Todo Gaudí

December 28, 2013

Before reading this, just know it's super long. If you can't read the whole thing, then come back later when you have the time. Or just skim it and look at the pictures. :)

I was so tired the night of the 27th that I got nine hours of sleep and it felt so good! Aliyya and I started our day with a free Antoni Gaudí walking tour. Gaudí was a Catalan architect and the majority of his works are in Barcelona. His style is very unique and distinctive and he takes inspiration from nature and religion. Also, he usually focused on two main things in his works: light and ventilation. His works are a huge tourist attraction in Barcelona and I am glad that I could go on a tour to not only learn about his works, but also his life. He was kind of crazy! The tour began in Plaça Reial where we learned about the two lampposts in the plaza that Gaudí designed. These lampposts were the first and last pieces of architecture that were commissioned by the city of Barcelona. I think it was because he asked for more money to design them. Guess the city didn't like it. Little did the city know that they would be lucky to have his architecture in Barcelona, since it's such an attraction. All the other buildings he designed were contracted privately, most importantly by a very rich man named Eusebi Güell. Güell was an entrepreneur and he funded a lot of Gaudí's works. Some of Gaudi's works are even named after Güell, for example, Park Güell and Palau Güell. According to the tour guide (most of the following information is according to the tour guide), Güell went bankrupt in later years. I will explain this more in a little bit and by "a little bit," I mean now.

Our next stop on the tour was at Palau Güell, which is a right off La Rambla. It was a mansion built for Güell and the chimneys are probably the coolest thing about the outside (in my opinion). Although, the gates are pretty cool too, because they are meant to let horse drawn carriages in. There are 20 chimneys in total (for ventilation, of course) and I did not go into the mansion or on the roof, so I stole the following photo from Google images.

Some chimneys on top of Palau Güell

At the entrance of Palau Güell

Gaudí was proud to be from Catalonia, so he used the Catalan flag once in awhile in his works. You can see the Catalan flag under a phoenix representing that Catalonia can rise from the ashes. And now to talk about Güell going bankrupt...he gave full financial freedom to Gaudí and Gaudí chose to use that obviously, because the facade of Palau Güell was torn down three times because he didn't like it. End result, Güell lost a lot of money. We boarded a metro in Barcelona and rode to our next stop, Casa Batlló, a house that was redesigned by Gaudí. The tour guide had a picture of the building before and it looked like any other building, but Gaudí has turned it into an amazing piece of art. I will show a picture and then explain.

Casa Batlló

So the house before was a normal looking building until Josep Batlló hired Gaudí to renovate it. Well, actually Batlló wanted to tear the building down and start fresh, but Gaudí apparently thought he didn't need to do that, which is kind of funny when you think about the fact that he tore down the facade of Palau Güell three times. Anyway, the above building is Gaudí's finished product that was completed in 1906 and it has been refurbished a few times since then. Also, seven of Gaudí's works are World Heritage Sites: this house and the palace being two of them. I will also be talking about Casa Milà, La Sagrada Familia, and Park Güell in the near future. Anyway, the tour guide told us two theories about what this house is supposed to represent, the first being Carnaval. Carnaval is a celebration in Spain (and other countries) that occurs right before lent and it is a masquerade/street party. So people say the mosaic on the walls represent confetti and the balconies have masks on them. The other theory (and the more popular one) comes from the story of St. George and the dragon. I am not even going to pretend that I know anything about the legend, but I know that the story ends with St. George slaying a dragon. So when you look at the above picture, you can see the dragon. The mosaic walls are the scales of the dragon, the roof looks like the back of a dragon, the skull and bone-like features represent the past victims inside of the dragon, and the chimney on the left is the sword of St. George that has killed the dragon. So there you have it. People loved this house and a couple, Roser Segimon and Pere Milà, wanted a house that resembled Casa Batlló, so Gaudí took on that project soon after Casa Batlló.

Casa Milà, or La Pedrera, is right down Passeig de Gràcia (what I would consider Barcelona's Michigan Avenue), a few blocks from Casa Batlló. And although it was meant to look like a bigger Casa Batlló, it doesn't really. See for yourself.

Absolutely no color whatsoever. I don't want to get into it all, but Gaudí did not have a good relationship with the homeowners (specifically the wife) and the homeowners got fined a lot for building codes that he broke. Also, Gaudí didn't follow through with some parts of his design. For example, at the top of the building it says "Ave gracia M plena dominus tecum" (Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee). However, their was originally supposed to be a Virgen Mary (to honor Roser, the wife, because Virgen Mary is the Virgin of the rosary..get it?). Anyway, the Virgen Mary sculpture got turned into an "M" and a rose to represent Roser Milá in a somewhat mocking way. Also, the house was extremely criticized by outsiders and the Milá's even received criticism from their neighbors. So yea, that was apparently Gaudí's last privately commissioned work. I can see why. One cool thing about the house is the collection of chimneys.

Look familiar? I haven't even seen Star Wars (I know, WHAT?!) and I was able to point it out. Stormtroopers, right? Yep, supposedly George Lucas was inspired by these chimneys and they became the design for the Stormtrooper helmets. Anyway, that's enough about all that stuff that I know you really don't care about. Ha.

