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The long streets west of the Passeig de Gracia - making up the Esquerra de l'Eixample - are no competition when it comes to planning a route around the Eixample, and most visitors only ever travel this part of the city underground - on their way into the centre by metro. This was the part of the Eixample meant by Cerda for public buildings, and many of these still stand. The grand Universitat building, at Placa de la Universitat, built in the 1860s, is the one you're most likely to see in passing, a Neoclassical pile with attractive courtyards and gardens, but there are many other large-scale projects in the streets to the northwest. All were built around the same time, many with a distinct modernista influence: the local Hospital Clinic (1904), with its fine pedimented portico; the main fire station; the prison - the Preso Model - with its star-shaped cell blocks; and Les Arenes bullring, the last a beautiful structure from 1900 with fine Moorish decoration. It's no longer used for bullfights, and there's talk of converting it into an exhibition hall, which at least would preserve its rather elegant presence from the scrapheap. It's not suggested that you make a special effort to visit any of these buildings. Indeed, probably your only venture into this part of the Eixample will be a window-shopping stroll along the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes (usually shortened to just the Gran Via), which links Placa d'Espanya with Placa de les Glories Catalanes to the east - where you will find a huge shopping centre and multiscreen cinema complex, as well as the new national theatre by Ricardo Bofill's architectural team, soon to be joined by a concert hall, the Auditori. However, there is one part of the Esquerra de l'Eixample that it is possible to justify a short walk around, starting at the Placa d'Espanya. Between here and Sants Estacio, several public spaces have been created over the last decade or so in a style known as nou urbanisme - typified by a wish to transform former industrial sites into urban parks accessible to local people. We've given details of other modern buildings and architectural projects scattered throughout the Eixample and beyond.
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