Barcelona's Las Ramblas: Economic powerhouse and symbolic heart of a city

It has been the scene of anticlerical violence, Spanish Civil War clashes, political demonstrations

It should come as no surprise that terrorists deciding to attack a target in Spain would choose Barcelona’s Las Ramblas. The driver of a van deliberately ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians, killing at least 14 people, and injuring more than 100 in the horrific incident. Beyond the immediate horror, the attack is likely to have consequences for the area.

Barcelona is Spain’s second largest city and the sixth most inhabited area in the European Union. Perhaps more significantly, it is a global tourism hotspot. A total of 18m tourists visited the region in 2016, with 9m staying