The day dawned sunny and clear. We took a taxi to the Catalonian National Museum of Art. It is up on the hill at Montjuic in a beautiful setting. The view of Barcelona is incredible from the terrace of the museum. It is on our ArtTicket pass and turns out to be an absolutely wonderful museum! It has an outstanding collection of medieval art collected from small churches in villages around Catalonia starting in the 1920s. It was collected and saved so that it wasn't sold by art dealers. The process of removing it from the walls of these churches is depicted in a video and is interesting and amazing. The art is displayed beautifully in natural like settings in the museum in the way it would have appeared in the church. There is also a nice collection of Renaissance and Baroque art which I enjoy. The floor with Modern Art is also excellent and illuminating.
After lunch, we go back to the apartment and rest for awhile. We are using taxis to get around the city and save our legs a bit. With four of us, the cost is about the same as taking the metro plus we don't have to deal with the possible hassles of the metro such as pick pocketing which is endemic in Barcelona. The taxis are readily available, clean and appear to be well regulated.
We have tickets to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece at 5:00. We take a taxi there. We have chosen 5:00 hoping the crowds will be a bit thinner then. Our advance tickets get us right in. We have two tickets to go up in the Passion Tower and two to go up in the Nativity Tower. Dave and I go up the Passion tower ( the newer one) and Kathy and John go up the Nativity Tower and supposedly the more exciting one. Dave and I ride up in the elevator and walk down the some 215? steps. There are views out little windows as we descend the steps but there is so much construction going on it is difficult to see much.
The outside of Sagrada Familia is pretty fantastic with the older Nativity Facade looking more traditional and the newer Passion Facade looking cleaner with stark, angular figures not designed by Gaudi but by the current architect of the church, Josep Subirachs. Gaudi died in 1926 after a tram accident. With about 20% of the church finished. Nearly a century after his death, people continue to toil to bring Gaudi's designs to life. "There is something powerful about a community of people with a vision, working on a church that won't be finished in their lifetime - as was standard in the Gothic age." Those are Rick Steves' words and I like that idea.
The inside is just spectacular, a forest of light and beauty. I've never seen anything like it and think it one of the most beautiful interior spaces I have ever seen. The stained glass windows are modern and gorgeous. With the sun shining behind them, they cast beautiful patterns of light on the floors and walls. The crowds have thinned and we spend considerable time here enjoying this beautiful space.
We work our way back home eating dinner once again at Cheese Me in a little square near our apartment. We sit outside on this pleasant evening. There are several types of performers as we eat. They aren't necessarily authorized and they go around to the tables asking for money which I find intrusive. Guess it is better they are doing something for money instead of just picking pockets.
View from terrace of theMuseu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Medieval art in National Museum
Renaissance art
A Picasso in the National Museum of Art
Small part of the Passion facade of the Sagrada Familia
Light and color in the Sagrada Familia
No comments:
Post a Comment