Alcalá Aesthetics: May 2011

My last four day weekend outside of Madrid was spent in Barcelona. The city had received so much hype and such good reviews that I wasn't sure what to expect! I was a very interesting experience and I felt as if I was not in Spain the entire time.

Barcelona is part of a region of Spain known as Catalunya. Catalunya was orginially a French protected region and France gave them a certain autonomy. They were allowed to govern themselves. When the Spanish unified Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, Catalunya continued to govern itself. It wasn't until 1936 when Franco took over that all autonomous regions in Spain were stripped of that privileged and made part of the unified Spanish state. That made the region more nationalistic than ever.

Today Catalunya and other autonomous regions of Spain have a split governing of their "state". They have autonomous government which handle some responsibilities and then the national government handles others. They participate in both autonomous and national elections, and they elect their own president. Catalunya has it's own language as well: Catalan. It is a mix between Spanish and French and all schools in Barcelona teach it with Castellano (Spanish) to their students.

My experience in Barcelona was very interesting because they first speak to you in Catalan and then if you choose another language to speak back in (such as Spanish), but they can tell you aren't a native speaker, they speak to you in English. I now understand the obsession with visiting Barcelona. It is a party city in which you can speak English and have NO PROBLEMS getting around. To me though this just made the city feel like it was not in Spain, but a country of it's own.

We began by wandering the city finding various palaces and plazas.

This was Plaza Real which is filled with these luscious palm trees. Fun fact: The trees are not native to Barcelona. They are actually RENTED from Hawaii. They were brought here in 1991 in preparation for the 1992 Olympics that were held here and they have a two year renewable lease to the city. Insane right? Just wait. It gets weirder later on.

We visited the Olympic Complex up on Mont Jüic in the afternoon and got a beautiful view of the coast.

Weird fact #2: Barcelona doesn't actually have beaches. Their beaches are artificially made using sand that was brought over from Egypt. Every winter large tankers pump sand from the ocean back onto the beach as it is washed away during the summer. See that's what happens with fake beaches. They ERODE.

We wandered over to the Olympic stadium too and I was surprised to see just how small it was. I think my college football stadium is about the same size. I guess I just expected the Olympics to be a bit more popular...

After Mont Jüic we watched the fountain show that goes on in the evenings in front of the palace on the mountain.

Gaudí is a famous Catalunyan architect known most for Sagrada Familia, the great unfinished church in Barcelona. We decided to take a walking tour that would lead us to his works around the city. It started with Gaudí's first and only publicly commissioned work, a lamp post.

It's a very strange lamp post with Hermes' helmet on top and the Catalunyan flag on other parts. It was his only publicly commissioned work because he took so long to design it, demanded so much money, and was so difficult to work with that the city decided never to hire him again! Talk about Prima Donna Architects!

Palau Güell with it's VERY strange, but very typical chimneys was next. Güell was the name of a wealthy man who liked Gaudí and was the main source of Gaudí's income during his life. He had Gaudí build several things for him during his lifetime. Gaudí was still difficult to work with though, and it is said that when Güell died, he died bankrupt by Gaudí. This is because Gaudí was very particular about his work. If he had build a façade and didn't like the look of it he would tear the whole thing down and do it again. This got to be very expensive...

From there we walked to Casa Batlló, a house commissioned by a Sr. Batlló. He gave Gaudí artistic freedom to do what he would with the house. This is what he came up with.

The house is very colorful and looks as if it belongs in Alice in Wonderland! There are many theories about the theme of the house. One is Carnaval (Mardi Gras in Europe). The balconies look like masks, the roof looks like the traditional Venetian hat worn during Carnaval, and the house is flecked with festival colors. Another theory is that of death due to the bone like parst covering the windows, and yet another is a tribute to one of their Patron Saints, Wilfred the Hairy (yes I mean HAIRY). The cross on the top of the house, and the roof which could be the back of a dragon (because Wilfred allegedly slew a dragon) would give evidence to that theory.

After seeing this house another man by the name of Sr. Milá wanted a house designed just like it. He liked the style and the color and so he had Gaudí make him a plan. This is what Gaudí gave him and Milá hired him on the spot.

It looks very similar in style to the Casa Batlló. Sadly Sr. Milá probably should have asked for a bit more detail on what the house would look like because this is what he got.

No color. Strange abstract mental balconies, and even stranger rooftop chimneys. The Catalunyans hate it, as did Sr. Milá. It is nicknamed "La Pedrera" or "The Quarry" because they think it so dull and ugly. Many here think that Gaudí had a sea theme in mind with the wavy façade and seaweed balconies. No matter what he was thinking, this house was not at all what Milá wanted and there was much fighting, mostly with Milá's wife who hated the building even more.

Another Gaudí work was Park Güell. It was an idea between Sr. Güell and Gaudí that they would design this hill and rich people could buy a plot of land and have their house built on it. It was a failure as only Gaudí, Güell, and one other man chose to have houses there. Today it is a lovely park!

The most comfortable ceramic benches in the world!

Guardhouse

Park Entrance

Park Guardian

After a nice relaxing walk around the park we went to Gaudí's most famous and unfinished work, Sagrada Familia.

Each façade has a different theme to it and Gaudí was only alive to finish the Nativity façade. Right now construction is being funded by public donation and it is going slowly because of this method of funding and also because of what happened to Gaudí's original plans. All original plans were destroyed during the civil war when anarchists came a ransacked his office. They were going around and destroying churches all over Spain, but Sagrada Familia was saved because someone pointed out that a bridge between the two middle towers was a good watch out spot that was safe from fire. Unfortunately the models and drawings Gaudí made were not considered so important so design right now is going off of what little drawings are left and personal accounts from others who knew him and what he was doing.

I ended my visit to Barcelona with a trip to Camp Nou the football stadium for F.C. Barcelona. It is a club of 169,000 people with a stadium that holds 100,000. This makes it the largest club and stadium in the world. It is also pronounced Camp "Now" as I learned later in the tour. My guy friends had always called it Camp "New" based on what they'd heard.

I went with my friend Bethany and we took a self guided audio tour that was SO cool. First we went through the trophy room and got to see all kinds of awards for the team and their best current player (and best player in the world) Lionel Messi.