Passeig des Born

The Passeig des Born stretches out as a wide, tree-lined promenade marked by four stone sphinxes standing guard at its corners. Originally the bed of a seasonal torrent, the city diverted the water and transformed the path into a formal parade ground for the nobility in the early nineteenth century. When the carriages stopped rolling through, a local merchant named Antoni Maura commissioned the sphinxes to define the space. They remain, watching over the cafes and crowds that occupy the former riverbed today.