Barcelona – Day Thirty Five

Saturday October 5

In the post-Covid-hyper-over-tourism age we were well aware that you had to book well in advance to even have a chance to get in the door of some places. This brings us to the Sagrada Família; where, at some point over the Mediterranean at 30,000 feet or so, it occurred to us that we hadn’t booked. It had been on the list but for whatever reason we never got to it, something for next time. Not that there’s a shortage of Gaudi buildings in Barcelona.

Casa Batlló

As it happens Casa Batlló was a short distance from our hotel, the house was built in 1877 but remodelled by Gaudi in 1904-06 for a wealthy industrialist. It was made an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

The patron saint of Catalonia is St George, the roof is designed to look like a dragon.

It’s also called the house of bones. Spooky.

Some think the facade was influenced by Monet’s water lily paintings.

A bit more literal, St George & the dragon.

Next to Casa Batlló, is Casa Amatller built in 1875 it was remodelled by the Catalan architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch between 1898-1900 in a neo-gothic/art nouveau style.

Casa Milà

A short walk up the road is Casa Milà another Gaudi building, built between 1906-12, it also became an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

Casa Milà is called by the locals as La Pedrera or “the quarry” due to the hewn stone facade.

The apartments are built around two courtyards.

The roof is formed from brick arches that don’t require any further support, originally this was the laundry but now forms part of the museum.

Gaudi made heavy use of Catenary arches in his work, these follow the arc of a chain when hung. The above is a schematic model of the Sagrada Família best viewed upside down.

The roof terrace has a great view over Barcelona. To the centre are some of the chimney “sentinels”, the large bell looking thing are the stairs. Just being shy of 2m those handrails felt decidedly insufficient.

Passeig de Gràcia

Both Casa Milà & Casa Batlló are on Passeig de Gràcia which happens to be the fanciest street in Barcelona. The street had the ubiquitous usual suspects of high-end retail found in most cities, but further up the road there still were interesting eateries.

These are called Coca & a flat-bread with savoury toppings. These looked amazing.

From here we decided to head to Parc Güell

Park Güell

We had no idea whether we’d be able to get into Parc Güell, it turns out it was a no. Not that we really minded, we just enjoyed walking through the streets.

The gate house. Designed by Gaudi, the park was built between 1900-1915, basically it was a failed housing development, it then was gifted to the city.

The Main Terrace. Looks like we were there, the benefit of having long arms means I can take a photo over the fence. Convincing.

The actual situation with the fence, the terrace beyond. The ironwork detailing is pretty wild.

Sagrada Família

Just so we could get as much Gaudi as we possibly could, we decided to walk back down the hill to look at the Sagrada Família again.

Work had started on the church in 1882, Gaudi took over the following year when the previous architect resigned. He changed the design from being a straight gothic revival building to his idiosyncratic organic art nouveau/gothic one. From 1915 he worked solely on the Sagrada Família until his death in 1926 when he was hit by a tram. At this point only a quarter of the church had been built, work continued ever since, only stopping during the Spanish Civil War. It was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 2005. Building work is expected to finish in 2026 & to be totally completed in 2034.

There is also a New Zealand connection, a Kiwi architect Mark Burry worked on the project between 1979-2016 & ended up being the senior architect & researcher.