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Archive for the ‘Barcelona’ Category

The garden city of Parc Güell

By Traveller On July 4, 2008 No Comments

Gaudí’s most colorful architectural creation

In 1900, Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi commissioned his friend Antoni Gaudí to design and build the garden city of Parc Güell – which was to become Gaudí’s most colorful architectural creation.

The real attraction is the Plaça de la Naturlesa – a huge terrace with a spectacular view down to the harbor. The sides of the square are lined with the famous snake bench. In the “Hundred Column Hall” below, many street musicians make the most of the excellent acoustics of the open hall. If you wander through the complex, you come across idyllic little arcades and, at the foot of the hill, the Gaudí Museum. This is where the artist lived for nearly 20 years, and in the church-like building, you can still admire today the extravagance and playfulness of the architect in many little details.


Santa Maria Monastery, a national shrine for the Catalan people

By Traveller On July 4, 2008 No Comments

Sierra de MontserratSome 40 miles northwest of Barcelona, the rugged chalk cliffs of the Sierra de Montserrat (national park) tower over the Santa Maria Monastery, a national shrine for the Catalan people. As early as the Middle Ages, it developed into an important pilgrimage site after the legendary discovery of a statue of the Virgin Mary, and even today more than 750,000 believers every year still flock to see the “Moreneta” (“Black Madonna”), a foot-high figure of the Madonna and baby Jesus wrapped in a golden cloth. In 1808, Napoleon’s troops burned nearly the whole place to the ground, and all that survived were the Romanesque church portal and the Gothic cloisters. But the entire monastery was rebuilt some 50 years later.

It is an important Benedictine monastery which became a center of the Renaixença – the rediscovery of the Catalan culture – during the 19th century. As well as the church, the printworks, goldsmiths’ workshop and the library are all worth seeing. And no visitor should leave without trying the homemade cheese, honey and herb liqueur, known as “Aromes de Montserrat”, sold by the monks.


Sagrada Família, One of Barcelona’s most famous landmarks

By Traveller On July 4, 2008 No Comments

One of Barcelona\'s most famous landmarksOne of Barcelona’s most famous landmarks is the Templo de la Sagrada Família (“Church of the Holy Family”), to which Antoni Gaudí dedicated the last 16 years of his life, without ever completing it. In 1883, the 31-year old architect took over the monumental building project, which was financed by private donors and was designed to hold up to 15,000 people once it was complete.

According to Gaudí’s plans, there was to be a five-aisle basilica with a three-aisle transept, topped by a total of seventeen 350-foot tapering steeples. To date, only four of these towers, the ones above the east and west portals, have been completed. The building was designed as a “church for the poor” and, as with his other works, the architect was inspired by nature with its soft, rounded and flowing forms, and therefore decided to dispense with flying buttresses and supporting pillars. From the top of the Barnabas tower, which you reach by elevator or by climbing a seemingly endless spiral staircase, there is a spectacular view over the rooftops of the city.


Las Ramblas, one of the most famous streets in Spain

By Traveller On July 3, 2008 No Comments

Las Ramblas is one of the most famous streets in Spain, where young and old, locals and tourists alike meet to chat or simply to sit and watch the world go by. The street stretches out over nearly three-quarters of a mile, and is lined with flower stalls, street theater, bars, musicians, monuments, magicians, painters, kiosks, restaurants and much, much more.

Not far from the Plaça de Catalunya, a busy square with neoclassical façades, is the Palau Moià, a citizens’ palace dating back to the 18th century, with murals by the Catalan painter Francesc Pla in the main hall. La Boqueria (“the chasm”) is well worth a visit – this is the most famous market in Barcelona for fruit, vegetables and seafood. The 18th-century Palau de la Virreina, which was built by a Peruvian viceroy for his wife, is now used for special exhibitions. The Gran Teatre del Liceu, built in the middle of the 19th century, is now one of the top opera and ballet houses in the world. Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe are just two of the 300 famous and infamous personalities on display at the Museu de Cera, an excellent waxworks museum.


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