This was the only day I can remember where I didn't write down any notes as to what we were seeing and my impressions along the way. The reason was it rained cats and dogs all day long and my notes would have gotten sopping wet and been illegible!
The monumental bronze Door of St. George connected the Viceroy's Palace and the Great Hall of the ancient Royal Palace. On the vertical arm of the cross, Barcelona's patron saint, St. George, was depicted with the dragon under his feet and the four bars of the coat of arms of the Counts of Barcelona and Kings of Aragon above his head. On the door were written several texts in Latin and Catalan taken from medieval chronicles and documents referring to the saint's miraculous intervention in various battles.
One of the towers had a bit of a reconstructed aqueduct. In ancient times, stone bridges carried fresh water from the distant hillsides into the walled city. As you may recall from a previous post, the big blobs on the street were supposed to signify the last thoughts of a patient with Alzheimer's.
In the center of the courtyard was a gigantic palm tree that looked like it was reaching for the heavens or at least the nearby Cathedral whose steeple we could just see!
At one end of the square was an odd inverted staircase monument that represented the shape of Catalunya and honored one of its former presidents who declared independence for the breakaway region in 1931. As that didn't work, the residents of Catalunya are still hoping to gain freedom from Spain.
The esplanade was called the Nature Theater as it was intended for the holding of open-air shows. The wonderful undulating 360- foot-long bench that ran around it was built between 1910 and 1914 and was made from prefabricated blocks of concrete covered with pieces of mosaics and pottery. In the first decades of the 20th century, many celebrations were held there from sports events, a balloon flight to social events. The most common, though, were demonstrations for Catalan sovereignty.
The Hall of 100 Columns was intended to be a produce market for the neighborhood's 60 mansions. Despite the hall's name, there were only 86 columns! White ceramic pieces covered the bases and the ceiling's multiple domes.
The Casa del Guarda was a private home conceived and designed by Gaudi as the porter's lodge at the main entrance to Park Guell. Built between 1901 and 1903 it was now a branch of the Barcelona History Museum and one of the few modest dwellings Gaudi created.
The other 'Hansel and Gretel' dwelling was the former Warden's House, now the souvenir store.
I loved the small mosaics on the walls.
Though Park Guell failed as a residential project, it has succeeded as a tourist attraction because Gaudi's architecture has won great international acclaim. In hindsight, Steven and I both felt we could certainly have given this a miss and not been disappointed at all as there wasn't much to 'see' or experience and there was a lot of waiting around to gain access to the park and to the guard house for limited 'return' on our investment of time and money. Admittedly, the rain didn't help our appreciation of the park, either.
It was wonderful getting out of the rain and into the excellent
Picasso Museum, especially since we had both looked forward to seeing its collection of nearly 300 paintings done before he left Barcelona and headed for Paris at just 23 years of age. Unfortunately the museum had a very strictly enforced no photo policy and I was unable to take any photos to have as a reminder and to include in this post of Picasso's genius as a young man when he'd already mastered the realistic panting style. The top collection of his works in his homeland had none of his famous later Cubist works.
What a delight it was to see his masterful portraits of grizzled peasants that he painted while in his early teens and then to view his paintings when he dabbled in a series of Impressionist-style landscapes although that was relatively rare in Spain at that time. Seeing his progression as an artist through his Blue Period when he was depressed and very poor, to the Rose Period when he fell in love was almost like reading a biography.
The museum was one of the very, very few that other visitors and I couldn't find a way to take at least a few pictures. It made me sad to have no visual record of our time and the chunk of money we spent to enjoy one of the world's most famous artists.
We returned to the Gothic Quarter as we hadn't had time to finish our tour of that area a few days ago. We wandered into this delightful patio not realizing the 16th century building was the Viceroy's Palace. After Catalunya became part of Spain in the late 15th century, Toledo became its capital. Barcelona's Royal Palace was demoted and became a small religious residence known as the Viceroy's Palace. When we traveled over much of South America last fall, we learned so much about the Spanish Inquisition. Little did we realize that a year later we would be visiting its headquarters in this palace!
The Viceroy's Palace now contained the Archives of the Crown of Aragon, one of the oldest archival institutions in Europe and consisted of some of the most valuable collections of documents from medieval Europe. It didn't make the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites but it was a part of the European Union's list of European sites because of the significant role it played in the history and culture of the continent.
These two large Roman towers once guarded the entrance gate of the ancient Roman city of Barcino that I wrote about in previous posts. The big stones that made up the base of the reconstructed towers were actually Roman.
At Barcino's peak, this Roman wall to the left of the towers was 25 feet high and a mile around with 74 towers and enclosed a population of 4,000 people.
Near the base of the left tower were modern bronze letters that spelled out BARCINO. The city's name may have come from Barca, one of Hannibal's generals, who may have passed through during Hannibal's invasion of Italy.
The Monument to the Martyrs of Independence showed five Barcelona patriots including two priests receiving their last rites before being strangled for resisting Napoleon's occupation of Spain in the early 19th century.
According to the plaque, the martyrs gave their lives in 1809 'por Dios, por la Patria, y por el Rey' - for God, country and king.
We hoped to escape the rain by entering the Casa de l'Ardiaca, once the archdeacon's home but now the city's archives but its open courtyard didn't allow much reprieve from the rain! The elaborately carved entrance way was a delight, however.
Beautiful tiles ringed the courtyard.
