At the beginning of the 20th century, the central sector, the most urban, was completed. The only doubt that he had planned about the work was the width that should be given to the new road axis. At first it seemed that a mere nine meters would be enough, but in the end it was extended to twenty. A remarkable success.
Such a route crossed large estates, which involved expropriations. Just to mention a couple of those close to the future Plaça de la Bonanova, Can Mandri and Ca n’Altimira. It is not risky to suspect that this generous extension gave it a showiness that had a decisive influence on gaining the attraction of residents. If around 1870 some bourgeois began to settle there to escape the torrid summers that weighed on Ciutat Vella and the nascent Eixample, later it exerted considerable attraction as a permanent residence.
The result did not take long to populate uniformly, especially the Paseo de la Bonanova. It became a balanced and unobtrusive row of towers surrounded by a garden, even at the front, as Cerdà had suggested for Paseo de Gràcia, although only the financier Salamanca had accepted it.
Instead, the innovative solution also provided by Cerdà was copied to make reasonable use of the land: the Permanyer passage. This is how the Passage Güell, intimate and secluded, ended up being born next to Plaça Bonanova.
The four large schools built at the end of the 19th century and in that order also helped to colonize the area: La Salle, Jesuits, Escola Pia and Jesús-Maria. While these centers are fortunately still standing, the demolition of almost all the towers had to be regretted.
One of the emblematic ones is the modernist one designed by the architect Puig i Cadafalch for Sultan Muley Afid. The consulate of Mexico preserves it immaculately and with an exciting detail of historical memory: the large wall clock is still stopped at two o’clock in the afternoon, when in 1939 Franco’s army of occupation burst in.
