WHAT WE DID
We spent the day with Javier, a wonderful Barcelona guide who was personable, knowledgeable. and fun to be with. He’s been a guide for several decades and knows a lot about Antonio Gaudi and his masterpieces in Barcelona, especially Sagrada Familia. With him, we visited three sites: Hospital Sant Pau, La Pedrera (Casa Mila), and that beautiful cathedral, Sagrada Familia. The whole day was fascinating.
HOSPITAL COMPLEX
Hospital Sant Pau is really a set of buildings founded about 600 years ago in what was then woodland. It was a medieval welfare house and then became a modern hospital complex. Designed by Louis Domenech i Montaner, not Gaudi, it’s an example of modernism or, as the style is called elsewhere, Art Nouveau. In 1997, UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site due to its “architectural uniqueness and artistic beauty.”
Today, there are nine historic buildings, several of which one can tour. A modern hospital exists on the back side of the site. Some of the buildings and interiors use ceramics and other elements that are similar to some of what one sees in Gaudi’s work.
LA PEDRERA
La Pedrera is an apartment building that Gaudi designed between 1905 to 1912. It was built for the Mila couple, hence its alternate name of Casa Mila. It too is a World Heritage Site as of 1984. Here, we didn’t go into any of the apartments, but spent time seeing Gaudi’s unique arches, studying the facade models, and then exploring the unusual outcroppings on the rooftop.
SAGRADA FAMILIA
Sagrada Familia was started in 1882 and after more than 140 years is still not complete. Gaudi lived from 1852 to 1926 when almost 74, he was hit by a streetcar and died ten days later in the poor people’s hospital. He was disheveled poorly dressed, and without identification, initially languished in that hospital unattended from several days.
Architects who followed Gaudi added towers and sculptures to the original building. Before the pandemic, completion was slated for 2026, but with work halted then, the timeline is now 2032. The current architect, the ninth, is Jordi Fauli. Today, the cathedral has fourteen towers, and attracts more tourists to Spain and Portugal than the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Gaudi loved curves and angles, and supposedly was asked when studying architecture, couldn’t he draw any straight lines. His work includes themes from nature: trees, plants, and flowers, and this cathedral is unlike any other I’ve ever seen. The columns look like trees while the colors of the stained glass are marvelously rich and bright, especially on a sunny day.
Javier, our guide, worked at the cathedral some years ago, got to know the architects, and was able to pump them for details about the building and Gaudi’s and their intents. The Chief Penguin and I visited it on out own more than ten years ago, but we learned more about the facades and the interior on this visit. It remains a spectacular sight and definitely a must for anyone visiting Barcelona!
Note: Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
