A week in Barcelona: Part 2

This is the second part of our serialised guest blog. For the previous blog entry, click here.

Saturday 23rd Sept

We took the train into the centre and then the metro to Sant Pau, Dos de Maig.

While waiting for Violetta to join us, we walked with our son, Blake, up to Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, an impressive building. Built at the start of the 20th century the site now comprises a total of 27 Art Nouveau buildings. It was actually a working hospital until 2009.

The Hospital de la Santa Creu was founded in 1401. Pau Gil Sarra died in 1896 and left 3,060,000 pesetas for the construction of a new hospital. Between 1902 and 1930 the new hospital was built, designed by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, but it subsequently fell into neglect. The major renovations turned it into the Art Nouveau site that it now is, once the hospital had closed.

Once our party was at full strength, we walked down the Avinguda de Gaudi, which goes straight to the Sagrada Familia – now Gaudi’s most famous building.

Barcelona must be the city in the world with the most sculptures, statues, unique buildings, decorations on buildings, ornaments of one kind or another that festoon the streets, plazas and parks. Avinguda de Gaudi is no exception. Within a few metres we came across the sculpture by Apelles Fenosa created in 1878, ‘El buen tiempo persiguiendo a la tempestad’ (A fine day chasing the storm).

The Avinguda also has  in 1909. They originally stood at the crossroads between the Passeig de Gràcia and the Avinguda de Diagonal but were removed from this site in 1957 because they were a hindrance to traffic. They were placed along the Avinguda de Gaudí in 1985, after being stored for many years in a local warehouse. Other Falqués lampposts are on the Passeig de Gràcia.

Down the Avinguda lies what many tourists clearly consider is the main attraction of Barcelona: the Basilica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, consecrated as a ‘minor basilica’ by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

This basilica was started by Francisco de Paula del Villar in 1882 but Antoni Gaudi took over the design in 1883 when Villar resigned. When Gaudi died in 1926, after being hit by a tram, less than a quarter of the Sagrada Familia had been built.

Slow progress since then was not helped by the Spanish Civil War and the FAI setting fire to the crypt, breaking into the workshop and destroying some of Gaudi’s plans. Even so, the planned completion keeps being extended – now to 2030 or 2032.

The structure is so complex and detailed that one needs days rather than hours to take it in. We started at the east entrance, which is the only facade finished while Gaudi was alive.

The façade depicts the birth of Christ, with three major portals: the portal of hope, portal of mercy and the portal of faith. There is so much detail that one can only really take in small parts of it, such as on the Nativity façade where Mary and Joseph are by the crib and arched around them are figures playing musical instruments, including a harp.

We then went round to the Passion Façade, again filled with a myriad of sculptures, and finally completed in 2018. Gaudi wanted this façade to depict misery and death, including the brutality of Jesus’ execution. Central features are the carrying of the cross and the crucifixion.

And finally, we went to the Glory Façade, which is still under construction and will be the tallest part of the basilica. The Glory Façade will form the main entrance to Sagrada Familia when it is completed, but there is a major obstacle to this.

Dedicated to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Glory Façade comes in direct conflict with hundreds of homeowners living on the other side of narrow Mallorca Street. The planned staircase that would serve as the main entrance to the basilica could mean demolishing several buildings on the other side of Mallorca Street, leading to thousands being evicted and forced to move elsewhere. The residents dispute the assertion that their properties were only under temporary residency contracts and say that the planned staircase was never on Gaudi’s original plans. A major court case is underway.

On the way back to the station we stopped at one of Barcelona’s many tapas bars, serving very good home-made vermouth (Violetta’s recommendation!) We also had patatas bravas and croquettes.

Sunday 24th Sept

The day started with a visit to a restaurant, El Raco de Collserola, in Baixador de Vallvidrera, which Blake insisted did very good breakfasts. Sited at the Parc de Santa Maria de Vallvidrera, the restaurant is very popular with walkers, cyclists and locals.

We had outdoor seating and it was already fairly crowded. We were persuaded to try the local sausage in a baguette, with a touch of tomato flavouring on the baguette and peppers and tomatoes. Very good, but also very filling.

We left the car near the restaurant and took the train in to Barcelona to see some of the Mercè Festival. This is held every September for four days. The festival includes many events, parades, music, a fire run and, on the day that we went to see it, a parade of giants and human towers! The festival is held in honour of Mare de Déu de la Mercè, the patron saint, and bids a farewell to summer, welcoming the cooler months of autumn.

From Plaça de Catalunya we went down La Rambla to Calle de Ferran.

On the Rambla there were suddenly many police motorcycles and then ambulances. A lady had been hit by a bus as she crossed the street without looking. With the huge number of people that are often on La Rambla, and other streets, this is a very real danger.

As we walked up Calle de Ferran the street was already crowded with people getting the best places from which to watch the parade of giants.

The parade and dancing of the giants started in Plaça de Sant Jaume and by the time we got there it was packed so full that it was difficult to find a place where we could see what was going, a particular problem for our grandson.

The giants were displayed all around the Plaça and took turns to dance in front of Palau de la Generalitat, an historic palace that now houses the Presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Some dignitaries appeared on the balcony, one looking remarkably like Pere Aragonès, the current President of Catalunya.

This year Ukraine was invited to take part and presented two giants, Olga and Volodymyr, who represent their princely saints.

As the giants started their parade, they all passed just in front of us and we could see just how heavy they were, each held by one man lifting up the heavy wooden frame. They needed to periodically replace the person doing the carrying, who also had to move the giant in a dance.

After all the giants had gone down Calle de Ferran the acrobats for the human castles, the Castellers, came in and the crowd was pushed back even further with no space for us to go.

We watched the first part where a human castle of three was held up by five or six below, the top person being a child.

The person at the top now wears a helmet because a 12-year-old girl, without a helmet, was killed falling from a nine-storey tower in Mataró in 2006. The smaller towers were constructed with no incidents, but when one of the larger towers was being built it did collapse. Luckily only bruises!