Barclona #1

Bethany and I returned safely from Barcelona last night - tired but ready to be back. I'll just jump right into the good stuff..... One of the famous people from Barcelona is Antoni Gaudi - an architect in the late 1800's and early 1900's. He works are very detailed, colorful, and symbolic.

#1: Park Guell was originally designed as a housing development, but is now a municipal garden. There are lots of paths to walk, and lots of detailed ceramic mosaics to look at!

at the entrance

one of the ceiling pieces in the entrance to the park

a great view of the city while walking through the park

#2: Casa Mila/La Pedrera was a house Gaudi was commissioned to design, but it was not well-liked by either the local government (it broke a lot of building codes) or even those who commissioned it! We didn't go inside, but the outside is made to look like waves and seaweed.

#3: Casa Battlo was restored by Gaudi - it has beautiful colors! The outside is meant to look like fish or dragon scales.

 a close-up

Casa Battlo is on the right - I took this picture to show how different Gaudi's style was from many of the others during his time

#4: Church of Colonia Guell (town outside of Barcelona) one of Gaudi's unfinished works. I really liked this church - it was a perfect size, and the windows were so beautiful!!!

Window inside made to look like a butterfly - the bottom two wings move!

(They are open in this picture)

#5: La Sagrada Familia is Gaudi's most famous work. He started building it in 1882, but died in 1926, and the project is still going! The goal is to have it finished by the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death: 2026. We had a tour of this church, which even though it was cold and rainy that day, was totally worth it! I have so many facts, pictures, and stories from this place, I don't even know where to begin!

 A brief glimpse of the outside - the supporting columns on the right, some windows in the background, and a figure that helps tell the story of Jesus' crucifixion on the far left

This is a bunch of little bags hanging, with a mirror to reflect it - weird, but.... "The technique Gaudí used to design the church was to hang little bags of birdshot from chains. Gravity would pull these bags downwards, giving even weight distribution and stretching the chains to form a model structure, thus showing him the shapes and angles his pillars would need to be. By using a mirror placed under the model, Gaudí could then see the model as it should look." (quote from Wikipedia)

The inside is meant to look like a forest
(Can you see it? The columns are the trees)

Some of the windows aren't finished yet
The one on the left still needs the stained glass

This is looking towards the front of the church - from the top of the ceiling (see the gold triangle?) is supposed to look also like the parabola shape of our legs

My camera battery was dying at this point, so it's not the greatest shot, but it's still proof that we were THERE!!!