Barcelona (3) Sagrada Familia and the Eixample District

Antoni Gaudi and The Modernista Eixample

Barcelona

We took a ‘city break’ in Barcelona in March 2008. As a Covid lockdown project I have reconstructed our visit from guide books, memory and most importantly Lynne's diary and my photographs. The third of three posts, this concentrates on the epic Sagrada Familia and the grander streets of the Eixample district north of the Old City. The posts follows the geography and history of the city rather than the chronology of our visit, which was from Tues 25-Mar-2008 to Sat 29-Mar-2008.

The Districts of Barcelona (the map has been turned, the coastline actually runs SW to NE)
The work of Vinals Reproduced under CreativeCommons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Into The Eixample

The Sagrada Familia is Barcelona’s most powerful tourist magnet, and like many others we went there on Day 1 (Wednesday). The 35-minute walk from our hotel started in the Old City but was mainly through L'Eixample.

L'Eixample, meaning 'the extension’. was planned and built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to fill the space between the Old City and the nearby small towns and villages, thus turning Barcelona into a modern metropolis. The contrast between the narrow wandering alleys of the organically-grown Gothic Quarter and the planned blocks of L'Eixample is dramatic on the ground and can easily be seen in an aerial photograph.

The densely packed haphazard old city lies beside the harbour and is capped by the rectangular blocks of the Eixample

Ildefons Cerda

The masterplan was the work of the visionary Ildefons Cerda (1815-76). Originally a civil engineer he became the founder of modern town planning and coined the word ‘urbanization’.

L'Eixample has long straight streets crossed by wide avenues. The square blocks have chamfered corners and the streets broaden at intersections improving visibility for traffic and increasing sunshine and ventilation for the residents. Cerda planned a modern sewage system and for markets, schools and hospitals to be built every so many blocks.

The Passeig de Gràcia, one of the wide SE-NW Avenues, L'Eixample, Barcelona

Inevitably, the plans were modified when they came into conflict with municipal finances. The streets were narrowed, most blocks were constructed with four sides and an inner space rather than the intended two or three sides around a garden and only one of the two diagonal avenues was built. Despite these changes, the residents were far more middle and upper class than in Cerda’s vision of a socially mixed society.

Garden in one block opening out onto the street, L'Eixample, Barcelona

Despite not quite living up to Cera’s vision, L'Eixample remains a model of good urban planning, the buildings are well designed and constructed and if you have to live in an urban environment (and I chose not to) you could easily do very much worse.

Antoni Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia

Modernism and Catalan Modernisme

Antoni Gaudi

Much of L’Eixample is Catalan Moderniste in style. The Modernist/Art Nouveau movements swept through Europe, and to lesser extent the USA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A reaction to the societal changes of the time, they encompassing poetry, painting, sculpture, the decorative arts and architecture. Modernism evolved in different forms in different countries. Catalan Modernisme, as distinct from Spanish Modernismo, combined the reassertion of Catalan culture with mainstream Modernism.

The Sagrada Familia as it was in 2008

Catalan Modernisme had an emphasis on architecture. Antoni Gaudi was the most important Catalan architect and in 1883 he was given control of Barcelona’s most important modernist project, the Sagrada Familia. Gaudi worked on it until his death in 1926 by which time it was a quarter completed.

The Spanish Civil War further delayed construction and in 2008 it was still less than half finished. Even so, the first sight from the intersection of the Carrer de Mallorca and the Avinguda Diagonal was impressive, even other-worldly.

First sight of the Sagrada Familia

A more orthodox view gives a better idea of what it looked like in 2008. This is the east end of the church, usually the plainer end – and, surprising as it might seem, it will be when the building is finished.

The East end of the Sagrada Familia from the adjacent patk

The towers certainly look floral, and moving round to the north side and looking up from what might termed be 'the undergrowth' they appear to be dripping with concrete moss…

The towers from the north side

…and a somewhat bewildering close-up reveals all the fussiness of baroque with none of the form.

North side, close up

Meanwhile, the other side is so different only the use of the same material hints at this being the same building. Here Gaudi’s angular crucifixion scene owes much to Cubism - another Modernist development.

