After another day of walking (12 miles and more than 50 flights of
stairs, according to my smart phone), I woke up in pain and took a few minutes
to read about Barcelona. Bordering La Rambla is the Eixample, which is
crisscrossed by long straight streets, a rigorous grid pattern crossed by wide avenues and
square blocks. Ildefons Cerdà was the
visionary architect who planned the urban development mindful of traffic,
public transit, sunlight and ventilation. The streets broaden at every
intersection making for greater visibility and better ventilation. The grid
pattern remains as a hallmark of Barcelona, and many of the blocks originally
had only two or three sides so in the inner space they could accommodate gardens,
but when space became an issue, the third and fourth sides were added. Some parts of the Eixample were influenced by
Modernista
architects, chief among them being Antoni Gaudí.
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| Modern symbol recognizable everywhere in Eixample |
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| This symbol reminds me of the one on the Teotihuacan pyramids |
Finally, we went to the Montserrat mountain to visit the Benedictine
monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat, about 45 km from Barcelona. We took the
train and then the cable car (teleferic, just like in Romanian!).
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| Montserrat at the top of the mountains on the right |
The monastery of Montserrat is set below the cliff and is famous, I
found out only after I returned from the trip, for the statue of the Black
Madonna, patron saint of Catalonia. The statue, more than 800 years old,
overlooks the basilica from above the altar. In her honor, a famous boy choir
sings Gregorian chants every day. We were so overtaken by the natural beauty of
this place that totally missed the Black Madonna (aka, La Moroneta) and the
rich art museum. All good reasons to
return one day to Montserrat. There is
also a funicular that goes up to the top of the mountain (~1200 meters), but
that is closed over the winter, too…
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| Montserrat |
To end the day with a short walk around Barri Gotic – I was falling
apart, really – I went to Plaça Reial and admired the Gaudí lamp posts and then
visited Catedral de Barcelona.
Majestic
and classic.
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