The Bonanova promenade was the result of the improvement and consolidation of the humble path that since ancient times allowed connecting Horta with Sarrià passing through Sant Gervasi, and whose extreme points already led outwards. The changes were directed and paid for by the Barcelona Provincial Council.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the central sector, the most urban, was completed. The only doubt that he had planned about the work was the width that should be given to the new road axis. At first it seemed that a mere nine meters would be enough, but in the end it was extended to twenty. Remarkable success.
Such a route crossed large farms, which implied expropriations. Just to name a couple of them close to the future Plaza de la Bonanova, they were Can Mandri and Ca n'Altimira. It is not risky to suspect that such a generous expansion gave it a visual appearance that had a decisive influence on gaining the attraction of the residents. If some bourgeois began to settle around 1870 to escape the torrid summers that weighed on Ciutat Vella and the nascent Eixample, it later exerted considerable attraction as a permanent residence.
The result did not take long to uniformly populate the entire Bonanova promenade. It became a balanced and quiet row of towers surrounded by a garden, including a front garden, which Cerdà had suggested for Passeig de Gràcia, but only the financier Salamanca accepted it.
Instead, the innovative solution also provided by Cerdà was copied to make reasonable use of the land: the Permanyer passage. This is how the Güell passage, intimate and secluded, ended up being born in Plaza Bonanova.
The four large schools built at the end of the 19th century and in this order had also helped the colonization of the area: La Salle, Jesuïtes, Escola Pia and Jesús-Maria. While these centers are fortunately still standing, the demolition of almost all the towers was regrettable.
An emblematic one is the modernist one that the architect Puig i Cadafalch designed for Sultan Muley Afid. The Mexican consulate preserves it impeccably and with an exciting detail of historical memory: the large wall clock is still stopped at two in the afternoon, when Franco's occupation army invaded in 1939.