Angular Crucifixion, Sagrada Familia

Inside, among the carpenters and stone masons at work on the benches in the nave, the stained-glass windows seem disturbingly anatomical…

Stained glass windows, Sagrada Familia

…and the pillars were allegedly modelled on trees but to me they resemble the brittle skeleton of an animal whose fossilised remains have yet to be found.

The nave, Sagrada Familia

The View from on High

The lift taking visitors up one of the towers had a long queue so we decided to give it a miss. Just round the corner was another lift, going the same place but with no queue, so we changed our minds.

Looking south we had a close up of one of the finials. The high ground behind is Montjuic with the 1992 Olympic Park.

Finial (foreground) Montjuic (background)

East is the Torre Agbar (now called the Torre Glòries) or sometime El Supositori. The tower has obvious similarities to The Gherkin (30, St Mary Axe to give it its proper name). The Gherkin is 36m taller and was opened in 2004, The Suppository a year later. But building work started on The Suppository two years ahead of The Gherkin, so who copied whom? Or was it just an idea whose time was due?

Torre Agbar (now Torre Glories)

Turning a little further north, the chamfered rectangular blocks of L’Eixample stretched into the distance.

Looking north east

Sagrada Familia as it is and will be

During the visit I decided that the whole project was too far over the top. Since then, my feelings have mellowed and I now rather like it. In 2010, building reached its half way stage and Pope Benedict came to consecrate the church and grant it the status of a basilica.

My memory says that in 2008 we were told the projected completion date was 2023. Now it is said to be 2026, such projects are ever prey to innumerable delays – and then there is covid - but 2026 will be the centenary of Gaudi’s death, so it seems appropriate. But what will it look like then? I offer this remarkable virtual construction from YouTube. Is that magnificent or has it now gone too far over the top? Or both?

Gaudi’s House and the Parc Güell

Gaudi’s former home now a Casa-Museu is in Parc Güell. A 40-minute walk from the Sagrada Familia, the park is in Gràcia, the district immediately north of L’Eixample and a separate municipality until 1897.

The decoration is in the expected style but the construction is relatively conventional…

Casa-Museu Gaudi, Park Güell

…as is the interior.

Casa-Museu Gaudi, Park Güell

Gaudi had always been a devout Catholic, but in his latter years he became obsessed with his religion and his big church. With no wife or family to advise him differently, he moving into his office in the Sagrada Familia, neglecting himself and pausing work only to sleep and to attend daily mass. In June 1926 he absentmindedly stepped in front of a tram on his way to confession. Shabbily dressed, unwashed and unkempt, he was taken for a beggar and not transported to hospital until a passer-by recognised him. Whether he would have survived with prompt treatment is unknown, but by modern standards this indifference to a man's fate because of his poverty is shocking.

Parc Güell surrounds the house, but apart from glimpsing one very Gaudi-esque corner we did not explore. Looking back, that was a disappointing decision, but at the time perhaps we felt we had walked enough, and it was half past two and even in Spain that is time for lunch.

A Gaudi-esque corner of Park Güell

A short distance down the little hill from the park we found a cafe that furnished a well made salad and a bocadillo.

Dining on Goat

The afternoon is covered in another post, but in the evening, we ventured out to a restaurant we had spotted earlier, attracted by a choice of goat dishes – we like goat when we can get it. Arriving at 9.30 we had the place to ourselves until well into our meal. We enjoyed starters of pinto bean and chorizo stew (Lynne) and a ramekin stuffed with garlicy, tomato-y, eggs and meaty sausage (me). ‘Menu’ is the best area of our limited Spanish, but the waiter felt the need to explain Lynne’s goat cutlet by making imaginary slices of his own ribs. More helpfully he informed her it was ‘in bread and fried.’ My roast goat he described as a ‘little arm’. The meat was good quality but as both dishes were served with chips and aubergine fritters there was, perhaps, too much frying for one plate.

