So Gaudi

30-Oct-23

We have five days in Barcelona before heading back home & I'm excited to return to a city I enjoyed so much the first time I visited. No doubt it will be a different experience as an adult rather than a college student, though 😉 We hit the ground running by visiting all four of Antonio Gaudí's architectural marvels in a single day.

First up: Park Güell with its colorful mosaics made out of broken & recycled ceramics atop rocky columns that look like the park has grown up out of the ground - Gaudí's whole intention, of course. \

Next up: La Sagrada Familia cathedral. In 1999, it was a shell of a building with only one fully completed façade. Now it not only has a ceiling & four walls, it's nearing completion (2016?) after 140 years.

QueuEurope alive & well!

Original eastern (Nativity) façade - the only one Gaudí personally worked on before he died in 1926 (he started it in 1891)

The Eastern stain glass represents dawn

While the western façade represents sunset

Central nave

Crypt - this was the first part of the church to hold services in 1885 (2 years after Gaudí took over the project)

Passion façade

Views from the western (Passion) towers

Northern façade

We got into the La Pedrera (Casa Mila) apartment building, built in 1910, just before the rain started. One thing that certainly makes me feel old is the fact that "back in my day" there was no need for advanced tickets & the crowds were a fraction of what they are now. 😆

Recreated early 20th century apartment rooms

Whale bone-like attic

3-D model shows roof chimney sculptures in their entirety

Painted stairwell lit against rooftop window at dusk

Rooftop chimneys mimic stylized crosses and knight helmets

View of rainstorm moving in over La Sagrada Familia

Interior courtyards

We saved the best for last: Casa Batlló, built in 1906, is Gaudí's crowning jewel of Modernisme architecture. It was a very different experience this time around, as the tour was way more interactive, with free champagne, virtual reality, & neurosensory exhibits!