Barcelona calls us early - we have a busy day of sight-seeing planned and Gaudi is front and center. Breakfast is a hot tea in the room and pastry from the neighborhood cafe. The first couple of stops are right down the street from our hotel - how convenient.
First is Casa Milа popularly known as La Pedrera. It was the last civil work designed by architect Antoni Gaudi, and was built from 1906 to 1912. One of the innovative structural elements is a self-supporting stone front and columns that keep the floors free of load bearing walls. Interior walls can and do have many configurations. Everything involves curves - it’s difficult to find a straight line anywhere which really challenged all the tradesmen of the time. Similar to Frank Lloyd Wright, Gaudi designed everything in his buildings - from furniture, floor tiles, stained glass windows and door handles. His windows and interior atriums fill the building with natural light. It is hard to imagine how committed he must have been.
The next stop is Casa Batllo, one of Gaudi’s true masterpieces. The locals call it Casa dels ossos (House of Bones) because of its skeletal, bone-like quality - like a dragon grew into a house. Gaudi avoids straight lines completely. Much of the facade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. It has skylights resembling tortoise shells and vaulted walls in curving shapes. There is even a mushroom-shaped fireplace with a large seat on one side for courting couples and a smaller seat on the other for the chaperone (having a chaperone while courting was customary at the time). The elaborate and animal-like decor continues throughout. The loft contains a series of sixty catenary arches that creates a space which represents the ribcage of an animal and was used for storage and washing clothes. 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, represents the lance of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia, Gaudi’s home), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon. There is no where in the world like this and no other architect like Gaudi.
We hail a taxi and we are off to the big daddy of all Gaudi's works - Sagrada Familia. Our entry time is 13:30 so we have just enough time to grab something to eat. We run into a tapas place across the street. Monique orders meatballs and mushrooms and Dave orders a cold dish with crabmeat and pinapple - with two cervesas to wash it down. We munch out and at the end they bring us bread with tomato sauce spread on it. We tell them we didn't order it but they insist that comes with what we ordered and are charged 4 euros for it. We complain but need to go so we pay it. I’m pretty sure we just got scammed.
Now to the amazing part - the Sagrada Familia. Monique and I have seen a lot of churches but this one leaves you speechless. It is the most beautiful and amazing structure we have ever seen - and it is colossal. Gaudi's understanding of light and organic form are breathtaking. The construction began in 1882 and Gaudi became involved in 1883. He took over the project and transformed it with his architectural and engineering style. He combined both Gothic and the curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.
Gaudi devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Gaudi is said to have remarked: "My client is not in a hurry.” After Gaudi’s death, work continued until interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Parts of Gaudi’s models and his workshop were destroyed during the war. The present design is based on reconstructed versions of the plans that were burned in a fire as well as on modern adaptations. Since 1940 the architect’s Francesc Quintana, Isidre Puig Boada, Lluis Bonet i Gari and Francesc Cardoner have carried on the work.
They now use digital modeling and send the files to a CNC machine that cuts the stone blocks at a quarry outside of town. This is one to put on the top of your bucket list. It is projected to be completed in 2026 - the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death.
Well, nothing can top that, but we are off to Park Guell which is located in La Salut, a neighborhood in the Grаcia district of Barcelona. With urbanization in mind, Eusebi Guell assigned the design of the park to Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi unleashed all his architectonic genius and put to practice much of his innovative structural solutions that would become the symbol of his organic style. As a community development, Park Guell ultimately failed, but it was an idea a hundred years ahead of its time. Back then, high-society ladies didn’t want to live so far from the cultural action. Today, the surrounding neighborhoods are some of the wealthiest in town, and a gated community here would be a big hit.
Casa Milа (La Pedrera) was commissioned in 1906 and at the time it was controversial because of the undulating stone facade and twisting wrought iron balconies. It is wild looking today, imagine what they must have thought back then.
The roof top of this building blows your mind with the way he finishes the chimney stacks and creates amazing sculptural endings. You can also see his light well - allowing light to enter the interior rooms. A must see - especially for artists!!
Detail of the roof chimneys and vents.
Casa Batllo - much of the facade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. It has skylights resembling tortoise shells and vaulted walls in curving shapes.
Gaudi created a larger central light well which supplies light to the whole building and covered the walls in shades of blue tile. Light is very important to Gaudi. The main floor (noble floor) of the building is larger than 700 square meters.
The ceiling swirls like a whirlpool in reverse and at its center is a beautiful light fixture reminiscent of a sun or flower.
There are large, curved windows to the street side so people could look in to see the important people inside and the people inside could watch the goings on outside on the Passeig de Gracia, which in the early 20th century was known as a prestigious and fashionable area.
The roof terrace is arched and looks like the back of a dragon.
Constructed between 1894 and 1930, the Nativity facade was the first to be completed. It is dedicated to the birth of Jesus. It faces the rising sun to the northeast, a symbol for the birth of Christ. The Tree of Life rises above the door of Jesus in the portico of Charity.
Detail of the Nativity facade showing the birth of Jesus.
To Gaudí “sunshine is the best painter and the light changes with the time” being the result of a great symphony of color and light that changes throughout the day.
The columns that rise far above you into the ceiling resemble tree trunks. By designing the columns this way, Gaudi was able to avoid using flying buttresses (commonly used in large Gothic Cathedrals like Notre Dame in Paris) to support the great load. Not only is it structurally sound, it is beautiful to look at.
Gaudi’s mastery of how daylight can affect a building’s interior is evident here. The light shines through all levels of the stained glass windows - truly a sight to see.
Apparently there are paid and free areas of this park. We will do the paid area in a few days. This is a section of the wall outside the gated housing community - designed in a way to be beautiful and make it difficult for people to get in without an invitation.
An Aqueduct at Parc Guell. The free section is actually larger and showcases all of the various building lots that were available as well as the roads, paths and aqueducts Gaudi designed into the housing development.