Our next and final stop on the tour was La Sagrada Familia. I don't even know where to begin when talking about this. Honestly, I didn't like it when I was first walking up to it, but it has grown on me already just because it has an amazing story and the inside is incredible. I think I could honestly devote a whole blog post to La Sagrada Familia so bear with me because the rest of this blog might get a little lengthy.

Nativity Facade
(not my picture)

Okay, so La Sagrada Familia is a large cathedral (newly proclaimed basilica by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010). La Sagrada Familia is, what I think most people would consider, Gaudí's masterpiece. You may be wondering why there are cranes in the above picture though. That is because it is still being built. Construction started in 1882 and it's still being built! Crazy, right? Supposedly they want to get it done by 2026, just in time to celebrate the 100 anniversary of Gaudí's death, but I suspect that it will not happen. The place is beautiful now, but they have a LONG way to go still! They just only reached the halfway mark in 2010, how are they supposed to complete the other half and hardest parts in 12 years, when the first half took 128 years! Plus, it is funded by the people that visit it and other private donations, so you have to factor that into the estimated date for finishing it. I will say this, if it is finished in my lifetime, I will be going back to see the finished product! There are supposed to be a tot

al of 18 spires: 12 representing the apostles, four for the Evangelists, one for the Virgin Mary, and one for Jesus Christ. Only eight are done right now and the tallest tower (the Christ tower), which will be 171 meters (560 ft) tall, has yet to be built. Once it is finished, it will be the tallest church in the world, but it is still 1 meter less than Montjuïc, the hill in Barcelona, because Gaudí believed his creations should not pass God's. Anyway, before I go on talking about all the background and stuff behind it, go ahead and watch this video. It's a pretty sweet video that shows the construction of the church. It starts with what is currently constructed already and then digitally builds the missing parts in.

Okay, so on to the stories that I heard from the tour guide and audio guide..

The Nativity facade was the first side completed and it was completed in 1930, a few years after Gaudí's death. It is dedicated to the birth of Jesus and it is very elaborate. Interesting fact about all the statues on the facade: they are all based on real people and animals. All of the figures were created from casts of real people and animals. Gaudí gave the live animals something to knock them out long enough so that he could cast them. Also, he had to manipulate some of them so they were in the right position. For example, he had to suspend the donkey in the air so that it appeared to be standing for the cast. He was a little nutty, if you ask me, but supposedly all great artists are, right?

Part of the Nativity Facade

Okay, so the opposite side of the church is the Passion facade and this facade is a lot more bare and simple. I personally like it more than the Nativity side. The Passion facade is dedicated to the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I really don't have much to say about this one, except that I like it more. Also, construction started on it in 1954 and it is not completed yet.

Part of Passion facade

The third side, and the last stop on our tour, is the Glory facade. The construction of the Glory facade began in 2002 and it will represent the path to eternal glory: death, final judgement, and glory. The one thing that is unfortunate about this side is that it will eventually be the main entrance, but because the city has grown in the last 128 years, there is no longer empty lots in front of it. Instead there are ugly buildings and tourist shops, which is just too bad. You'll never be able to get a good full view of the church from the front. Although that is a negative, the doors of the whole church are pretty cool. They have words from the Bible and the Lord's Prayer in several (I don't know how many) different languages!

What the Glory facade looks like right now

The doors (this is actually a picture of the doors)

After the tour, Aliyya and I split up because I wanted to go inside and she did not. So I did and it was gorgeous! *Traveler's note: Buy ticket online if you plan to go, the lines are ridiculous. Luckily, I knew that beforehand, so I literally walked right in. The best part about the church is the windows, I think. Now I'm second guessing myself because the ceiling and pillars are amazing, too! But I really like all of the stained glass (even though, it's not all finished). Usually churches are dark even with their windows, but with La Sagrada Familia, you can really tell that Gaudí paid attention to the lighting. Plus, I was there when the sun was low so it came right through the windows! I really don't have a lot of details to tell you about the inside except that I went up into one of the towers and got some pictures of the city, Gaudí is buried there, and there is a cool museum in the basement of the church. Other than that..seriously it's gorgeous inside! I don't think any captions are necessary. Enjoy the beauty.

Okay, now that you have seen how beautiful it is, I should tell you that it could have easily been destroyed and it kind of was in a way. Yep, that's right. During the Spanish Civil War, Catalan anarchists thought about destroying the church, but because of one little bridge that sits in between some of the towers, they didn't. They decided it was a good place to shoot their guns from. So what did they do instead? Well, Gaudí knew that he was not going to be alive when the church was completed, so he had left detailed designs and models so that future architects could carry on his work. Well, a lot of those plans were burned and destroyed. So that has severely hindered the construction of the church also. I can't even begin to name all of the people that have had there hands on the reconstruction of the plans and the construction of the church. There is a workshop in the museum where people are still working on reconstructing the models that Gaudí had made. Okay, I think that about does it for my day full of Gaudí. I will mention one last thing: his death. Gaudí was hit by a tram in Barcelona while walking to do his daily pray and confession at Sant Felip Neri church. He pretty much received no help because most passers-by thought he was a homeless man. By the time someone realized who it was, it was too late to help him.

So that's that. Sorry for the extremely long post, but I hope you enjoyed it. After the long walk back to the hostel from La Sagrada Familia, I watched Fast and the Furious and Aliyya and I went shopping and discussed our plans for things to do in Budapest. Stayed tuned for the rest of Barcelona (that's right, I'm not done yet) and Budapest! :)