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Barcelona, Spain - Guell and Montjuic - 24th May 2002

Posted by Edmond on Wednesday, October 9, 2002

Early morning stroll around Gaudi's Park Guell. For the afternoon, a finicular trip to the Montjuic area including the former military fort of Castle Montjuic, the Olympic Stadium and the National Art museum of Catalunya. Placa d' Espanya and Poble Espanyol ends the tour, just below Montjuic.

Parc Guell and Montjuic:
1. Parc Guell
2. Montjuic Castle
3. Olympic Stadium
4. National Art Museum of Catalunya
5. Poble Espanyol
6. Placa d' Espanya
Links:
Gaudi Club site - info on Parc Guell
Olympic Stadium
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (official site)

We set off early in the morning to Park Guell. To get to Park Guell, we had to hop off the Metro at Lesseps on the green line, which meant we had to change from the purple line (line 2). We then walked through Placa de Lesseps to Travessera de Dalt, and made a left turn up C. de Larrard where we began the steep ascent up to Park Guell.

We arrived at Park Guell about 9am and already lots of visitors had arrived. Along with the tourists that travelled via bus, a group of women arrived in a taxi to save the effort in climbing up the hill, or they were just plain lazy to do a bit of exercise. The entrance greeted us with the familiar Gaudi styled buildings inspired from the tale of Hansel and Gretel. The one on the left had a huge tower and was used as a reception hall while its less spectacular cousin was smaller and was built as a porter's home. In front of us was the water fountain and a large double staircase. Between the staircases were the famous water dragon and the Catalunya coat of arms with a serpent's head sticking out. Along the stairs, visitors had already taken up their positions to take photos of the unusual sculptures.

The stairs lead up to the Sala Hipóstila (Hypostyle Hall), so-called for the columns supporting the main square and wave-shaped bench above, where we found a busker playing music, creating a serene atmosphere to the place. The ceilings were sparsely decorated with large circular dishes which appear to contain symbolisms of nature's elements.

We proceeded up to the Nature Plaza and the familliar wave-shaped mosaic bench. This was to function as a Greek theatre, with the bench on one side, and the sculpted mountainside on the other. Upon close examination, the bench appeared to consist of a variety of ceramic plates smashed into the structure (a style known as trencadís). However, the method which was used allowed the bench to blend well with its natural surroundings and complement the spectacular view of Barcelona and the Meditteranean that laid in front of us

From the big square, we had a choice of directions, but we decided to go east towards the Gaudi House. Designed by one of his assocates, this was to be Antoni Gaudi's house up to his final years.
Now it is a museum, but since we had to pay, we decided to move on, going through the mountain pathways and viaducts until we reached the top of the hill. We then headed northwards down a track until we reached a small water fountain, known as the Sant Salvador Fountain, at the bottom. Not surprisingly, this was the least spectacular, although there was a small stream running from the structure, so we headed back out towards the Crosses of Calvary.

It was closing up to noon when we arrived at the Crosses of Calvary. There was nothing really spectacular about the crosses even though they were originally intended for a chapel. But there was a really good view of the park and the city. As it was getting late, we decided to head back through the windy path and into the viaduct of the Bugadera path back to the main square, not noticing the stone sculptures that lay on each column of the path.

It was late noon when we got to Montjuic from Lesseps, changing to the Fenicular that departs from Parallel to Parc de Montjuic where visitors can catch a cable car up to the Montjuic Castle a castle with a spotted history dating back to the middle ages. We ate our lunch at the only cafe that we could find, next to the Fenicular station and cable car, then bought one way tickets on the cable car where we sampled some excellent views of the city while the car slowly edged its way up to the castle.

From Montjuic castle we got excellent views of the city. However, it took a while realise that Montjuic lies on the south-western parts of Barcelona with all the commuting between Barcelona's different transport systems to get to here. From first impressions, the medieval structure and origin of the Montjuic castle seems to have been transported through a time warp to the modern world, as if miraculously reappearing in the middle of its modern gun emplacements that guard the hill. In fact, the castle was also the scene of the recent Spanish civil war. Now it is a war museum with hedge garden decorating the moat.

We walked down the mountain to the cable car station while taking in the marvellous views of Barcelona from some of the lookouts, and proceeded eastwards to the Olympic stadium. Although much of the Olympic spirit had gone, visitors still flock to the site and many tour buses were parked alongside the stadium. After walking halfway around one end, we decided to join the tourists to look at what they were seeing and realised that a viewing platform had been built near the entrance. From here we could get a view of the athletics field inside the stadium and it was free as well.

We had quite a bit of difficulty tracking the road that goes down to the Placa D'Espanya via Passeig de la Santa Madrona, but then we realised we had to turn left into a road that leads to the National art museum of Catalunya. Instead of just passing through, we went inside to observe some of the Catalan works of art dating back from the middle ages. The collections include frescoes, paintings and some frescoes which were peeled off and repasted on reconstructions of the church walls and aspes. But the real highlight was seeing the huge ampitheatre located just behind the museum galleries.

We had to finish off the day with a walk around Placa d' Espanya. We tried to get into Poble Espanyol, only that we had to pay about more than 10 Euros, so we took a short stroll around Placa d' Espanya and its twin belltowers - modelled on St Mark's towers in Venice and built as part of the 1929 International Exhibition. I also later learned that the fountain in the middle of the bustling roundabout was designed by Jujol who was also one of Gaudi's followers. Afterwards, we caught the metro to the Eixample area for dinner.


© Edmond, 2002