Starting university has brought so many changes into my life, one of them being separating from my friends from «bachillerato». We are a group of six: Martina, Paula, Marina, Ana, Laura and me. Paula had to move to Barcelona to start her Mathematics degree, so we decided to visit her the last weekend before she started. We bought the cheapest train tickets we could find and stayed at her apartment with her roomates.
The first day we decided to do a little bit of tourism and visit the most emblematic place in the city: the «Sagrada Familia». Although I had already seen it in my end of «ESO» trip, I was very excited to see it, because now, I was going to study architecture, and during this summer I had learnt a lot of things and had visited some of Gaudí’s works.
The «Sagrada Família», fruit of the work of the brilliant architect Antoni Gaudí, was a project promoted by and for the people, and five generations have already seen the evolution of the temple in Barcelona. Currently, with more than 135 years since the laying of the first stone, the Basilica is still under construction. It has a grandious height. After finishing the crypt and the apse, still in the Neo-Gothic style, the rest of the temple was conceived in an organic style, imitating the forms of nature, where ruled geometric forms abound. It is a reflection of Gaudí’s artistic fullness as he worked on it for most of his professional career, but especially in the last years of his career, and one of the most visited monuments in Spain as well as the most visited church in Europe after the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican. When it is completed it will be the most visited Christian church high of the world.
I belive this is the most breathtaking place I have visited (in the architectural world). Its height and scale is so incredibly big and overwelming, it makes you feel very tiny in comparison. My mind explodes everytime I think about how complex the construction of the basilica must be, with such a large scale and so much detail. Sadly, I haven’t been able to see the inside yet but I would love to go back again and revisit this amazing place and analyze as much as I can now that I know a little bit more about architecture.
After a small photography session and wandering the surroundings of the emblematic place, we started to look for a restaurant to eat, as it was pretty late. We ended up eating in a japanese restaurant and ate some gyozas.
Walking around we also visited the «Arc de Triomf», built by architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. The arch crosses over the wide central promenade of the «Passeig de Lluís Companys», leading to the Ciutadella Park that now occupies the site of the world fair. The arch is built in reddish brickwork in the Neo-Mudéjar style.
Continuing our journey, we crossed the » Passeig de Lluís Companys» which I really liked. It is filled with beautiful lampposts and has a map of barcelona in the end. You can also find a monument of Lluís Company
To finish up, we went to the Ciutadella Park and stayed there the rest of the afternoon. The park was filled with people doing so many different activities. Pic-nics, playins sports, walking, dancing. I loved the feeling there and the environment. There we saw the Cascada which is located at the northern corner of the park opposite to the lake. It was erected by Josep Fontsére and to a small extent by Antoni Gaudí, who at that time was still an unknown student of architecture. Fontsére aimed to loosely make it bear resemblance to the Trevi Fountain of Rome. The architectural ensemble has a central structure in the shape of a triumphal arch with two pavilions on its sides and two side wings with steps, which house a pond divided into two levels. The monument stands out for its sculptural profusion, which is what caught my attention the most.
After wandering for a while and then resting in some random bench, we decided to go back home since we were very tired. But not before walking by the «Ramblas» and some other smaller streets looking for some cute shops.
The next day (out last day) we hung out with our friend Lara which had to move to Barcelona for university too. We didn’t relly do a lot of things, just walk around, visit her house and again some shops in the city. The interesting part came when we had to go to the train station and ended up late due to the long line in the control. We had tickets for the last train of the day, so we had to stay the night at Paula’s house and take the first train in the morning to Valencia, and we all ended up late to class.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://sagradafamilia.org/es/historia-del-templo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia
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