Yesterday I went to tour around a bit – decided to concentrate on seeing some of Gaudi’s architecture, for which the city is justly famous. It was a quick walk from my hotel the Palau Guell, the city home of Gaudi’s greatest patron, who I believe was a wealthy merchant importer or shipper of some sort. The house is in the Raval, just off Las Ramblas, and it was closed. It was interesting, apparently one of the earlier examples of the style that he would refine – and a bit more subdued that what I would see next.
The Sagrada Familia is nothing short of breathtaking. The style and flow of the building recalls something organic, alive, almost like a huge alien’s exoskeleton. There are definite gothic influences, with gargoyles, arches, buttresses, stained glass windows, and the general layout is very familiar to anyone who has seen a gothic cathedral. Apparently Gaudi had intended this building to tell the entire story of the scripture, and there are tableaus and groups of statues all over the building. The most striking is the front of the building, telling the story of the Christ, from Nativity to Crucifixion, and with a golden figure of the risen Christ high above the rest, on a bridge between towers. There is something very modern about the sculpting – the roman centurions resemble storm troopers somehow, and the crucified Christ, very angular and yet lifelike. A very spooky effect, but beautiful.
Antoni Gaudi apparently did not go about engineering in a traditional manner. Instead, he allowed nature to create the design – he would affix lines to the ceiling to represent the pillars and buttresses, and then attach bags with 1:1000 the weight of the structure to the lines, creating the stress and arc naturally. He would photograph these arcs from several angles, and then use this as his plan – no complex mathematics, no guesswork, just perfection simply achieved.
The line was really long to get into the chapel, so I will have to revisit next week when I am back in town to see the interior. Instead, I took the metro up as near as I could to the Parc Guell, a 30 hectare park on a hilltop overlooking the city. It was a steep 15 minute climb, and the rain started up slightly, so I was pretty wet when I arrived. The park is really cool – magic mushroom looking buildings like drip sand-castles, arching arcades of rock that lead you higher and higher into the hills. Overlooks that take in every bit of the city from the ocean to the Parc Montjuic miles across the crush of the streets and buildings. Sagarada Familia is prominent from here, with its scaffolding and cranes working toward expected completion of the structure sometime in the 2020’s. There is no shortage of other amazing architecture in this city, from the old, like Le Seu, to the new, like the brilliantly, colorfully lit Agbar Tower near the Olympic Village.
The house that Antoni lived out the last years of his life (until he was tragically struck by a streetcar and left to die slowly in a pauper’s hospital,) is located here in the park, one of only two homes built here. It is tall and open, with tall windows that let in the views of the city, a rooftop patio looking over the city, and just the kind of organic, flowing furniture that you might expect. I recognized some of the furniture from my hotel; the ones that they have must be replicas of these originals that Gaudi himself designed.
At the very top of the park, there was a stone tower, with three stone crucifixes at the top. From here, you could pretty much see further than anywhere else in the city. Amazing – not everyone will like Gaudi’s art, but it definitely invokes strong reaction – I don’t know if I would like it if it were sited elsewhere, but here in this city it just works.
Also, I don't have the cord to connect my main camera to my laptop, so these are all iphone pics, which means not too steady, not great in low light, and no ability to zoom, except by moving myself closer! Maybe later I will get all inspired and upload some better photos as replacements. Or maybe not.
No comments:
Post a Comment