More Modernisme in L’Eixample

On our final day, before heading for the airport, we took a short walk round the nearer part of L’Eixample. The Lonely Planet’s ‘Modernisme in L’Eixample walk' has 27 stops. We lacked both the time for such a marathon and the enthusiasm for so many minor modernista mansions.

Palau de la Música Catalana

Our first stop was neither minor nor a mansion. Lluís Domènech i Montaner’s Palau de la Música Catalana was built in 1908 on the border of the Old City and L’Eixample.

Palau de la Música Catalana

Domènech i Montaner was not only a practising architect, but also a Professor of Architecture for 45 years, and and active participant in Catalan nationalist politics. One of the founders of Catalan Modernisme he was interested in creating an architecture that reflected the Catalan character.

Palau de la Música Catalana

I cannot comment on the Catalan character beyond saying everyone we met was helpful and friendly, but the Palau is a flamboyant structure and highly decorated in every detail.

Palau de la Música Catalana

Cases Cabot

Not far away is the Cases Cabot, designed by Josep Vilaseca and built in 1905. Vilaseca was also responsible for the Arc de Triomf, the entrance to Barcelona’s 1888 World Fair which appeared in the previous Barcelona post (and in my collection of non-Parisian Arches of Triumph.)

At first sight it looks neither special, nor modernista, but the decoration around the balconies and along the line of the roof give it away…

Cases Cabot, L'Eixample, Barcelona

…and then there is one doorway where decoration is taken to such an extreme it is hard to believe this is the same building.

Doorway, Cases Cabot, L'Eixample, Barcelona

Casa Calvet

Its neighbour Casa Calvet, built in 1900, also requires a close up to see the modernista decorations. One of Gaudi’s lesser works, the internal staircase is, I read, the main feature of the building, but you cannot see that from the pavement.

Casa Calvet, L'Eixample, Barcelona

Casa Batlló

Further up the broad Passeig de Gràcia is a more important Gaudi building, the Casa Batlló. Originally built in 1877, the arrival of electricity in the 20th century meant it required modification and in 1904 the new owner, Josep Batlló, gave Gaudi carte blanche to rebuild his house. The end dwelling in a block of five aggressively moderniste dwellings collectively known as the ‘Bone of Contention’, Casa Batlló has similarities to the interior of the Sagrada Familia.

Casa Batlló, Passeig de Gràcia, Barcelona

Lynne described it as ‘ugly and sinister’. The large windows reminded me of  an episode of the Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom is trying to stay awake and props his eyelids open with matchsticks; Gaudi retains the cruelty but jettisons the humour.

Casa Batlló window

I am unsure about Gaudi, I disliked Casa Batlló, I liked the Sagrada Familia as it was in 2008, but the finished article in 2026 is more problematic. He was a man full of ideas, but used them indiscriminately, often all at once. There are times when less is more; but this thought that would not have appealed to him.

Last Lunch

Back in the Cathedral Square we chose a restaurant offering a set lunch of seafood salad, rabbit with garlic and chocolate mousse; €15 including wine. Our second successful ‘set lunch’ taught us a lesson that proved useful when visiting Madrid a year later.

Then we went home.

Barcelona
Barcelona (1) La Rambla and Barceloneta
Barcelona (2) The Old City
Barcelona (3)Antoni Gaudi and the Eixample District

Barcelona (2) The Old City

The Old City from the Romans to Picasso

Barcelona

We took a ‘city break’ in Barcelona in March 2008. As a Covid lockdown project I have reconstructed our visit from guide books, memory and most importantly my photographs and Lynne’s diary. The second of three posts, this concentrates on the Old City, (La Ciutat Vella) and follows the geography and history of the city rather than the chronology of our visit, which was from Tues 25-Mar-2008 to Sat 29-Mar-2008

The Districts of Barcelona (the map has been turned, the coastline actually runs SW to NE)
The work of Vinals Reproduced under CreativeCommons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Staying in the heart of the Old city had clear advantages but there were disadvantages, too. Barcelona is a party town; the revelry varies with the day of the week but can continue until late and a single-glazed third floor window is no defence. An hour or two after the party goers have gone, the refuse men arrive, clattering a sequence of metal bins right around the square. Sleeping can be problematic.

El Barri Gótic

Plaça de Sant Jaume

On the Friday we essayed The Lonely Planet walking tour of Old Barcelona. It a starts in the Plaça de Sant Jaume, the heart of the Barri Gótic. The lay-out here is medieval, but the square lies over most of the Roman forum so this was also the heart of Roman Barcino.

It retains its importance in modern Barcelona with the offices of the presidency of the Catalan regional government, the Palau de la Generalitat, facing the municipal government, the Ajuntament, across the square.

The Palau de la Generalitat, Plaça de Sant Jaume

My next photograph was in the Carrer dels Cotoners (Cotton Street), 200m in the wrong direction for the walk, but it is a pleasing example of the barri’s narrow alleys. I think we wandered in search of gifts to take home, many of these streets are lined with small shops selling artisan food and arty crafty stuff. We certainly acquired some slices of orange in chocolate and several small walnut/fig/toffee cakes from somewhere.

Carrer dels Cotoners, Barcelona

Sinagoga Major

Back on the suggested path we walked through the ancient Jewish Quarter. Crammed into these narrow alleys the significance of individual buildings becomes obscured, but the building on the left below is the Sinagoga Major.

Sinagoga Major, Barcelona

The original structure dates from the 3rd or 4th century. Whether it was built as a synagogue is unknown, but as it is aligned differently from its neighbours and the end wall points towards Jerusalem, it is possible. If so, it had been a synagogue for over a thousand years before the massacre of Barcelona’s Jews in 1391 brought about its closure. The building was used for other purposes and its existence as a synagogue was forgotten. The process of rediscovery started in the 1980s and it reopened as a synagogue in 2002.

Continuing the walk, we reached the church of Santa Maria de Pi, but repair work had surrounded it with fencing and swathed it in green netting.

Roman Tombs in the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid

The next place of interest was the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid. Lynne hated the Plaça, her description making the surroundings sound decidedly tacky. While writing this account, I took an on-line drive round, which is not the same as being there, but it looked a small, pleasant urban green space. Maybe it has changed.

What we both liked – and has not changed - was the excavation of a large group of Roman tombs beside the green (though Lynne berated the design of the viewing platform). The Romans generally buried their dead along the roadsides outside their cities. Walking from Santa Maria de Pi we had left the Roman city and were now on what is believed to be the spur joining Barcino to the Via Augustus the great Roman road running the length of Hispania from Cadiz to the Pyrenees.

Roman graves, in the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid

We abandoned the walk at this point. We had expected March in Barcelona to be warmer than March in Staffordshire, but on this day it wasn’t. We felt the need to return to our hotel and don another layer of clothing.

Back outside it was still cold, so we popped into the Taverna del Bisbe, the Bishop’s Tavern, on the cathedral square though not owned or run by the bishop - a shame, 'barista in mitre' would make a good photo. It was crowded, noisy, warm and sold coffee, all of which met a need.

The Plaça del Rei, Casa Padellàs, King Martin's Watchtower and Roman Barcino

Thus fortified we decided to go directly to the end of the walk, without passing go or collecting 200 Euros. The Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA) was inaugurated in 1943 and now is responsible for 16 sites around the city, ranging from the Roman burials at Plaça de la Vila de Madrid to a civil war air raid shelter, but its first and most important site is Plaça del Rei.

On the edge of the Gothic quarter, bounded on one side by the city’s Roman Wall, Plaça del Rei is surrounded by the former royal palace, the state archives, the Casa Padellàs and the Mirador de Rei Marti (King Martin’s Watchtower). The mirador, a strange bookshelf of a building, was built by Martin I (Martin the Humane), King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia and Corsica and Count of Barcelona. He ruled from 1356 to 1410 adding King of Sicily to his portfolio in his final year. In the 15th century it was believed, at least by the locals, to be the tallest building in the world.

King Martin's Watchtower, left, and the entrance to the Royal Palace (right)

Opposite the Mirador is the Casa Padellàs, which has a fine example of a medieval courtyard and was moved here brick by brick in 1931 from just outside the Roman Wall. For all the glories above ground it is the lift that takes you down to the most important part of the museum. Descending through the building’s steal underpinnings, the display normally showing the floors, here shows the centuries. After descending 20 of them the lift stops at the level of 1st century Barcino.

Walkways led through the excavated Roman city, past a laundry, dyeing works, wine makers, fish salters, garum makers and shops that would have sold this produce.

Roman Barcino beneath the Casa Padellàs

Friday afternoon is not relevant to this post - it pops up elsewhere. In the evening we dined at El Café d’En Victor next-door to the Taverna del Bisbe. It was cheap and cheerful, which suited our mood.

Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran

Warmed by a good dinner and a glass or two of Empordà, the café’s excellent house wine, we made our way back towards the Plaça del Rei. This time we approached from outside the Roman walls across the Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran. Ramon Berenguer III (son of RB II, father or RB IV) known as the Great was Count of Barcelona 1086-1131.

The wall is high and forbidding. There is also a tower which frequently appears in image searches for the ‘St Martin’s Watchtower’. Google maps clearly mark the ‘bookcase’ as the watchtower, so in the absence of any other confirmation I have gone with that.

Tower and Roman wall, Barcelona

On the other side of the wall in the Plaça del Rei there was traditional music and dancing. If only it had been a little warmer….

Plaça del Rei in the evening

Picasso

The Picasso Museum is outside the Barri Gótic, 200m beyond the Roman wall, but still well within the Old City. We walked there earlyish on Thursday morning (by tourist standards) and found a queue had already formed. It moved along quickly enough.

Picasso was born in Andalusia and lived most of his life in France, but he spent much of his childhood in Barcelona. His father taught at the School of Fine Arts and young Picasso’s extravagant talent led to him being admitted to the Advanced Course aged 13. At 16 he left Barcelona to study in Madrid and then, like all ambitious young artists of the time, found his way to Paris. He frequently returned to Barcelona until the Franco years, when his exile ceased to be voluntary.

The Picasso museum dates from 1963, a little act of Catalan rebellion at a time when Picasso did not like Spain and ‘official Spain’ did not like him. His recent works were unavailable but a large number of his early paintings were collected. ‘Science and Charity’ a large canvas near the entrance was painted in 1897 when he was 16. Traditional in style and subject matter, it demonstrates his prodigious early talent. Although in the public domain in the US, this and other images are still under copyright in Europe, but his early works can be seen here.

Velázquez is long out of copyright, so here is his 1656 masterpiece Las Meniñas.

Las Meniñas, Diego Velázquez, 1656 (Public Domain)

Picasso is one of several painters to have re-interpreted Las Meniñas. In 1957 he produced a series of 58 such paintings, now on permanent display in Barcelona. I do not pretend to understand the thought processes, but I found the morphing of images from one canvas to the next while still respecting the original to be fascinating.

Las Meniñas, one of Picasso's variations

When we left the museum the queue outside was huge. I do enjoy a little schadenfreude now and again.

Parc de la Ciutadella

Before our latish flight, we spent the morning of our last day (a Saturday) in the Eixample district but detoured on our way back to the hotel and our airport taxi to the Parc de la Ciutadella in the La Ribera district of the old town. Inside the park is an ornate fountain (switched off for our visit), Barcelona zoo and the Catalonian parliament. During the 2018/19 troubles surrounding the officially illegal referendum and abortive declaration of independence the authorities often felt the need to close the park.

Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona

Catalonia has always been uncertain whether its destiny truly lies with Spain. They backed the Grand Alliance (i.e. the Rest of Europe) against the Spanish/French choice in the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-14). Barcelona was rewarded by a 13-month siege.

Having taken the city and confirmed his position as king, Philip V decided to end Catalan rebellion for good by building the largest fortress in Europe. La Ribera was largely razed to make way for the fort, leaving the inhabitants homeless. Taxes were levied on the citizens of Barcelona to pay for it, and those who could not pay were conscripted as construction workers. These actions did not make Catalonia any less rebellious or Philip any more popular.

By 1848 Spain was more stable and there was no further use for the fortress. It was destroyed rather than demolished and in 1872 the site became a park. For several decades the Parc de la Ciutadella was the only green space within the city.

The second half of the 19th century was a period of growth for Barcelona. The modernist Eixample district was developed and the building of the Sagrada Familia started (in 1883, completion is now expected in 2026). Barcelona was becoming a modern international city and in 1888 it hosted the Barcelona World Fair. The site chosen was the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Arc de Triomf was built as the entrance. A whimsical piece of modernist architecture with Islamic-style brickwork, it was designed by Josep Vilaseca as the arch through which Barcelona would rep les nacions (welcome the Nations).

Arc de Triomf, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona

So much for the old town, the next post moves on to Eixample and the Sagrada Familia.

Barcelona
Barcelona (1) La Rambla and Barceloneta
Barcelona (2) The Old City
Barcelona (3)Sagrada FamiliaAntoni Gaudi and the Eixample District

Barcelona (1) La Rambla and Barceloneta

A Brief Whinge from Someone with no Real Problems

I am fed up with the Rona (who isn’t?) but, as I admitted in Swynnerton: A Village in Lockdown last April, we have it easy. Many, probably most, are having a more difficult time than us so, as the saying goes, mustn’t grumble. But I will, anyway. While grateful for our relative good fortune, I yearn to go places, do things and meet people. I am seventy, I do not want to go wild, I just want some reassurance that I am still alive.

The lockdowns have had another strange, personal consequence. It takes me a year or more to complete the posts for a long journey, six months for a week’s break. Since 2010 I have permanently been working on a backlog of two, sometime three trips. I was happy with that, the backlog would disappear, I thought, when the problems of old age stopped us travelling, and I was in no hurry for that to happen.

Barcelona

But we are well, and and the backlog has gone. Becoming bored with tarting up old posts and dragging together portmanteau offerings on diverse topics like mosques and puddings, I am now resorting to historic travels. We enjoyed a city break in Barcelona at Easter in 2008; I have photos, all nicely dated and timed as digital images are, and with these, my memory and a guide book I can reconstruct our trip. And Lynne’s diary provides another invaluable source!

Barcelona Intro

Everyone knows where Barcelona is, but here is a map anyway, showing the city is at the northern end of Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

Spain

Catalonia

The city’s origins are obscure but a Roman castrum constructed in 15 BCE grew to become the Roman colony of Barcino. The Romans left and the Moors arrived but were eventually chased out by Charlemagne and Barcelona became capital of the County of Barcelona – a buffer state between Carolingian lands to the north and the Moors to the south. In time the county became the Principality of Catalonia and by the 16th century Barcelona was the largest city of the ‘Crown of Aragon’. In the Civil War, Catalonia was staunchly Republican but Barcelona was the scene of much fighting between rival Republican factions in 1937. In January 1939 the city fell to the Nationalists and Catalonia lost much of its autonomy during the 35-year dictatorship of Generalisimo Franco.

Spain

With Franco days a distant, if bitter, memory, Barcelona is now a cultural, economic and financial centre, a major port and tourist magnet and was host of the 1992 Olympics.  It has 1.6 million citizens and is the centre of a metropolitan area of 4.8 million making it the second most populous city in Spain, and the capital and largest city of Catalonia (I have carefully used the English spelling to avoid choosing between Spanish and Catalan and thus inadvertently making a political statement).

The Districts of Barcelona (the map has been turned, the coastline actually runs SW to NE)
The work of Vinals Reproduced under CreativeCommons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

25/03/2008

We arrived at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport (Catalan for The Field) just after midday on a cool and overcast (Lynne described it as cold) Tuesday. The suburban railway station was closed for engineering work and the city Metro would not reach the airport until 2016, so we took a taxi to our hotel in the Cuitat Vella (Old City) - see map above. We could even see the medieval cathedral square from our bedroom window – well a bit of it anyway.

A Corner of Barcelona's Cathedral Square from our hotel room

The Cathedral

As it was just round the corner our first visit was to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St Eulalia.

I did not bother to photograph the outside as it was covered by scaffolding. The exteriors of Catalan churches are traditionally plain; the cathedral's elaborate (if hidden) façade was a 19th century neo-Gothic addition to the 14th Cathedral.

The interior, though basically a huge stone barn lined with chapels, is lavishly decorated. Lynne’s diary records that she was impressed by the quire and its carved misericords, and amused by the coffins of a medieval count and his wife marooned on a shelf half way up the wall. We were both winced at some of the paintings, the torture and martyrdom of the saints being depicted with, we thought, unseemly relish.

Inside Barcelona Cathedral

The story of St Eulalia, Barcelona’s co-patron saint is typical. Tradition states the Roman authorities punished the young Christian virgin by having her exposed naked in the public square. When God sent a miraculous spring snowfall to cover her nudity the enraged authorities put her in a barrel with protruding blades and rolled her down the road. I suspect that story tells us more about the pre-occupations of the early church than St Eulalia.

We met St Eulalia’s Geese in the cloister beside the cathedral. According to tradition white geese (or possibly doves) flew down to the dying martyr. In commemoration 13 geese (Eulalia was 13-years-old at the time) have free run of the cloister.

St Eulalia's Geese, Barcelona Cathedral Cloister

Leaving the cathedral, we wandered the medieval streets, stopped for a beer and eventually returned to our hotel.

Later we dined at a restaurant 15-minute’s walk away recommended by the friendly man on reception. Arriving at a Spanish restaurant at 9.00 is one way to have the place to yourself, but holding out until local eating time is beyond us. Two other customers eventually arrived, just before we finished eating. Lynne’s cuttlefish kebab cooked in squid ink and my ‘baby pig’ with pumpkin chutney were excellent, as were the desserts, a melon soup with lychees for Lynne and for me Mató, a Catalan whey cheese served, as tradition demands, with honey.

Wed 26/03/2008 to Sat 29/03/2008

To treat the rest of our stay in chronological order would require too many geographical jumps. The next post will deal with the delights of the Gothic Quarter, the final one with the Exaimple and Gracia districts – Antoni Gaudi will feature there - but I will end this introductory post with a 'walk', actually pieced together from three different days, round two sides of the Gothic Quarter and down to the beach.

La Rambla

The Old Town, la Ciutat Vella, has three sections. Our hotel and the Cathedral were in the Gothic Quarter (el Barri Gótic) inside the medieval city wall, while the smaller El Raval was without the wall, at least until it was extended in 1377. The third, Barceloneta, is the old fisherman's quarter.

Dividing the Gothic Quarter from El Raval is La Rambla. Once a storm drain and sewer beside the wall its status has risen considerably and Federico García Lorca called it "the only street in the world which I wish would never end."

La Rambla is a dual carriageway, but the roadways are of minor importance, much wider and busier is the tree-lined pedestrian area down the centre. Once churches and monasteries lined the street and it was used for festivals, markets and sport, now its popularity with tourists means it is a place of cafés, kiosks and human statues ever ready, for a small fee, to move or pose for a camera.  It is always busy in the summer, indeed it was busy in March too, when the tourists were very much in the minority. I wonder if Lorca would think it had been spoilt?

Looking south down La Rambla from near the Plaça Catalunya

La Rambla runs some 1,250m from the Plaça Catalunya, where the Old City meets the modernista Exaimple district, southeast to the old port.

Mercat de la Boqueria

About a third of the way down is Boqueria market. A market was held on this site in 1217 and there have been meat markets here under various names ever since. The present all-purpose food market was built in 1840, and for lovers of food markets this is as good as it gets. In the stall below are mushrooms, firm, fresh and inviting, of a dozen different varieties . The next stall has baskets of oysters behind sacks of, perhaps, winkles. The Spanish eat more fish and sea food per head than any other European country…

Mushrooms and sea food, La Boqueria Market, Barcelona

….but they also love their ham.

