Barcelona Views, February 2023

 

A sign of Catalonian pride, above.  Crowds on the central square and the Ramble, below.

  A little background on Barcelona.  It is in the region of Catalonia, which has its own history, traditions and language.  Catalan is spoken by over 12 million people in Catalonia, southern France, and Sardinia.  It sprang up in the 1200s and was suppressed after the Spanish War of Succession around 1700.  Barcelona thrived during the 1800s Industrial  Revolution and experienced  the 'Renaixença,' a rebirth of pride in Catalonian culture and language.  After the Spanish Civil War from 1936-39, Franco banned Catalan.  He died in 1975 and Catalan was once again recognized as an official language.  We observed that signs in Barcelona were often first in Catalan, second in English and third in Spanish.  

Barcelona is a thriving metropolis of almost 2 million people.  The region has about 5 million, making it the fifth largest metropolis in Europe (after Paris, the Ruhr, Milan and Madrid).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona

Catalan is the language of the region of Catalonia and Barcelona.  It is as closely related to Italian and the languages of southern France as to Spanish, and maybe more so.  Barcelona was the capital of the Visigoths after the fall of Rome and there is the suggestion that 'Catalan' derived from 'Goth Land.'   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visigoths

You will see photos of Modernista buildings that now define Barcelona.  'Modernisme' is the colorful and flamboyant style that emerged there around the time of the Universal Exhibition in 1888 and continued until about 1930, corresponding to the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau and Jugendstil movements in the rest of Europe.  It shared with Arts and Crafts a focus on traditional styles and craftsmanship and with Art Nouveau, a preoccupation with sinuous lines, organic form and ornament and a rebellion against rigid designs and colorless stone and plaster.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernisme

Modernisme had a nationalistic Catalan flavor, embodied by its greatest practitioner Antoni Gaudi.  1852-1926.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD

Casa Battló: Intro and Entry

Casa Batlló was entirely renovated with designs by Antoni Gaudi for wealthy Barcelona textile merchant Josep Batlló and his family about 1905.  It is still a beautiful statement of the 'Modernista' style, a Barcelona version of Art Nouveau, with swirling organic forms, exquisite craftmanship and creative engineering.  Antoni Gaudi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Batll%C3%B3

 

Plaster walls, above, have reptilian patterns.

Stained glass, below, are in shell shapes.

Casa Batlló Verticals, Going Up

 

Park Güell, without the People (mostly)

 Park Güell was basically an early twentieth century high end development attempt by Eusebi Güell and Antoni Gaudi between 1910 and 1914.  Only two houses were built.  Güell and Gaudi both lived there.  It is now a municipal park.  And major tourist attraction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell

Park Güell: See and Be Seen

 Despite hefty entry fees, advisability of buying tickets in advance, being off the beaten path and a location well north of downtown Barcelona, Park Güell is quite crowded.  Full of people taking selfies!

Sagrada Familia

 Probably the top draw in Barcelona, the Sacred Family cathedral designed largely by Gaudi  is nearing completion.  It has been under construction for over 140 years.  The interior columns have a unique building technique and are modeled on tree trunks that branch near the ceiling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia

Casa Milà/La Pedrera

Known as 'La Pedrera' or 'The Stone Quarry', this residence was designed by Gaudi and built around 1910.  It was completely unorthodox and very striking.  From the hundreds of arches holding it up to the rambling roof guarded by sentinel like chimneys and hundreds of other modernista touches and organic shapes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Mil%C3%A0

Gaudi devised a system of brick arches, with dimensional form worked out by hanging chains upside down.

 

Casa Milà/La Pedrera Roof

 

The Pavilion and the Museum

 The 'Barcelona Pavilion' was entered by the German delegation for the Barcelona International Exposition in 1929.  It is now understood to have been designed by Mies van der Rohe along with his partner Lily Reich.  It is located on the old exposition grounds near the grand approach to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, the National Art Museum of Catalonia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Pavilion

MNAC: Romanesque Art from the 1100s, mostly

 Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya  https://www.museunacional.cat/en/medieval-inertia

The MNAC is unique in the world for its Romanesque mural paintings, discovered largely in the early 20th century in the churches of the Pyranees.  There are frescoes, the oldest painted altar fronts in Europe, painted wood carvings and liturgical objects from 1000 to the 1200s.  The next three 'chapters' cover Romanesque carved altar pieces, art of the 1200's and Gothic art 1250-1500.

Stone carving from monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, around 1150.

Altar front from church of Sant Quire de Durro, mid 1100s.

Catalonian church fresco, removed from the church in the 1930's.  Sant Climent de Taüll, 1123.

Altar decoration from the church of Sant Martí de Tost, about 1220.

MNAC: Romanesque Carved Altar Pieces

Majestat Batlló, about 1150.

Below Mare de Déu/Virgin and Child, about 1200, carved painted wooden images.

 Descent from the Cross, Santa Maria de Taüll, 1150 to 1220.