Tim and Lynda's Travels: More Amazing Architecture

February 8, 2017

When ground was broken in 1882 for the building of the Sagrada Familia, the land was in a field outside of the walls of Barcelona. Some clairvoyant city fathers at that time decided that a well-conceived plan for the growth of Barcelona was needed. Such a plan was conceived, resulting in the demolition of the walls with a grid of streets laid out. Looking at a present day city map, one can see where the walls probably had been and the resulting grid of streets. The street, Pg. De Gracia, became the main thoroughfare leading north from the old city to the hillside outside of Barcelona. Today Pg. De Gracia rivals other great boulevards in the world and is home to all of the same high end stores. It was on this street that Antonio Gaudi, Sagrada Familia's architect, was hired to design homes for two wealthy Barcelonians. We visited both of these houses Tuesday. These two buildings stand out in stark contrast to the buildings around them. The first of these homes we visited was Casa Mila - La Pedrera. It was built in 1902 and is actually two buildings structured around two courtyards standing nine stories tall. Casa Mila is now home to a foundation that manages the building. An apartment on the top floor is open to the public and is furnished as it would have been when first built. The attic is also open and contains a museum about Gaudi and his buildings. The most striking part of the building is the roof, also open for the tour. The apartment and the museum were interesting but it was the roof that left us awe-struck. As with the Sagrada Familia, we will post as many pictures as possible. Understand that all the strange looking structures you see in the pictures are actually covering important functioning parts of the building like chimneys, vents, etc. The white structures are covered in a mosaic of broken ceramic bits in a design very emblematic of Gaudi's work. The green mushroom-like structures are mosaics using broken champagne bottles. Naturally there is a wonderful view of Sagrada Familia from the roof. The second home we visited was Casa Batllo, which was about a 10 minute walk down the street. The house does not have the fantastic roof that Casa Mila has so we decided not to take the tour of the apartment. While Casa Batllo has many of the same design elements of Casa Mila, it is much more colorful on the outside. It seemed that there were more people photographing Casa Batllo then the Casa Mila. Antonio Gaudi was not a name Tim was familiar with before this trip but that has changed.

Wednesday ended up being a catching up day. Catching up on sleep and laundry. We went out for lunch and enjoyed another nice walk about the Gothic section of Barcelona but otherwise hung out in the apartment. Tomorrow we will be taking the train to Paris, which is a six hour trip. Having used European rail before we know it will be a smooth, comfortable ride. Once we have arrived at our apartment in Paris and done some unpacking there probably won't be time for anything but some exploration of the area around our apartment and finding a nice bistro for dinner.

Hope you have enjoyed Barcelona as much as we have. We'll talk to you again sometime this weekend from Paris.