Saturday 29 January 2011
Friday 28 January 2011
EL MODERNISME
LA PEDRERA
La Pedrera, was designed by architect Antoni Gaudí and built between 1906 and 1910 in modernist art style. Gaudí had the colaboration of his assistants Domènec Sugrañes and Josep Canaleta, and the builder Josep Font i Bayo, who worked with Gaudí at Casa Batlló.
The building, so innovative, is a typical Gaudi's work. The facade is made of lime stone from Villafranca, except the top which is covered with white tiles. The combination evokes a snow mountain.
On the roof there are chimneys covered with fragments of pottery, with the appearance of heads of warriors protected by helmets. It has a total of five floors, plus a storage room made entirely transparent under a arched roof , as well as two large courtyards, one circular and one oval. In the facade cyclopean archentrance, there are carved rosebuds with inscriptions of the Ave Maria in Latin (“Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecum”).
The Casa Mila was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument of National Character in 1969 and in 1984 UNESCO it was included within the World Heritage Site "Works of Antoni Gaudí".
Thursday 27 January 2011
FOSSAR DE LES MORERES
The “Fossar de les Moreres” is a memorial square in the city, adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.It prominently features a memorial to the fallen Catalans during the war of 1714. The site was built over a cemetery where defenders of the city were buried following the Siege of Barcelona at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714.
In the XIX century they built cementeries for the church in site the les Moreres.
Actually, every 11 of September the people go to commemorate the National Party of Catalonia, in honor of the defenders who died and were buried in this place.
STORY OF THE ORIGINS
The origin of the Fossar de les Moreres was in the XII century, when the priest of the Santa María del Mar, needed a place to bury their believers,
so he asked a bourgeois called Bernard Marcus who donated the land near the church (which is now the site).
Marcus handed the ground, but on condition that someone should be buried there in a week, if no one was buried, he would claim the land again.
The week passed and no one was buried, so Marcus came to claim his land, but on the road full of mulberry,He died of a heart attack, and he was the first to inaugurate his own cemetery.
EL MODERNISME
CASA BATLLÓ
Casa Batlló is a building restored by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol in the year 1877 and remodelled in the years 1904–1906. It’s located in Passeig de Gràcia and it’s part of the Illa de la Discòrdia in the Eixample district of Barcelona.It was originally designed for a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona.
The building looks like everything Gaudí designed, the ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work. It seems that the goal of the designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur.
First, in the main floor the Lumière photo store was established; a few years later, a film production, and finally the Gallery Syra, by the architect Pere Ricart Biot and decorated by Alexander Circ.
The Casa Batlló was declared Historic-Artistic Monument in 1969 and as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2005.
EL MODERNISME
LA CASA AMATLLER – THE AMATLLER HOUSE
Amatller House is the second great building of the modernist Paseig de Gracia, Barcelona, designed by the architect Josep Puig I Cadafalch between 1898 and 1900. Because of the proximity to the Casa Lleó Morera and Casa Batlló, people called them ‘Illa de la Discòrdia’ because, although all of them are modernist buildings, they are very different from each other. In 1898, the industrialist chocolatier Antonio Amatller I Costa, wanted to transform an old building of 1875, which he bought to live in. The industrialist commissioned works to Puig i Cadafalch, who opted to give it the appearance of an urban Gothic palace.
Puig created the Casa Ametller after a very personal reading of the Gothic. The most striking building is the stepped façade reminiscent of Nordic which also resembles a classic chocolate tablet. The main floor is one of the few that still maintain in Barcelona the rich ornamentation and giggled and opulent atmosphere of that bourgeoisie of the Eixample. Currently it houses the offices of the Institute of Hispanic Art Amatller.
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Barcelona's Cathedral
The Barcelona's Cathedral
Barcelona's Cathedral This cathedral is dedicated to Santa Cruz and Santa Eulalia, patron saint of Barcelona. Work began on the Gothic cathedral in May 1298.
The present cathedral was built during the XIII to XV out of the old Romanesque cathedral, and out of a Visigoth church. Building consists of the church and the cloister perfectly united in the same style.
The cathedral is 90 meters long by 40 meters wide and the cloister garden is 25 square meters on each side by six gallery width of each of the four surrounding it.
In the cathedral, there are 5 doors
Principal door
Saint Ivo's door
Mercy door
Santa Llucia door
Santa Eulalia's door
The crypt is located under the presbytery and its construction is due to Jaime Fabre, early XIV century. It was completed in 1326, although the transfer of the remains of the saint, was not before 1339. You can enter the cloister through the outer doors of Mercy and St. Eulalia.The interior of the cathedral has in white marble columns and fine archivolts clearly a Gothic tympanum.
Boqueria market by: Adri, Xavi, Nathalia and Pau
- Fruits Ibañez, it sells fruits.
- Fruits Costa, it sells fruit.
- Fish Marta, it sells fish.
- Avinova, it sells meat.
- Symposion, it sells fish.
- Bacallà Carmen Gomà, it sells fish.
- Butcher’s Antonio Casanovas, it sells meat.
Main Entrance 
Sweets stalls
DISTRICT OF LA RIBERA
The Ribera is a neighborhood in the district of Ciutat Vella (Barcelona).
It's one of the most traditional neigborhood of the historic center of Barcelona.
