The clock tower stands in the centre of the Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia and, at almost 33 metres high, is the tallest public tower in the district. Although it is built mainly of stone ashlars, brick was used for the construction of the windows that open out, the vertical bands that decorate it and the corners of the structure. The tower has a solid square stone base, topped on each side with the coats of arms of the Vila de Gràcia, Barcelona, the Principality of Catalonia and the arms of Queen Isabella II. In the keyhole of the base facing the City Hall building, there is a fountain, framed by a large arch and with two sculpted spouts in the shape of faces that spout water from their mouths. On the upper part of the fountain, also framed by the arch, is a commemorative plaque commemorating the year of its construction (1864), the damage it suffered during the popular uprising of the “Quintes” in 1870 and its restoration in 1882. The body of the tower itself is built on the square base. It is octagonal in plan, although the eight faces are not of a unitary size; rather, those that make up the corners are smaller and projecting, more like a kind of chamfer. For this reason, the windows that open onto the tower are only on the four main faces, which coincide with those of the square on the ground floor. The tower is organised in elevation on three clearly differentiated levels, the first of which runs directly on the square podium and is topped by a large cornice. This cornice is decorated with twelve sculpted plaques representing the zodiac, which are the most emblematic element of the tower, making it the only civil tower in the Vila de Gràcia (the rest were church bell towers). The next section, which is higher than the previous one, has two groups of windows that are configured as small openings in sardinel brickwork and are framed by the vertical brick strips that decorate the tower. These strips extend to the cornice that closes this second body and are finished off with a kind of arches reminiscent of those found in Romanesque mountain constructions. This cornice, which separates the second part of the tower from the crowning, develops in the form of a continuous cantilever, giving rise to a circulation element that surrounds the top floor. This continuous balcony with an iron railing makes sense because of the structure of the building itself: a bell tower with a clock. On the top floor there is a clock with four dials that can be seen from any point in the town. The machinery was built by the Swiss watchmaker Albert Billeter, the true precursor of electric clocks in Spain. The structure is crowned by a large bell, the work of Isidre Pallarès, decorated with elaborate friezes, the coat of arms of Gràcia and reliefs of Saint Isidore, the Virgin of Gràcia and the Blessed Sacrament. On the ground floor, there is a door that leads to the inside of the tower, where there is a spiral staircase with a continuous return and without landings that leads to the clock machinery.

In 1865-66, the architect Antoni Rovira Trias designed a passageway for a group of three landowners (Girona, Martorell and Casi) which, under the name of ‘Pasaje del Comercio’, was to join the Rambla with what is now Carrer de Josep Anselm Clavé in the shape of an ‘L’, forming a small irregular octagonal square at the corner. In the report presented together with the project, Rovira envisaged a building with unitary façades. Although he himself designed an entrance, the buildings that were built in 1869-82 framing it are the work of Elies Rogent. At the end of the small square (numbered 8 according to the parcel list, but with the number 7 on the door) is the former building of the Banca del Crédito Docks – since 1973 occupied by the Museum of Wax – with a curious convex marble façade, according to three sides of the octagon. The complex is interesting as an example of one of the different types of passageways that were opened up in the second half of the 19th century in the interior of the old city in order to obtain a larger building area, and which constitute the most important urban reforms carried out at that time in the old quarter.

The Ciutadella Park extends over the remains of the old fort that was built in the 18th century to control Barcelona militarily, together with the Montjuïc Castle, and to be able to subject the city to crossfire if it revolted again. Once the space around the city had been cleared and the Cerdà plan had begun its works, the military imposed the condition that the land should be turned into a park for the fort’s demolition. This is submitted to a competition, which is won by Josep Fontserè thanks to his ability to hand over the land against the remains of the Ribera district, demolished precisely to build the fort, and against the growing city organised by Cerdà. Against the Ribera district, Fontserè organises an urbanization which depends on the Passeig del Born and the current Passeig Picasso, both parallel, culminating in the Born market. Against the Eixample, Fontserè has what will become the Passeig de Sant Joan. The project suffers from two major setbacks: the first one happens when Fontserè is forced to preserve part of the Ciutadella buildings (such as the one that currently houses Parliament of Catalonia) and to have a water tank that ends up being turned into a monumental waterfall. Fontserè does the project with the collaboration of Antoni Gaudí, then still a student. The second setback is the 1898 Exhibition, which delays its development. This is carried out episodically over the following decades, never completed on the southern slope where Mayor Porcioles will end up building the Zoo that prevents the connection with Poblenou. Today, all the romantic-inspired gardens, preserved by existing buildings and those built in the early 20th century, which produce one of the most pleasant walks in the city, are preserved. The monumental waterfall, where Gaudí played a decisive role, is still open to the public and can be visited. The park is guarded by a perimeter fence and the Zoo is still awaiting relocation. When this is done, the park will finally reach its original perimeter.