The space beyond the walls, as it was considered a military zone to build there were prohibited. This implied that many factories and new homes for workers, were installed in neighboring towns like Gràcia, Sants, San Martín, San Andrés, etc.

The relationship between Barcelona and these other towns were quiet fluid, as we can confirm by the existence of roads and regular transport services between them, like the Portal del Ángel, the current Paseo de Gràcia, and others.

In 1854 the walls of the city of Barcelona were demolished. Still, it was not until 1859 that allows a development project to widen the city. The project was won by the architect Antoni Rovira i Trias, but finally, the Spain government imposed other winner: the engineer Cerdà.

Cerdà planning by a large rectangle of horizontal and vertical parallel streets, forming a set of square houses, with shaped chamfer angles. The original idea was to build only two sides of each block, and the rest inside this blocks were green areas.

With the Eixample, a new housing model was born (copying what was already happening in other European capitals): large palaces are no longer built to accommodate a single family, but buildings for multiple families.

This is the reason why today we can enjoy master pieces such the Lleó Morera House, the Amatller House and the Batllo House.