I am staying in a hostel called HelloBCN, which is only a few blocks away from the sea and a short ride on the Metro to any of the major sites in the center of town. The place is very cool and clean, and I've met some interesting people here. Mostly, I've run into Aussies, Germans, and people from the U.S., both at the hostel and in my adventurings as a tourist. There are always people hanging out in common rooms here, and everyone's friendly and willing to strike up a conversation. They give us free breakfast and lockers, and the people at the desk are always nice and helpful, so this feels like a good place to be.
Yesterday, I took myself on a sort of tour tribute to Antoni Gaudí, a famous Modernist architect from Catalunya. He came to Barcelona to study in the late 1800s, and began to set himself apart as a visionary architect. As his renown grew, he migrated from working on collaborative projects to being commissioned by the city's bourgeoisie for various buildings. Among his most famous works are la Casa Batlló (1906), la Casa Mirá (better known as La Pedrera, 1910), and el Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia (started in 1883, still under construction). I visited all three of these places, starting with La Sagrada Familia (website in English, also available in Español and Catalán).
Sagrada is an incredible building. It's huge, for one, and very different than any church I've ever seen, not just be virtue of its Modernist architecture. There are two main facades to the church, one telling the story of the Passion and one, the story of the Nativity. There is a stark difference between the two...the Nativity facade is richly decorated and very elaborate, while the Passion facade is very bare with strong, straight lines and little, if any, adornment. Gaudi did this on purpose...he wanted the Passion facade to be bare and plain, like bones, because it was to tell the story of Jesus' persecution and death. The Nativity facade, on the other hand, was supposed to celebrate life, and is consequently adorned with all sorts of decorations.
The Passion facade recounts the events of Jesus' death in twelve different sculpted scenes, moving in an 's' shape from lower left up to the top right. I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture, but you can basically piece it together by looking at these:
This takes up less than half of the entire facade. Above these sculptures are four bell towers, dedicated to the four apostles. They extend for meters above the street, but when the entire church is finished, they'll be dwarfed by an enormous central tower (130 some meters high) that will be dedicated to Christ. A photo, taken from a park across the street:
The interior of the church is incredible. The space is enormous, as you might guess from looking at the exterior. It has tons of huge windows filled with beautiful stained glass, and 54 pillars that support the weight of the structure. The pillars are modeled after trees, and are visually very similar to their natural counterparts (the incorporation of natural structures is actually one of Gaudí's defining stylistic elements, which I'll explain later on). The pillars aren't smooth all the way around, but rather have a wavy structure (another Gaudí staple) that spirals upwards and gets more concentrated towards the top of the column. This is, again, inspired by the pattern of wood in trees. The pillars are made of three different types of stone, granite, basalt, and red porphyry, and they are strategically used according to their strengths and weight-baring capacity (I listed them from weakest to strongest). In the photo, the lightest stone is the granite, the darker grey is basalt, and the red stone is the red porphyry:
The Nativity facade is on the opposite side of the church as the Passion facade (it faces east, while the Passion facade looks westward). It has three porticoes, dedicated to the three members of the Holy Family and symbolizing hope, faith, and charity. Within each portico are sculptures depicting various parts of Jesus' early life, starting with the immaculate conception and Jesus' birth and continuing through his work as a carpenter and the family's move to Egypt. Every surface is adorned with reliefs of plants and animals (Gaudí's nature motifs), and the main portico is topped by a great tree of life (a cyprus, symbolizing eternity, covered with doves, as symbols of heaven and believers). The Nativity facade is again topped by four bell towers for each of the four apostles. I got to climb up into one of the towers and get a closer look at some of the higher detail, as well as some great views of Barcelona:
After finishing at La Sagrada Familia, I ate lunch in the park across the street and then made my way over to La Pedrera, Gaudí's apartment builiding that he finished in 1910. People actually lived in it in the 1920s, and part of what we saw there was the way a typical apartment of the time would have been set up. The building has almost no straight lines in it...everything is wavy, even the roof. This was done to give the building more structural strength and aesthetic appeal. Gaudí actually figured out how to construct the building in such a way that its weight was completely born by the outer wall and some central metal pillars, so that it didn't rely on its internal walls for structural integrity. Essentially, this meant that any interior wall could be knocked down and moved at a whim without jeopardizing the building itself...a very innovative construction technique which Gaudí considered to be the ultimate in customizability. Any occupant could change the layout of their apartment whenever they wanted.
The attic of La Pedrera contained an exhibit about Gaudí and his work, detailing his biography and his innovative architecture in all of his works. One of his techniques was to make use of natural forms in his buildings, because they were simple to construct and made for very solid structures. The tree-like pillars of La Sagrada Familia are one example, but he also used many spiral shapes (mainly for staircases) and different types of arches (for example, catenary and hyperbolic). He created these forms by working with hanging chains, adjusting them to create inverted versions of the buildings he imagined, and then taking the angles formed by those chains and applying them to his constructions (these are catenary arches):
By the time I finished at La Pedrera, I'd been walking around for about six hours straight...in other words, time to head back to the hostel for a little rest. I stopped by la Casa Batlló for a look at the facade, but I didn't go inside.
Once back at the hostel, I had about an hour of downtime before going to a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra with my friend Jordi (he lives in Barcelona). The concert was at the Palau de la Música Catalana, which is one of the most exquisite and beautiful buildings I've ever been in. The outside is made of red brick...while nicely constructed, this is not the highlight of the Palau. The best part is the concert hall inside...taking pictures was forbidden, so I had to be sneaky with my camera work. The space is large, not huge, but every surface is decorated in some way, either with mosaics or carvings. All the windows were of stained glass, and a huge stained glass bulb, resembling a drop of water just starting to form, hung over the center of the hall. The concert was very good, and made even better by virtue of the venue.
I have two days left in Barce (now more like one and a half, I suppose), and there's still so much to see! I have to walk up La Rambla, the city's central street, and explore the Gothic neighborhood and the old buildings in that area. The old Gothic cathedral in town was built around the 600s, and there's another church called Santa Maria del Mar that is supposed to be one of the most beautiful churches ever built. With a lot to do and little time, I'm going to have to run. Take care, be great.
P.S. I learned all this information about Gaudí and his building by using audioguides at the places I went to. I broke down and did the touristy thing to do...but it was totally worth it because I learned so much about the structures that I would never have otherwise found out (there aren't really informational signs anywhere, which is part of why they can get people to pay to use audioguides).
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