Barcelona: Walking Tour (Tentative Agenda)

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Part One, Roman and Gothic – Barri Gotic

Steve Chambers’ pen & and ink sketches of Romanesque columns, Temple d’Augustus and Museu d’Historia of Barcelona

Quietly tucked away down one of the many mazelike alleys of the quarter, many travelers do not know about a hidden room. But, make your way to the Barcelona Cathedral, not far from Plaza Cataluyna. When facing the front of the Barcelona Cathedral, turn right and continue walking down Carrer del Bisbe, the main street for Roman ruins. You will reach a plaza; turn left and you will see a small street, Paradis. Turn left and walk down that street. You should see an Irish Pub on the right. Take the first right past the pub and follow that down into the opening to a room. You’ve found the hidden Roman ruins. Marvel at the sight of the ruins, then gasp at the horrible color of green with which the room is painted. On your way back, swing into the Irish pub and get a glass (or two or three) of their amazing sangria. All memories of this green are erased and you renew your love of architecture, re-hydrated and refreshed. And, it’s still early.

Now run, walk or shuffle to Placa del Rei at Carrer de Jaume, which features the most extensive subterranean Roman ruins in the world. Access them through the 14th Century mansion, where visitors can view the streets and squares of Roman Barcelona. Roman ruins scattered all about Barcelona’s Barri Gottic or Gothic Quarter, among institutional buildings.

Catedral de Barcelona
Directly to the west, across the street of Comtes, is the Cathedral of Barcelona, counted among this city’s Romanesque and Gothic inheritance. A Roman temple, and later a mosque once stood on this site in the heart of the Gothic Quarter. The cathedral was constructed over the crypt of a former Visigoth chapel throughout the 13th to 15th centuries, with the principal work done in the 14th century. The cloister, which encloses the Well of Geese was completed about 1450. A Neo-Gothic façade was constructed over the nondescript exterior that was common to Catalan churches in the 19th century. The roof is notable for its gargoyles, featuring a wide range of animals, both domestic and mythical.

La Rambla

After the cathedral, we’ll walk 6 blocks to the west to La Rambla, a wide tree-shaded avenue of newsstands, caged birds, flower stalls, tarot readers, musicians and mimes. In Barcelona, industry and demographics burgeoned its infrastructure. The Roman walls could hold the city no more, so it spread beyond them to become home to 4 million people. The opera house and the huge food market, Mercato Boqueria, are here. This city is Spain’s Manzana Grande, the Big Apple. Here, we’ll take a break, meet with some of the city’s architects for lunch, then hop a bus to Modernisme, Catalan’s version of Art Nouveau, approaching the surreal world of Antoni Gaudi.

Steve’s pencil sketch of Roman bridge in Toledo, Spain

Part Two, Modern Catalan

Sagrada Familia
In 1882, Sagrada Familia, the Church of the Holy Family, was begun and combined neo-Gothic and curvilinear, Modernisme (Catalan Art Nouveau) forms with ambitious structural columns and arches, including a rich variety of Christian symbols in the design. In 1883, the modernist architect Antoni Gaudí took over as lead architect at the age of 31. From that moment on, Gaudí devoted most of his life to the construction of the church. Instead of sticking to the original plans, Gaudí changed the design drastically. The Neo-Gothic style made way for Gaudí’s trademark modernist style, which was based on forms found in nature. When he died in 1926, only one facade, one tower, the apse and the crypt were finished. Because Gaudí was constantly improvising and changing the design while construction was going on, he left few drawings and models.

When completed, the Sagrada Familia will have a total of 18 towers. Four Towers on each of the three facades represent the 12 apostles. The towers reach a height of 394 ft. Another four towers represent the 4 evangelists. They will surround the largest, a 558 ft tall tower, dedicated to Jesus Christ. The last tower, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, will be built over the apse.

Casa Batllo
Casa Batlló, a building restored by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol, was built in the year 1877 and remodeled in the years 1904–1906. It is located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia, part of the “Block of Discord” in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Spain. The local name for the building is Casa dels Ossos (House of Bones), and indeed does have a visceral, skeletal organic quality. It was originally designed for a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona. The building is remarkable —like everything Gaudí designed, only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work, not unlike hand-dripped castles in the sand at the beach.

It seems that the goal of the designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís) that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, is a metaphor for ‘St. George Slaying the Dragon,’ as the rooflines give the appearance of the skin of the creature. The lance of Saint George, patron saint of Catalonia, Gaudi’s home, has been plunged into the back of the dragon. The overall structure of both Casa Battlo and Casa Mila resemble the organic forms of the nearby Dolomite mountain range.

Casa Mila
Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, meaning The Stone Quarry, is a building designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built during the years 1905–1910, being considered officially completed in 1912. It is located at 92, Passeig de Gràcia. Pedro Milà i Camps, a rich businessman was impressed by the Casa Battló, the expressionist building designed by Gaudi. He commissioned Gaudi to construct an apartment building on a corner site in the Eixample district. The result is a less colorful, yet even more unconventional building than the Casa Batlló. It breaks with traditional architecture by not using a single straight line. The building does not use load-bearing walls, but rests on pillars and arches. The use of steel allowed the architect to create completely irregular floor plans. Even the height of the pillars and ceilings differ from one to another. In order to allow light in all the rooms, the apartments are arranged around two central courtyards, one circular and the other oval-shaped. On the outside, the undulating balconies look like a series of waves.

The top floor, attic and the extraordinary roof are open to visitors. The apartment on the top floor gives an idea of how the interior must have looked at the beginning of the 20th century. Just like on the outside, the interior has virtually no straight lines. The attractive rooms have a lot of character, with a mixture of expressionist and Art Nouveau styles. The roof is probably the most extraordinary of the building. It features a number of surrealistic colorful chimneys. Many of them look like warriors in a science fiction movie; others look more frivolous. The roof also features a bench similar to the one in Parc Guell. From the top of Casa Milà, you have a nice view over the Eixample district.

Parc Guell
In 1900 Guëll commissioned his friend and protégé Antoni Gaudí with the development of the project. With support from other architects, Gaudí worked on the garden village until 1914 when it was clear the project was a commercial failure: Guëll failed to sell a single house. In 1918 the city acquired the property and in 1922 it was opened to the public as a park. Parc Guëll was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1984.

It’s now time for wine and dinner, back at the castle in Ullastret!

Below, is a gallery of sketches by Steve Chambers of Greek, Roman, Gothic, and Romanesque details that will help us better identify the architectural styles that we see during our tour of the ancient quarter of the city of Barcelona.