At the head of the Rei bastion, nine workers can be seen pickaxe in hand dedicated to the hard task of demolition.
They have worked hard; On land, at the foot of the corner, a large pile of unbalanced stones stands out. To the right of the photograph, another accumulation of rubble and ashlars resulting from the considerable demolition that allows us to glimpse the top of the Drassanes façade.
The suppression of the entire walled perimeter began in the Canaletes towers on this date worth remembering: August 7, 1854. It was significant that it began without waiting for royal permission, which still took a few days to be promulgated. This demand had dramatized precedents that confirmed the unanimous desire that was brewing in Barcelona.
Already in 1841 the first attempt had taken effect as a result of the irresistible popular initiative and carried out by the citizen Llinars, who was only armed with his pick to remove ashlars from the canvas of the Ciutadella bordering the Ribera neighborhood.
The second attempt materialized in 1843 at the head of the Rambla, after the uprising of Prim, and was directed by the Supreme Board of the province.
The third and final one had a very different profile, gaining a size equal to such an undertaking. No less than seven thousand workers were hired, under the direction of the architect Josep Fontserè.
It was a laudable strategy so that they could earn a daily wage, even if it was only 6 reais, the same amount that had been paid some ten years before; and it is that it was a measure to counteract a generalized unemployment due to the textile industrial mechanization caused by the use of the new selfactins. And as if that were not enough, the situation had worsened when the severe cholera morbid epidemic broke out with almost ten thousand deaths. The civil governor Pascual Madoz had not hesitated to take those extreme measures for the good of the people of Barcelona.
The demolition of the earthen wall lasted until 1857; the most demanding was that of the sea wall, the last to have been built (1555) and demolished (1881). That colossal accumulation of stone was used in part for the expansion of the port and the construction of houses in the Eixample.
