4 posts tagged “barcelona”

In the Middle Ages, architects used great animals like lions and eagles or fantasy animals like griffins and gargoyles to decorate the great Gothic cathedrals. Gaudí's church of the Holy Family, la Sagrada Familia, looks like a Gothic cathedral at first glance, but it is certainly not.

When you look closer, you might get the impression that the great church is inspired by fairy tales or fantasy literature.  But if you take your time and  look at the details, you will find that Gaudí's main source of inspiration was nature. Everywhere you see plants and animals and they are there for a reason.

On the Nativity Facade, one of the columns is carried by a great big turtle and another is decorated with a chameleon.  When asked about this, Gaudí said that the turtle represents the careful speed by which the Church moves through the centuries and the chameleon symbolizes  the ability the Church has to adapt to the cultures it meets around the world.

In the interior of the church, the columns all look like trees. One day, when this great building is completed, its nave will be like a forest. On the roofs of the transepts there are little spires all topped with baskets of fruits like strawberries, olives and almonds (see the photo in this post). They are not merely decorative -- nothing here is -- they represent the fruits of the Spirit.

La Sagrada Familia is like no other church I have seen and visiting it freed my mind to think of God in new ways. After all, God too must be like nothing I have seen :)

If you want to read more about la Sagrada Familia, have a look at the Wikipedia article.
Photo by WordRidden.

Among my favorite souvenirs from 2006 are the memories and photos from the creations Gaudí in Barcelona. Not many architects can build a house that makes you change your opinion of what a house is. Gaudi certainly coud and he did over and over again!

Antoni Gaudí was one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, and a great innovator. His architecture and art is inspired by nature: His method for building arches is inspired by trees, his stairwells inspired by snail shells and the details and decorations are inspired by every kind of plant or animal you can imagine.

Gaudí lived most of his life in Barcelona, and the city has several famous buildings and landmarks designed by him. I have visited two homes, both museums: Casa Batllo and Casa Mila. They are both typical of Gaudí's style and yet very different.

Casa Batllo
Casa Batllo is inspired by the ocean -- the house has soft fluid lines and all kinds of nuances of the color blue. This house is very delicate and even the fascade has very fine details. Gaudí even designed the furniture -- it's very functional and very beautiful, very modern yet with a  classical feel to it.

Casa Mila
Casa Mila is called The Quarry by the locals and you can see why. The exterior is made of roughly cut stone and the building has a heavy, monumental character -- the oposite of the light and delicate details of Casa Batllo. In the attic of Casa Mila you can take a free audio tour that will give you a lot of interesting details of Gaudí's methods of construction.

Parc Güell
Parc Güell was ment to be an exclusive residetial area where people could buy lots and Gaudí designed the houses and the park around. For some reason the project wasn't very popular and only 2 or 3 houses were ever built. The park was still completed and today it is a great place to spend a day walking in beautiful surroundings. And the view of Barcelona from the park is spectacular. My friend Tor has a post about Parc Güell.

Gaudí's most famous work is the Church of the Holy Family, la Sagrada Familia. That fascinating building is material for another post.

There are more great photos of Gaudí's masterpieces in my Gaudí collection (click on the image to the left).  I also recommend the web site that was  published for the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2002.

On Christmas Eve we were having lunch in Barcelona's Cathedral Square (Basque tapas, or pinxos, as they are called -- mini sandwiches with hot sausage, peppers filled with tuna mousse, pickled anchovies -- a meal to remember). That's when I met an angel. No, really! I met an angel and it was a magical moment. Here's what happened:

I was strolling around the square watching happy families, a juggling artist, the ever present South Americans with Pan flutes. That's when I saw him. He was one of those people who make some extra money pretending to be a statue, only he was tired and had climbed dowh from his box to have a moment's rest.

He was very beautiful and not at all aware of being watched. I took his picture, but still couldn't make myself move on. Finally, he raised his head and met my gaze and it was one of those moments...

This little story of the angel and me even has its own heavenly sound track, with its own story: I was in Barcelona this summer, during a heat wave. We were walking the wonderful, narrow streets of the historic quarter behind the Cathedral when we heard an etheric kind of music. Around the corner, we found a young man playing an instrument we had never seen or heard before.

We didn't stop to listen because the sn was beating down on us and we wanted to get inside. But the memory of the stragge and lovely music stayed with me. When we returned to Barcelona 5 months later, there he was, on the same corner, playing the prefect music to go with my angelic enclunter. The instrument is called a hang and it is a kind of steel drum. Even though it has an exotic sound, it was designed in Europe.

I spent this Christmas in Barcelona. Our hotel was close to the old town, the Barri Gotic. This fascinating part of town is all narrow streets with crooked Medieval buildings that are home to tiny, dark pubs, exotix restaurants, and tapas bars where you can nibble at delicate traditional Spanish "fast good" all through the night.

Most of the stores in this area close off their door and window with metal blinds. These always get covered in graffiti. Some store owners avoid unplesant graffiti by inviting graffiti artists to decorate their blinds.

The result is that the streets of the Barri Gotic are riddled with colorful, intense street art tableaus like the ones pictured here.  Visit Barcelona if you can  --  it's a cool city. And make sure to spend some time in the Barri Gotic.