A Visit to Gaudi's La Pedrera

I admit that I wasn't very familiar with the work of Gaudi before going to Barcelona.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the money to tour one of his buildings.

Until I saw La Sagrada Familia and was mesmerized.

So later that day we toured Casa Milà, nicknamed La Pedrera (the quarry).

The building was commissioned by a local family and built by Gaudi between 1906 and 1912.

The family used the ground floor as their personal residence and the upper floors were apartments.

Gaudi's style is inspired by the curves and movement of nature and is unlike anything I've seen.

Originally, this wavy stone and iron facade building wasn't appreciated by some of the locals.

I'm sure they were perplexed.

But, it's now been restored and portions of the building are open to the public.

The building surrounds an open air courtyard and is nines levels of splendor,

Gaudi's touch in every single detail.

The first part of the tour takes you up to the roof which is straight out of Oz.

The fans, chimneys and stairwells are all disguised as crosses, faces and helmet clad sentries.

We walked along the undulating roof struck by the oddity of the architecture.

The views of the city are wonderful but the real view is Gaudi's imagination come to life.

The second part of the tour is the museum area in the attic.

Originally this space was used as a laundry and to ventilate the building.

Walls were then put in and it was divided into apartments. 

With the renovations, the walls were removed and it was stripped back to an open space.

The brick arches that give the roof it's interesting shapes are mesmerizing.

It was like being inside a snail's shell.

Gaudi also designed furniture for the space which is on display.

A fellow tourist hoped up onto the platform and plopped down onto one of these chairs.

I made an audible gasp and scared us both.  She quickly got down.

The third and final part of the tour is an apartment that has been restored to the

art nouveau splendor of its day.

These beautiful ocean motif hexagon tiles were created by Gaudi for another home,

but used in La Pedrera instead.

As you walk around Barcelona, you will notice this same design underfoot on many of the sidewalks in the city.

This was the most beautiful apartment space I've ever seen.

It was so open and light.  Gaudi designed the building with self supporting walls

so that there is no need for load bearing walls within the space.

Walls can be moved or removed as the tenants desire.

As I wandered through the space of constant movement and few right angles,

I could just picture living there. 

Guadi designed every last detail.  Take a look at the embellishments around the window.

It's meant to be touched.  Even the hardware throughout was designed to fit into the human hand.

It's a piece of art and I was completely enchanted.

As we walked around admiring the work of this amazing man

we kept wondering why his style hasn't been more imitated.
He was definitely one of a kind as are all of his creations.

We spent about two hours exploring and purchased tickets at the door for €16.50
and an additional €4 for the audioguide.  You can pre-purchase tickets online.


What do you think of Gaudi?  Have you visited any of his work?

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La Sagrada Familia

When we decided to spend a few extra days in Barcelona,

I sent out a tweet asking for suggestions on what to do and see.

La Sagrada Familia was the most popular answer to my question.

I now I see why.  It's unlike anything I've ever seen before.

La Sagrada Familia was Gaudi's passion.

He was brought to the project early on in 1883 and it was his life's work until his death in 1926.

Almost a century later, the amazing Basilica is still not complete.

Over the past 100 years the project has faced many stops and starts, trouble with funding, destruction during political unrest, influence from various other artists and some areas are already in need of restoration.

Construction continues today and they hope to have it completed for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

La Sagrada Familia is synonymous with Gaudi,

but your first sight of the cathedral is the Passion Facade and is the work of a different man.

The sharp, gaunt figures are the work of Josef Maria Subirachs in the mid 1900's.

And are very different from the nature-inspired curves that Gaudi is known for.

It's beautiful and haunting, telling the story of the Passion of Christ.

The Basilica is visited by almost three million people each year that all enter through the Passion Facade.

When you step into this massive space, it takes your breath away.

It's like walking through a stone forest with a canopy of branches soaring high above your head.

The light is dappled as it shines down through the brightly colored windows.

You can't look anywhere but up.  This is Gaudi and it's otherworldly.

 

While we were there they were placing some of the stained glass panels.

 I can only imagine what it will look like once the transformation is complete.

 

 

The Nativity Facade was finished in 1930 and was the first to be completed.

It is fantastical and much more reminiscent of Gaudi's style.

It almost looks likes it's just grown out of the stone.

I suggest that you pre-purchase your tickets online.  (We didn't take that advice.)

We had to wait in line about twenty minutes but during the peak hours the wait can be longer.

Admission to the Basilica is €14.80.
There are additional costs to visit the Towers and the Museum and to get an audio-guide.

We didn't go up into the towers but found the audio guide and the museum great additions to the visit.

If you visit Barcelona, a visit to La Sagrada Familia is an absolute must.

I want to go back and see it again when it is complete.

Have you been to the Sagrada Familia?  What did you think?

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The City of Gaudi

 As I've mentioned before, I fell in love with Spain after our last visit.
So I was eager to get back and explore another corner of this wonderful country.

My three night MSC Blog Cruise ended in Barcelona.

This is a city that I was eager to visit and Matt was excited to revisit,

so he flew out and met me for a few extras days in this modern, ancient city.

I got a lesson in European assertiveness when I disembarked the cruise ship during a torrential downpour.

I headed straight for the taxi line and politely took my place in the queue.

Ha!  I quickly realized that less than half of us were complying with proper line etiquette.

The rest had decided that they weren't required to wait and would just jump into the next taxi.

 The shouting started, the situation escalated and the police were called.

After a half hour getting soaking wet and actually being bullied out of two taxis when I was NEXT IN LINE,

I realized that she who screams the loudest gets the taxi.

I must have done it right because no one fought me as I jumped in yelling "Mine!"

I might have even stomped my foot.  But I got that next taxi, dammit.

After the initial drama, our stay in Barcelona was wonderful.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain
and after London and Paris, is one of the most visited cities in Europe.

We stayed at the Musik Boutique Hotel and were very happy with our stay.

Cute and comfortable with a very nice breakfast each morning.

We took a hop on/hop off bus one day when it was raining,

but most of the time we just spent exploring the Old City on foot.

The city is world renowned for it's interesting architecture.

It's a great combination of historical and modern.

I found the eyeball building, The Ohla Hotel, particularly interesting.

You can't talk about Barcelona without mentioning the work of Antoni Gaudi.

The city is dotted with his whimsical and distinctive designs, full of curves and color.

We visited two of his works, La Sagrada Familia and Le Pedrera which I'll show you in future posts.

 

The city's most famous pedestrian street is the tree-lined Las Rambles but after about twenty minutes

fighting the tourists and dodging the street performers, I was anxious to get back into the side streets.

That's where you can get lost and really experience the wonderful city of Barcelona.

 We walked and walked, stopping for ice cream or jamón when we needed sustinance.  

When it was time for lunch we would pop into a Tavern for pinchos and wine.

 It's kind of like tapas.  The bar was covered with trays containing a large variety of skewered snacks.

You settle up your bill by just counting the number of sticks you have left on your plate at the end.

We walked all the way down to the port passing some interesting art pieces along the way.

 

Barcelona is also the home of one of the top rated city beaches, so of course we had to take a look.

The sand was a bit rough, as was the crowd,
but we enjoyed watching the sun go down over this beautiful Mediterranean city.

What is your favorite thing about Barcelona?

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