Last week (mid-March) Chuck and I went to see Barcelona. Chuck had a paper to give at a conference, and I went along just to see this city which I had heard about for many years. I particularly wanted to see the Gaudi architecture. As it turned out, I not only saw plenty of his buildings, but discovered how delightful Barcelona really is.
First a look at the city. Barcelona is very large as the view below shows, has many wide avenues, is quite clean, and has a great deal of interesting architecture. It is a port city, and the statue of Christopher Columbus pointing West stands at the end of the harbor. The size of the city is evident in the photo taken from Montjuic, a large hill and huge park on the southeast edge of the city.
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| The Columbus statue |
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| A view of the city from Montjuic |
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| The famous avenue La Rambla |
I found a very charming Japanese-themed building along La Rambla, the famous walking street of Barcelona. It includes Japanese style umbrellas on the side of the building (those things that look like mushrooms) and an elaborate dragon hanging on the side to the right!
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| Japanese theme building (note the dragon right middle) |
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| Maritime Monument |
The Placa de Catalunya (below) is the city center and has a huge square with the fountain. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, which now has some autonomy politically from the rest of Spain. The Montjuic hill hosts many museums, including the National Museum of Catalonia, which I captured through the trees of a garden. We visited the Fondation Joan Miro, a museum containing a wonderful collection of Miro's paintings, sculpture and fiber works. I took my usual collection of photos, but somehow they were lost. However, the foundation website has all of the paintings, sculpture and fibrework online at
Joan Miro collection at Fondation Miro.
We also of course had several good meals, and we enjoyed the ones organized around tapas, small plates of interesting foods, the best!
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| Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona |
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| Across the hill of Montjuic to the Palau Nacional |
While Chuck was giving a talk, I visited the city's Modern Art Museum. It hosts a good collection of very recent art, and was well worth the trip. In front of the museum is an informal skateboarding site due in large part to the long clear space with smooth surface. I nearly got run over by the skateboarders!
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| Skateboarding in front of the Modern Art Museum |
I also had a chance to visit an ancient synagogue in Barcelona, one that dates to the 2nd century. It is tiny (70 meters by 6 meters) because no "other religion" could have a site that was bigger than the smallest church in Barcelona. These days this synagogue is used only for special occasions. The Jewish community of Barcelona is now about 1000 families (but was completely wiped out by forced conversions, wholesale slaughter and exile in the late 1300s), and there are 3 other modern synagogues.
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| The oldest synagogue in Barcelona |
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| Plaque on east Wall, Ancient Synagogue |
Visiting Gaudi Architecture
I have far more photos of the Gaudi sites we visited than I include here. We spent a lot of time in three Gaudi sites:
the Palau Guell (a home built for Eusabi Guell, said to have amassed a 70 Billion Euro fortune in the late 1800s!), the Casa Battlo (a home built for another wealthy industrialist) and the Parc Guell, built when the Guell family moved up to a hill north of the city). We also looked at the Casa Cavalet, but could not go inside, and the Segrada Familia, the cathedral still being built (which we didn't enter because the lines were awful!). The two homes have been largely restored over the past 10 years (at great expense). Lucky for us that the restorations happened!
My favorite was Casa Battlo as it is light, airy and playful. Palau Guell, an early work of Gaudi's, is massive, more like a castle than a home, pretty dark due to the use of dark marbles and woods, and very masculine feeling. It was meant to be impressive to Guell's clients, and it is that and more--a bit overwhelming. The central hall was designed to be dual function--for concerts and private mass. The upper region includes a massive organ, which was replaced in recent years, and played (by pre-recording) during our visit.
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| Main Staircase, Palau Guell |
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| Central Hall, Palau Guell |
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| View to the front of the Building |
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| Art Nouveau Fireplace |
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Chuck on the roof
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| StainedGlass Windows |
Antoni Gaudi was to my mind both a genius and a madman. He supervised every part of the design and even planned out how to run the rainwater off the roof. His roofs always include chimneys that are elaborately decorated as you can see in the picture where Chuck stands on the roof. He also used light to make rooms that were interior connected to the outdoors. In Palau Guell this is only somewhat successful, but in Casa Battlo, the light is everywhere.
Casa Battlo sits on a street (called the place of Discord!) with the buildings of two other Modernist Barcelonian architect
s: Casa Amatller by Josep Puig i Cadfaich and Casa Lleo Morera by Domenech i Montaner.
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| Casa Amatller |
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| Casa Morera |
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Casa Battlo
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| Central light corridor |
Casa Battlo is organized around a central open light corridor. Unlike his earlier work, this house has an organic feel to it--stained glass that looks like a clam shell from the beach, the central corridor invokes blue water, and the window frames are wavy.
The roof of course has lots of Gaudi style chimneys. This chimney also plays with the theme of Casa Battlo, the story of the dragon of St. George. The tiling along the front roof and the roof itself is said to represent the dragon's scales and body. Gaudi is also believed to be the first architect to concern himself with the attics of his houses.
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| View to the street |
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| Entrance to the living room |
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| Dining Room |
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| Attic |
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| Dining Room view to Terrace |
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| Roof Casa Battlo |
The Parc Guell is a set of structures built near the Guell family home and are meant to be playful. The salamander fountain is a case in point. The two guardhouses look like gingerbread houses, and the large court building holds up a large open space where one can walk and see to the city below.
