Jersey and Beyond: Barcelona Day 2 (Sep 7 2008)

Another email home to jog my memory =)

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Hi all! Today was a great day. We slept for most of the first part, headed out around noon. We made our way to Case Mila - one of Gaudi's buildings, which was amazing, then to Sagrada Familia, the most amazing church. Had lunch at a cute little street side cafe, and dinner at a fancier place. I had paella, Dan had a lobster risotta, both had ugly heads on the shellfish ;(

Hope everything is good with you all. Talk to you soon.

Love, me.

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We walked from our hotel back to the Rambla, and one block beyond to find the Casa Milà, one of Antoni Gaudi's creations. We found it the night before, but wanted to come back to take the inside tour...which is a MUST! The tour takes you to the roof, which is another freakin world. I could fill this whole blog with pictures from up there.

Casa Milà ("La Pedrera ")

Casa Milà, commonly known as La Pedrera is the largest civil building designed by Antoni Gaudi. The apartment block was constructed between 1906 and 1910. It was Gaudi's last work before devoting himself to the construction of the Sagrada Familia.

On the outside, the undulating balconies look like a series of waves. The iron-wrought balconies were designed by Josep Maria Jujol, who improvised on the spot. Some people see the facade as a cliff-like rock with caves. During construction, people dubbed it a quarry, or 'Pedrera'. To date, people still call the building 'La Pedrera' rather than 'Casa Milà'.

The roof is probably the most extraordinary of the building. It features a number of surrealistic colorful chimneys. Many of them look like warriors in a science fiction movie, others look more frivolous. The roof also features a bench similar to the one in Park Guell. From the top of Casa Milà, you have a nice view over the Eixample district.

When we were finally able to tear ourselves away from Casa Milà, we made our way fown to la Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's (unfinished) masterpiece.

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família is a massive Roman Catholic church under construction in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Construction began in 1882 and continues to this day.

Originally designed by Antoni Gaudí, who worked on the project for over 40 years, devoting the last 15 years of his life entirely to the endeavor, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2026. On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have remarked, "My client is not in a hurry". After Gaudí's death in 1926, work continued under the direction of Domènech Sugranyes until interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Every part of the design of La Sagrada Família is rich with Christian symbolism, as Gaudí intended the church to be the "last great sanctuary of Christendom". Its most striking aspect is its spindle-shaped towers. A total of 18 tall towers are called for, representing in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ.

The Church will have three grand façades: the Nativity façade to the East, the Glory façade to the South (yet to be completed) and the Passion façade to the West. The Nativity facade was built before work was interrupted in 1935 and bears the most direct Gaudí influence. The Passion façade is especially striking for its spare, gaunt, tormented characters, including emaciated figures of Christ being flogged and on the crucifix.

The church plan is that of a Latin cross with five aisles. Gaudi intended that a visitor standing at the main entrance be able to see the vaults of the nave, crossing, and apse, thus the graduated increase in vault loftiness.

The columns of the interior are a unique Gaudi design. Besides branching to support their load, their ever-changing surfaces are the result of the intersection of various geometric forms. The simplest example is that of a square base evolving into an octagon as the column rises, then a 16-sided form, and eventually to a circle.

On the corner of the Sagrada Familia lot, in between Sardenya and Mallorca streets, you will find situated a small structure which Gaudí built using Catalonian brick (29x14x4 cm) between 1908 and 1909.

Although it was a provisional construction destined to be a school for the sons of the men who were working on the temple, it is considered one of the most important works of Guadinist architecture.

After our visit to the church we stopped for a quick sidewalk lunch at Mengi Mengi. (In Spain a "bikini" is a grilled cheese sandwhich).

Then onto the Casa Batlló

Casa Batlló is a building restored by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol.
The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), because of its skeletal organic quality. It was originally designed for a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona.

The building looks very remarkable — like everything Gaudí designed, only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work.

It seems that the goal of the designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís) that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. 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 sword of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon.