For example, on each side of the roof top terraces are arches that serve as frames for 2 of the cathedrals in the city of Barcelona, one being another of his own works, La Sagrada Familia. He also attempted to add a sculpture of the Virgin Mary flanked by two angels to the façade of the building. However, due to political and religious unrest during the time of construction, the commissioner forbid this addition. In the end, I think that this was a good decision. The façade of the building is already so interesting that anything more would be too much. The stone and iron are a stark contrast to his other works such as Casa Batllo and Parc Guell, but it is the beauty in the simplicity of the building’s exterior that makes it such a work of art.

            Its important to note that Gaudi does not completely forego his love for embellishment in this building. On the rooftop terrace, his signature trencadis covers the two large air vents that are visible from the street. This shows both his attention to detail and his practicality. It would have been a waste of money to cover all of the vents because half cannot be seen from the street. Another interesting way of saving money while still adding decoration is using broken bottles of Cava, a popular Catalan wine, for trencadis on one set of vents.

            Another incredible part of the building was the attic just below the terrace. His ability to create such an open, free flowing space was only possible through the use of the Catanary arch. This was also a frugal means of construction. It uses less bricks and creates more space. This was also a way to see how he was inspired by nature. The vault created by the rows of arches resembles the spine and ribs of a skeleton. Also, the façade of the building is inspired by nature in that it curves like the waves of the Mediterranean, and the wrought iron balconies are twisted and curved to resemble the surf as it crashes to shore.

            I really liked seeing in person all of Gaudi’s trademark techniques and inspirations. Its incredible how all the different styles come together to make one incredible work of art. Gaudi was truly ahead of his time and Casa Mila is one of the best testaments to his architectural genius. Gaudi will always be associated with Barcelona. He adored his city and gave back in one of the most immortal ways. His architecture has become the hallmark of Barcelona and is part of what makes it such a culturally and artistically progressive city.

            Also in the December 14^th  issue of La Vanguardia is the article regarding the ban of smoking in enclosed public spaces, entertainment venues, and restaurants in 2010. The article is very short, just a quick summary of the talks that have been going on between different political groups and Minister Trinidad Jiminez. He says “to the extent that we get political consensus, we will achieve social consensus. We’re culturally ready to adopt now, and we are in this final phase of negotiation.” I have never been in a city where you are allowed to smoke inside restaurants and bars, but this is because the US has taken strong strides to promote overall public health and to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking and second hand smoke. I’m glad to see that Barcelona is making the effort to do the same and hope that other European cities follow suit!

Another article I found interesting was the article discussing the Barcelona Institute of Architecture. As I have both learned in class and seen firsthand, Barcelona is incredibly eclectic when it comes to its local architecture. One of the most well known architects in the world, Antoni Gaudi, lived and worked here and left behind some of the greatest contributions to architecture known to man. Along with that beautiful modernisme architecture is the stark contrast of the modernity of the MACBA museum and the twin towers on the beach. So it is no surprise that architecture as an industry is an important part of the Barcelona economy. The article discusses how the institute will make an effort to meet the challenges brought about by the economic crisis. Bursting the housing bubble, new technologies and a mixing of academic research and specialty practices is their goal in their postgrad and professional debates. It is no surprise that their headquarters is in La Pedrera, a famous Gaudi creation and because of this it also enjoys public-private funding through the Caixa Catalunya which also has offices there. Because of their extensive funding, I have no doubts that their goal of turning Barcelona into a reference point between local professionals and the rest of the world will come true. Through new digital studios, open reading workshops, improved Masters plans, and conferences, the BIArch hopes to make the most of their initial 1million euro budget over the next couple of years.

            The next article I found was a little bit surprising to me. I have become incredibly accustomed to the beautiful weather of Barcelona and tend to forget (ok maybe neglect…) the fact that cold even exists anymore. Especially in the Mediterranean. It seems that the great weather can’t last forever and that winter does in fact come around this time of year. In the smaller towns outside of Barcelona, several small crashes and other incidents have occurred on the roadways because  of a snow storm in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Thirty seven trucks and nine cars were caught in the weather between Reus and Falset  and were forced to wait in Reus overnight waiting the arrival of the snow plows. The storm has also left 1,634 school children advised to stay at home in Tarragona, Girona, Horta d’Ebre, and Lleida because of the high winds and the cold. Fortunately, this wind has not caused any structural damage like it has in the past. Meteorologist are predicting that the storm will be over by Wednesday and are hoping for no more crashes and school cancelations.

On the same line of thought in regards to school, an article yesterday outlined the plans by the Minister of Education, Angel Gabilondo, and Regional Minister for Education of the Generalitat Ernest Maragall. They signed the Convention School 2.0 plan which aims to digitize the classrooms of Catalunya through installation of more computers and software in both Catalan and Castilian, along with other more advanced technologies. Both the central and regional governments will invest a combined total of 30.8 million euro. However, parents in Catalunya will pay half the cost of the computers as an initial contribution. The  Ministry has an agreement with Microsoft and hopes to get free software, or at least discounted software. The program will be implemented through Educat 1×1 which is for secondary school aged kids and will distribute 60,000 laptops. This program also includes teacher training, WIFI in classrooms, and installation of other necessities and will begin this September.

            The Magic Fountain gives you an unexpected glimpse into the culture of Barcelona. Time is not as strictly observed. The fountain show is scheduled to begin at 7, but the crowd does not really thicken for about another half hour. And while it is after dinner time for most of the tourists visiting the show, the locals are casually sipping drinks and snacking on tapas as an appetizer to their dinners which they will go home to after the show around 9.People are much more laid back and take the time to go to events like this that their city offers. This is very different from where I live in the US.  My town does not have a fountain show, or anything remotely like it. And you really cannot beat the views the steps up to the MNAC provide of Barcelona at night. Theirs is truly nothing more beautiful.

 This also lets you have a glimpse into the pride that the people of Barcelona have for their city. At the end of the show, the theme song to the 1992 summer Olympics plays, obviously called Barcelona. If you turn your back to the fountain and look up past the 9 beams of white light (one for each letter of the city) that crown the MNAC, you can catch a glimpse of the white modern sculpture that marks the site of the Olympic Village. The Olympics were a huge economic and social turning point in the history of Barcelona that turned them from a Catalan capital, to a tourist and economic capital of Europe. The number of locals who still come out to view this beautiful display is a testament to the pride they feel in these events.

One of the best things about the night life in this city is that there is something for everyone. If you want to go out at 1 am and stay out until the sun rises, theres always a club for you. If you want to hit up local concerts and live music venues, theres a club for you. If youre looking for a certain kind of music to dance the night away to, you can almost always find that on different floors of the same club. Whether you want to be rocking out deep within the city, or sipping a martini on a chaise lounge overlooking the beach, you’ll most definitely find what you’re looking for in Barcelona.

While it would take an entire blog in itself to talk about my nights out on the town in Barcelona, a couple stick out in my mind as the best. The first would be the night we discovered that The Fray, an American Band was playing at Sala Razzmatazz one Wednesday night and for only 25euro!! Obviously not wanting to miss out on this incredible chance, we bought our tickets and headed to the concert. Theres nothing like seeing one of your favorite bands live, but theres REALLY nothing like seeing it in one of the biggest clubs in one of the most incredible cities on the planet.  Razzmatazz is one of the best clubs in the city for live music so the show was of course, nothing short of amazing. The room it was in was big enough for a crowd, but small enough that you were practically standing onstage with the band. It was one of my favorite nights in Barcelona.

My other favorite night in Barcelona was my  21st birthday celebration. Considering I had been legal for over 2 years according to Barcelona’s laws, I’ll admit I was a little upset that I didn’t get to celebrate this big milestone in the US where I was finally of legal drinking age. But how many people can say that they turned 21 in Barcelona at one of the hottest clubs with VIP treatment all night? My friends and I started the night at our apartment with birthday cookie cake and cocktails and headed out to CDLC, one ofthe clubs on the beach. We met up with several kids from our CEA program. After mistaking the kitchen counter for the bar (the waiters were great and still gave me a drink!) we decided I needed some fresh air and we moved on to Shoko, where one of the guys was promoting for De Lis Group. We walked into a fairly empty club (it was only 1am) and were stopped by the ever present photographer who takes pictures for the website. My friend encouraged him to take lots of pictures because it was my birthday. Upon hearing this he took us up into VIP, set us up with a table and brought out a bottle of chapagne with a huge sparkler. It was more than I ever could have asked for and he was so nice for keeping the drinks coming all night! Unfortunately, I didn’t thnink quite so highly of him the next morning as my head pounded, but it was definitely a birthday I will always remember!

            The collection within is much of Sabarte’s personal collection, along with several lithographs, posters, drawings and pottery from the artist’s home. While most of the works are relatively unknown, it is not to say they aren’t as important as those shown in the Louvre or in Madrid. In fact, they give more information about the development of Picasso as an artist. One of my favorites was Science and Charity. It depicts a person sick in bed with a doctor on one side representing medicine, and a nun on the other representing religion. Picasso was conflicted at this time with his father because his father was of the academic style of painting but Picasso favored the freer styles. In the painting Picasso manages to create the illusion of the shortening and lengthening of the plane of the bed as you walk from one side of the painting to the other. This incredible knack for perspective is often imitated but has rarely been duplicated so perfectly by any other artist.

Another one of the most interesting paintings I saw was The Madman.  It is of an irrationally tall man who has a crazed expression on his face. I learned in my architecture class that this painting was the transition between the sadness he felt in the blue period and the rejection of his sad reality in the rose period. He had come to terms with the fact that he could not change his circumstances at the time and rather than actually go crazy, he left his feelings behind on paper.

Author’s Note: Because I was not allowed to take pictures inside the museum because of possible damage to the artworks with the flash, all the pictures displayed are from the internet!

Spanning five contiguous palaces, the Picasso museum is the most visited attraction in Barcelona. I would go into more detail here, but it will be later described in detail as one of my cultural experiences in Barcelona. Another museum to note is the Textile and Clothing museum, as well as a pre-Colombian art gallery. This makes up the museum guild of modern La Ribera. Other modern day guilds include the multitude of unique local boutiques of designer clothes, some of which occupy their historical counterpart’s Gothic workshops. This juxtaposition of the past and the present further drives home the fact that Barcelona is a modern city that manages to hang on to its roots.  

Deep within this district is one of Barcelona’s many churches. The Santa Maria del Mar was begun in 1329 and the people worked tirelessly on this incredible gothic work of art for over 50 years. It is often said that the church was actually built right on the sand of the beaches and years of city expansion extended the shoreline pulling the church farther into the city. While this is a lighthearted thought, it is not actually true. This idea may have come from the miscommunication of the name and location of the church that originally existed on this site, the Santa Maria dels Arenys, or Holy Mary of the Sands. Below del Mar, and dels Arenys is a burial site dating back to the first century AD which was why the site was chosen. Dels Arenys was also the likely location of the first Episcopal seat of Barcelona in the 4^th century, so there is obvious significant meaning behind the location. The original church was the religious home of the cult of Saint Eulalia, the patron of Barcelona who was supposedly buried there in 303. 

 Also known as the people’s church, it was decorated to reflect the life of the neighborhood surrounding it. Doors and altars were decorated with dockworkers, another representation of the guilds that dominated the area, this reference being to the bastaixos or guild of longshoremen. The main altar is crowned with a wooden model of a ship from the 15^th century. Unfortunately, the rest of these kinds of decorations were lost when the church was set on fire during the Spanish Civil War. Luckily, the beautiful stain glass windows survived and bring back some of the beauty to the bare walls, octagonal columns, and high vaulted ceilings. In the end, this fire that burned for 11 days was a blessing in disguise because the true beauty of this architecture can now be fully appreciated. The columns of the Santa Maria del Mar are the widest of any gothic church in Europe spanning just over 43 feet apart. This allows for an incredible solemn grandeur that is often imitated but rarely duplicated by other churches.

Next to this church is The Fossar de les Moreres , a memorial plaza in Barcelona. The plaza was built over a cemeteary where defenders of the city were buried following what is known as the Seige of Barcelona the end of the Spanish Secession in 1714. This seige is remembered on the date of its occurance, September 11^th. The plaza retains its everyday use as a public space, but always has an eternal flame burning over the heroic poem by Frederic Soler, “El Fossar de les Moreres” for which the plaza is named. Many Catalans pay homage to the defenders of city who were killed and are buried at the memorial every year on this date.

Also near the water is the Consulat de Mar, also known as La Llotja. It was originally a seaside exchange mart built by Pere Llobet, the architect of the Salo de Cent in the Ajuntament building, but a flood destroyed it. Pere III decided to rebuild it as part of his redevelopment plan in the late 14^th century. Possessing a single arcaded room with gothic pillars and a flat beamed ceiling this contract room is the oldest constant operating stock exchange in Europe. However, that was not its only use. For several years in the late 19th century, the main art school of Barcelona inhabited its upper floors, and renowned artists Picasso and Miro studied there.

            First is the Museu D’Art Contemporani De Barcelona, MACBA for short. Home to late 20^th century art, the building itself is a testament to this era as well. It was designed by the American architect Richard Meier’s and is based on rationalism. The straight lines and bright white façade with large windows create a stark contrast with the rickety old apartment buildings surrounding the structure. The curved lines incorporated in the architecture seem to be a small testament to the laundry constantly fluttering in the wind from the balconies of the apartments, as if Meier was trying to soften the contrast between the old and the new. The courtyard in front of the MACBA has become a place frequented by young people in the neighborhood and contemporary art exhibitions draw in diverse groups of people, a welcome change for the area.

                        Tucked behind the MACBA is the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, or the CCCB. Residents of the Raval neighborhood can attend art exhibitions, debates, festivals, films, concerts, and lectures that promote the arts in an effort to bring contemporary culture into the neighborhood.  There is an open courtyard in the middle for people to chat and discuss the exhibitions as well as a cute little café. When we visited, there were several college-aged kids having a café con leche and a cigarette talking with each other. Another group of elementary school children were just leaving from a field trip to the museum. There is a really pretty square courtyard in the middle that has a stunning contrast of classical and modern architecture. The top of the glass facade is angled in such a way that you can see all the way over the rooftops of El Raval to the Mediterranean Sea. It creates a beautiful effect on the glass and brings a little of the water into the neighborhood.

            From there we walked down Rambla del Raval, one of the spaces opened up by the City Council. Lined with palm trees it is similar to Las Ramblas, but much less touristy. It is the hang out spot for the neighborhood’s residents, which is largely Pakistani among other immigrants. It was very pretty and you could see the differences between the old apartments and those that had been remodeled in an effort to update the neighborhood. We passed a new, high class hotel which backs up to a street that is filled with prostitutes at night. It was strange seeing such a stark contrast between luxury and poverty, but is a poignant reminder of the work that still needs to be done to clean up the neighborhood for good.