá, and finishes at the other end of Barcelona, in the limit with San Adrián of Besós.
In its path it passes:
In the Cerdà Plan this route was called Letra N, Numero 11 (Letter N, Number 11), but in 1900 this name was substituted as Cortes, which remained until 1931, the year that it passed to be named Avenida de las Cortes Catalanas, although during the Franco dictatorship it was officially named Avenida de José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
In the stretch that goes between the Balmes street and the Rambla de Catalunya several bombs were thrown by the Italian aviation and fell down in 1938 during the Civil War. In the year 2001 a commemorative monument was raised which is possible to see just in front of the Coliseum cinema.
In 2007 an integral reform of the Gran Via was inaugurated through the District of Sant Martí, between the municipal term of Sant Adrià of Besòs and the Glories square. A costly work in which the semi-coverage of the freeway was achieved to its step along this district, which gained quality of life, diminishing considerably the acoustic contamination that it was suffering. Also the uses of the new zones in surface were checked, connecting streets in sea - mountain direction that used to be cut off by the freeway, including new green areas and allowing the step of the new line of the underground tramcar.
One of the attractive qualities of this highway is the Gran Via bridge, of the authority of
Santiago Calatrava.