We need more superlatives. We've just been to Barcelona for four days. What a beautiful, great city. We both loved it -- it might actually be our favorite European city to date. And as you know, if you've followed this blog, we've been lucky enough to get to quite a few of them. Do you get the impression we liked Barcelona a lot? To be fair, our visit to Prague, which so many have told us is their favorite European city, was cut short to less than two days. So we'll just have to return to Prague to give it a fair comparison with Barcelona.
Barcelona, of course, is a famous old port city which played a big role in the age of exploration -- (this is where Columbus appeared before Ferdinand and Isabella on his return from the New World). The fine maritime museum highlights much of this history. An
d, like so many Old World cities, it has a magnificent cathedral, begun, in this case, in 1289. One of the amazing things about so many of the cathedrals is that they were built so large and so high at a time when little was understood about the forces involved -- the people who built them were motivated by faith in God, but they also had a lot of faith that their creations would stand. The Barcelona cathedral is not as opulent as some others we've seen, but it gives an overpowering sensation of its sheer
verticality. It's amazing so many of these buildings stood and are still standing!
Barcelona is the capital of the Spanish province of Catalonia, and there is an active movement to keep the regional Catalan language alive -- in fact signs in many places, including the airport, are trilingual -- in Catalan, English and Spanish (note Spanish is in 3rd place).
In keeping with its long history as a major port for exploration, commerce and naval activity, the city has a large Maritime Museum, housed in what was once a royal shipyard, with a shipbuilding hall that was totally enclosed. Here many galleys, the warships of their day, were built for the Catalonian Navy.
Like so many European cities, Barcelona was once the site of a Roman city, complete with city wall. In the 19th century it
became clear the city had to expand outside the wall, most of which was destroyed. The new area of the city, planned by Ildefons Sunyer, the city's civil engineer, is called "Eixample", or "the expansion". A particularly effective inspiration Sunyer had was to lay out the blocks of the area so that all the corners are beveled, as in the drawing. This results in every intersection feeling like a small square, making the city feel very open and light, even where the buildings are large and high -- a very effective city plan.
Our hotel was just off Las Ramblas, said to be the most famous street in Spain, filled at all hours of the day and night with strollers walking its length from Plaza Catalana to the seafront. It is the site of numerous restaurants, cafes, shops, markets and street performers.
Architecture is a subject of unusually high interest in Barcelona. It was the site of an artistic explosion called
Modernisme (modernism) in the decades around 1900 and a great deal of the impact of this art form was embodied in architecture. Perhaps the most famous of the Modernisme architects was Anotonio Gaudi -- but he was by no means the first to practice the form nor, necessarily, the best -- just the most successful in getting high-profile commissions. His large church, the temple of Sagrada Familia (of cathedral dimensions) is still under construction many decades after his death and is the subject of a separate article in this blog.
One of the most unusual, but spectacularly beautiful buildings we saw was the
Palau de La Musica Catalana. Designed by Liuis Domenech i Montaner, an early practitioner of the architecture of Modernisme. It was built in the incredibly short period of 3 years, from 1905 to 1908. Commissioned (and still owned) by a choral society, it has been designed to showcase choral performances, (rather than orchestral), and is a very pleasing riot of color, tiles, flowers and innovative layouts.
Until recent years the Barcelona waterfront was dominated by brick and stone warehouses dating from past centuries and associated with its role as a powerful seaport city, but the result was a port that was both inaccessible to, and largely unseen by the residents. In the 1980s and 90s the watefront was "opened up", so that it has become one of the jewels of the city, visible, beautiful and heavily used for shopping, boating, dining out and other leisure activities.
We recommend a visit to this vibrant and very beautiful city. To tempt yourself further, visit some photos at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1652351
Yes, it did seem a bit odd to be celebrating American independence from Britain in a crowd consisting of mostly Brits. But that's what we did on the 4th at the residence of the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.
t G4, which recently finished as runners up in the British TV show X-Factor (similar to the US's American Idol). Their first record went right to number 1 in the UK and they are excellent, with a great mix of classic music, old standards and newer music, too. With their really beautiful harmony, they are especially good when singing a capella.