Some moderately impressive Roman stonework was visible by looking down into a stairwell.
In the center of the courtyard was a gigantic palm tree that looked like it was reaching for the heavens or at least the nearby Cathedral whose steeple we could just see!
From the balcony we could see a small Romanesque chapel, the only 13th century part of the cathedral that remained.
While in the Gothic Quarter, we stopped briefly at Els Quatre Gats or The Four Cats, the restaurant, historic monument, tourist attraction and nightspot made famous for being the circa-1900 bohemian artist hangout where Picasso drank and had his first one-man show when he was just 19. I liked the story behind the unusual name. Apparently, when the owner told his friends he'd be open 24 hours a day, they replied, "No one will come. It'll just be you and four cats." That was Catalan slang for 'just a few people.'
It was so, so neat seeing a copy of this painting on the wall as we'd just seen the original by the bar's owner and artist at the wonderful National Catalan Museum of Art while at Montjuic the previous day!
Nearby was a fountain with attractive yellow and blue tile work that had been added in 1918 and depicted ladies carrying jugs of water. In the 17th century, this was the last watering stop for horses before leaving town. I read that as recently as 1940, about ten per cent of Barcelona residents still got their water from fountains just like this.
The center of Barcelona was Placa de Catalunya with its many fountains and statues and grand buildings surrounding the 12-acre square which was the hub for bus and metro lines. More than half of the 7.4 million Catalans live in greater Barcelona and this has been described as the equivalent of Times Square for the proud region.
At the top of the Ramblas, a pedestrian street that radiated from the main square, were chairs that were permanently fixed to the sidewalk. People used to have to pay to rent one of them to look at the constant parade of people of walking by!
Just down from the chairs was the black and gold Canaletes Fountain that has been a local favorite for more than a hundred years. Legend has it that if you take a drink from the fountain, you'll come back to Barcelona one day. According to travel writer Rick Steves, the fountain is also a gathering place for celebrations and demonstrations. We didn't try to drink from the fountain but perhaps the almost constant rain we had will substitute and mean we'll return one day!
After leaving downtown by metro and on our way to another sight, I had an unnerving experience when I realized I was the target of a pickpocket who slashed the back of my poncho and then unzipped my backpack when we were on an escalator leaving the metro station. I felt shaken knowing what had happened and was relieved there had been nothing of value in my backpack.
It reminded us of what our walking tour guide had said the other day about our experiencing the true Barcelona but I could have done without that, thank you! It brought back memories of my being mugged last fall in Quito when my earrings were ripped out of my ears during broad daylight. In both situations, I was so lucky as they could each have been far worse. I know it's crazy but I was upset and mad that I needed to get rid of my 'apple poncho' that I had had for years when Steven and I bought matching ones when out for a bike trip in Vietnam.
Better late than never, I wore my backpack on my front as we continued to Park Guell designed by Antonin Gaudi - of Sagrada Familia fame - to be an upscale housing development for early 20th century urbanites. Gaudi intended this 30-acre garden to be a type of gated community when work began in 1900. Work ceased with the outbreak of WWI in 1914 and never restarted. Only two houses were built but neither were by Gaudi.
The retaining wall that supported the path was built like a great wave and was held up by sloping columns. It was popularly known as the Portico of the Washerwoman because of the sculpture on one of the columns. To me, I felt like I was in a Flintstones' film, though!
The esplanade was called the Nature Theater as it was intended for the holding of open-air shows. The wonderful undulating 360- foot-long bench that ran around it was built between 1910 and 1914 and was made from prefabricated blocks of concrete covered with pieces of mosaics and pottery. In the first decades of the 20th century, many celebrations were held there from sports events, a balloon flight to social events. The most common, though, were demonstrations for Catalan sovereignty.
Although Gaudi promoted the use of discarded tile, dishes and even china dolls from local china factories, as a cheap and aesthetically pleasing way to cover curvy benches and columns, it was his colleague, Josep Maria Jujol, who did the work.
The terrace would have had amazing panoramic views if it hadn't been raining the entire time we were there! On a clearer day we would have been able to spot Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's singular masterpiece.
The entire place looked like it belonged in a Hansel and Gretel movie and was far too cutesy for me to ever imagine living there!
The Hall of 100 Columns was intended to be a produce market for the neighborhood's 60 mansions. Despite the hall's name, there were only 86 columns! White ceramic pieces covered the bases and the ceiling's multiple domes.
The ceiling also had four sun-like decorations representing the four seasons as Gaudi always tried to incorporate nature into his designs.
Be prepared for more Gaudi frivolity on the staircase!
A great view of the Hall of 100 (86!) Columns and the staircase:
The interior was a pretty psychedelic blue and had almost exclusively curved walls and wavy ceilings. I would have gone bonkers in no time living there although I admired Gaudi's architectural genius and flair for the dramatic.
The other 'Hansel and Gretel' dwelling was the former Warden's House, now the souvenir store.
Without a doubt, the most unusual bathroom sign in my 'collection' yet!
The pink house with the steeple in the middle of the park was Gaudi's home for 20 years. We didn't mind not being able to tour the home as it wasn't designed by Gaudi but by a fellow architect as a model home to attract prospective residents to Park Guell.
How wonderful it was finally walking downhill back to our apartment as it had been a long and stressful day in the end!
Next post: More gaudy Gaudi - sorry I could't resist!
Posted on November 30th, 2018, from Arcos de la Frontera, Spain.
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