The fountain of...Canaletes?

Continuing with the subject of  the previous post, today I am writing about another place where the people from Barcelona usually meet (if we are able in the middle of so many people) when we go to the city center. It is, of course, the fountain of Canaletes.

Formerly, when the city was still walled, there was a water fountain at the top of La Rambla, that brought water from Collserola. This source, which at first was inside a building, was at some time diverted, flowing thus outside, and it was very crowded with people coming from the whole city. The water was coming down a drain (canaleta in Catalan, and therefore its name) to a trough, and it was considered of a very good quality. So the locals queued to take some home, the same way that it happened and still happens in many towns.

Today the water from the fountain is not particularly good, it is supposed to have other properties. Tradition says that whoever drinks from the fountain comes back to the city.

The current fountain of iron, with four springs and a lamp on the top, is not unique. This is a design made ​​for the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and there are currently more than 15 distributed around the different districts of Barcelona. We can also find some outside the city, and even quite far away. This one on the picture, for example, is 12,000 kilometers away. Specifically, in the Plaza de Barcelona, of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A fountain from which, just in case, I drank!