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Published: February 16th 2011
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We spent the day in Barcelona and despite having finished a long hard week and being in no mood to travel again it was nice to have something to do which was unrelated to work and school and Balaguer in general. I found myself being in the position of tour guide and had to admit that in all my time in Barcelona I never did huge amounts of sightseeing and really couldn't recommend the best places with any real authority. Instead we flipped through the guide book and as I commented on the places I had visited I realised I was sealing my fate of seeing them again.
It didn't really matter though as we chose to visit Casa Batllo and La Sagrada Familia. I love Gaudi's architecture and both places are so beautiful they could stand more than just a second visit.
Born the son of a coppersmith in Reus, Spain in 1852 Gaudi went on to become a very influential architect, with archtectual designs unlike anything seen before. Drawing his inspiration from natural all his buildings have a sensuous, curving, and almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement. With
little regard for formal order, he juxtaposed unrelated systems and altered established visual order and created a style of architecture entirely his own.
Still, we started our day with a general wander. We strolled down Las Ramblas to Columbus' Column and the docks then went in search of the covered bridge in the gothic quarter. The Barri Gotic is a beautiful area of the city, characterised by tiny cobbled streets. Picasso lived and worked here from 1895 to 1904 and Joan Miró was born and lived in the area during his youth. My friend purposefully marched ahead, in search of the bridge from the guide book and I hurried behind trying to match the names of streets to the places we were walking on. We had a long arguement as I insisted on trying to find the street we were standing on on the map first and my friend adamently said he knew where he was going... this was made all the more frustrating by the fact we suddenly looked up to see the bridge ahead of us and I was supposedly the tour guide! The bridge is over a tiny street just off a large plaza. Stepping between the
buildings suddenly removed us from the heat of the sun and the buildings cast long shadows creating a suitable environment for the many gargoyles and carvings staring down at the people below. We wandered further along the back streets eventually walking around the impressive gothic cathedral 'La seu' which must surely be lovely when not covered in scaffolding and netting, which was of course the case for us!
We returned to Placa Cataluyna and set off for Las Ramblas and lunch.
We began the afternoon by visiting Casa Batllo and surprisngly both wound up with student tickets despite only one card being flashed around. The house was just as enchanting a second time. The gentle curves and natural shapes are lovely to look at and the upper salon is so calming with the light filtering in through blue and purple stained glass. As ever the only problem with being a tourist is having to deal with all the other tourists and the room was a little crowded.
We moved on upstairs and I found one new thing to see, a small display room with pieces of Gaudi furniture in smooth polished wood. After reaching the top and gazing over the
scaly hide of the roof we returned to the main street.
From there we took the metro to La Sagrada Familia and joined the ever present queue to get in.
We stopped outside to admire the austere 'passion' facade depicting Christ's crucifixion. Construction began in 1954, following the drawings and instructions left by Gaudí for future architects and sculptors. The towers were completed in 1976, and in 1987 a team of sculptors, headed by Josep Maria Subirachs, began work sculpting the various scenes and details of the façade. They aimed to give a rigid, angular form to provoke a dramatic effect. Facing the setting sun, indicative and symbolic of the death of Christ, the Passion Façade is supported by six large and inclined columns, the design of which was based on the trunks of sequoia trees.
We approached the large doors, carved with Bible names and as I walked in the sun caught and highlighted the name Jesus which made a rather striking image. Inside I was suprised at noticeable changes from my previous visit two years ago. There seemed to be further decorations inside and there was significantly less rubble and obvious construction work in the centre.
We walked
around inside and they decided to find out how to climb the tower. A friendly man tipped us to go round the back and go up from the nativity side as the queue was shorter there. We hurried to follow his instructions and found in fact that the queue was practically non existant and we were able to go up in the lift after a less than 10 minute wait. At the top the views were incredible, although having chosen to travel with someone with a fear of heights I was entirely responsible for taking the photos. I didn't mind in the slightest and was quite happy to hang my camera over the chest high solid stone. We slowly followed the circular steps downwards and paused at various points to step onto balcony ledges behind statues of the Nativity facade looking down as the tourist bugs below scampered about and raised their cameras to the lofty heights we were standing in. Eventually we came back down to earth and appreciated the nativity facade from ground level.
Constructed between 1894 and 1930 the Nativity facade faces the rising sun to the northeast and depicts scenes of Christ's birth. Originally, Gaudí intended
for this façade to be polychromed, for each archivolt to be painted with a wide array of colors. He wanted every statue and figure to be painted. In this way the figures of humans would appear as much alive as the figures of plants and animals. Gaudí chose this façade to embody the structure and decoration of the whole temple. He was aware he would never finish the temple and would instead need to set an artistic and architectural example for others to follow after him. He also chose for this façade to be the first to begin construction and for it to be, in his opinion, the most attractive and accessible to the public.
We moved on to the museum which I am sure is larger than on my previous visit, or maybe last time I just managed to miss a section. We walked through the exhibits and then went back outside and sat in front of the Passion facade. The statues were softened by the warmth of the sunset and the shadows were more gentle and framed each group of statues with a border.
After sometime admiring Gaudi's masterpiece in a more relaxed way we ended the day's
sightseeing and headed for home.
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