Pernil, Embotits i Foratge (Catalan: ‘ham, sausages and cheese’), La Boqueria, Barcelona 

We were taken aback by the prices of some hams, €140 per Kg Lynne’s diary notes with apparent shock. We learned more about ham on our 2019 trip to Andalusia where they produce arguably the best ham in the world – and locals would take offense at ‘arguably’. The clearly visibly black trotters are unique to Iberian black pigs, the black label lower down indicates these are free range, acorn fed, pure bred Ibericos - the top quality. As we saw in Aracena, hams like these start at €700 and the most expensive can fetch over €4,000.

Christopher Columbus

The end of La Rambla is marked by a statue of Christopher Columbus, as we would call him, Cristóbal Colón in Spanish or Cristòfor Colom in Catalan. Born in the Genoese Republic in 1451, he went to sea at the age of 10 and became a merchant, seafarer and self-taught geographer. Like most educated people he knew the world was not flat and was not alone in conjecturing there might be a shorter route to the riches of India and the Spice Islands by sailing west rather going round the southern tip of Africa. He persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to back his projected trip and the rest everybody knows. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella had united the crowns of Castille and Aragon and Barcelona's importance to the Crown of Aragon is, as far as I know, Colombus’ sole local connection.

Christopher Columbus Monument, Barcelona

Google suggests the site has changed since my photo. He now stands on a sizeable traffic island and is further away from the self-important building behind him. He now points vaguely out to sea but in 2008 he gives the impression of pointing back up La Rambla, not the way to India, or the Caribbean – perhaps he fancied some ham

Maritime Museum

Appropriately the Maritime Museum occupies the site of a medieval dockyard opposite Columbus.

Inside, Lynne records, there were copies of old maps, all so inaccurate or vague it was no wonder Columbus did not know where he was, and models of ships. She also mentions trawlers, small fishing boats, canoes, catamarans and plenty of maritime equipment.

Pride of place went to a full-sized replica of Don Juan of Austria’s flagship at the Battle of Lepanto (1571). It was rowed by slaves chained to their seats and was capable of speeds up to 9 knots.

Replica of the flagship of Don Juan of Autria at the Battle of Lepanto, Maritime Museum, Barcelona

John of Austria was born in 1547, an illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In the service of his half-brother, King Philip of Spain he was Admiral of the Holy Alliance fleet at Lepanto. The battle was the first major naval victory over the Turks by Christian forces, and with over 400 galleys involved, the last significant galley battle in the Mediterranean.

Barceloneta

The road running northeast beside the ferry dock and the Porto Vell Marina from the Columbus memorial is the Passeig de Colom, which to the anglophone sounds less scatological than its Spanish equivalent. This brings you to the Barceloneta quarter curling protectively round the end of the harbour.

Once a poor and run-down area, the rows of fisherman’s cottages facing the harbour have been smartened up and include many seafood restaurants, those in the first row noticeably upmarket. Restaurants in the rows further back tended to be more modest and we earmarked one offering a set lunch for €12.50, wine included.

Half past one was a little early for a Spanish lunch so we strolled down to the beach. Spain has a long Mediterranean coastline chockful of beach resorts but I had never thought of Barcelona being one, but it is. Used, I would expect, largely by locals it is pleasant enough, though not in March. I took off my jacket for the photograph in the vain hope of making it look warmer.

Barcelona beach

Back at the restaurant, lunching with the locals, we started with paella. Lynne followed this with a substantial sole while I ordered ‘whinting’ from the bilingual menu expecting whiting. What arrived looked more like overlarge whitebait, very fresh, lightly floured and less aggressively fried than whitebait is in the UK. It was basic but wonderful. Lynne described the cheesecake dessert as ‘a very light cake made with some mild curd cheese and chocolate bits served with a light syrup’. I suspect this is what cheesecake was before it became the highly processed article sold at home. The food industry has messed up a simple delight. A bottle of house white completed the set menu.

A beer and a tapa (just the one) were all we required that evening.

Barcelona
Barcelona (1) La Rambla and Barceloneta
Barcelona (2) The Old City
Barcelona (3)Sagrada Familia and the Eixample District