This neigborhood was the economic center of the city between the XIII and Xvth century.
The merchants of the period built palaces, which are quite well preserved.
The district's important places are :
-The Gotic basilica of Santa Maria del Mar
-The Market of the Born (“El mercat del Born”)
-El fossar de les Moreres.
-The Picasso Museum
In the XVIth century the neighborhood lost its economic power,and after the defeat of 1714 the center of the neigborhood was destroyed.
Years later, it became the present Ciutadella Park and the Born market.(1876)
EL MODERNISME
CASA LLEÓ MORERA:
The Casa Lleó Morera is a project of 1902,by the architect Lluis Domènech i Montaner, is situated in the Passeig de Gràcia, 35, of Barcelona. The house lleó Morera is a magnific modernist building work, that Lluis permanyer says: “it’s like the Palace of the Catalan Music but smaller”. The decoration, is the habitual of the period, a lot of artesans like Mariano Maragliano and Lluis Bru participated in the mosaics, Antoni Serra in the ceramics, Antoni Rigalt in the show case and Gaspar Homar in the indoor furniture.The frontage and ground floor were decorated with Art Nouveau ornaments large and varied. Perhaps most striking the were sculptures by Eusebi Arnau representing two pairs of female figures holding a flower. At the base of the grandstand on the first floor featuring a group of female heads.
The architect Oscar Tusquets in the mid 80s of the twentieth century, was responsible for the restoration of the rest of the building and restore the temple and the pinnacles of the cornice, which had suffered serious damage by fire from machine guns during Spanish Civil War of 1936
Santa Maria del Mar
Santa Maria del Mar is a church on the Ribera district of Barcelona. The church was built between 1329 and 1383. It’s an example of Catalan Gothic edification.
The architecs were Berenguer de Montagut and Ramón Despuig.The north-west tower was started in 1496, but it wasn’t finished until 1902.
This church has two belfries because Santa Maria del Pi, another important church in Barcelona, had the tallest belfry in Spain.
Between Santa Maria del Mar and Santa Maria del Pi there was a big rivalry. Santa Maria del Mar was exclusive for the people of the port and the Barceloneta because they were the people that built this church with their money or their work. However, Santa Maria del Pi was a church for the rich people.
The interior gives an impression of light an spaciouness.This site was originally occupied by a Roman necropolis (cemetery) that was in use from the 4th to 6th centuries. This was discovered during excavations under the church in the 1960s.
“La Catedral del Mar ” in English “The Cathedral of the Sea“ is a book by the Spanish writer Idelfonso Falcones and deals with the church of Santa Maria del Mar and the population of Barcelona during its construction in the XIV century.
Cadaqués
Cadaqués is a little town situated in the Alt Empordà in the province
of Girona. Cadaqués has a special place in art history. There are 2.640
inhabitants. One of the most important persons in this town was Salvador
Dalí. Salvador Dalí was born in 1904 and died in 1989. He is known for his
pictures and his own style to make pictures as you already know.
Cadaqués is a little town with a lot of white houses. It is famous for the
beaches and the seascape. Usually, the inhabitants are engaged in fishing,
but its seascape and its beaches are so beautiful that it has become a tourist
destination. Then many people are engaged in tourism. People in Cadaqués
speak Catalan the same as all over Catalunya.
The name of this village comes from ‘Cap de Quers’, Cape of stones,
and it was an old castle.
A legend tells about one pirate that wanted to retired but before that, he
wanted to kill one thousand people.
The most interesting places for visit are:
· The old town: this place was kept by a wall but now it isn’t there.
· Serinyana’s house: It is a modernist building created in 1910-1913.
·The Santa Maria’s church: It is the principal church of Cadaqués.
Sara, Sonia and Ari
SAGRADA FAMILIA
The expiatori temple of the Sagrada Familia is a spectacular catholic church situated in Barcelona, Spain. It was design by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. He designed a lot of famous buildings in our city such as El Parc Güell, La Casa Batlló.. The people say that Sagrada Familia is the best 
building of Gaudi, and a very important construction of the Catalan modernism.
The Sagrada Familia was started in 1882, and now this church is being built until 2030, more or less. When Gaudí died, the workmen had only built one tower. Now, the project only conserve maps and a plaster model but the last one was damaged during the civil war. The Sagrada Familia is being built from donations.
When the construction started, it had a gothic style, but in 1883 the style changed. When the temple is finished, the Sagrada Familia will have 18 towers. The central tower is devoted to Jesus Christ and it is 170 m tall. It has 4 towers devoted to Evangelists and a second dome devoted to the Virgin. Into the Sagrada Familia there are columns too.
The Church was three façades: the Nativity façade in the East, the Passion façade in the West, and the Glory façade in the South. The Nativity façade was built before 1935. This façade is dedicated to the birth of Jesus. The Passion façade is especially for the suffering of Jesus during his crucifixion. These designs are the work of Josep Maria Subirachs. The Glory Façade began its construction in 2002, this was the largest and most monumental of the three and will represent the Glory of Jesus. The Sagrada Familia also includes elements like the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Heavenly Virtues.
As everybody knows, the Pope Benedicto XVI came to Barcelona one month ago. He came here to do a mass in the Sagrada Familia and then, this temple was officially declared a basilica. In Barcelona there are a lot of catholic people that were delighted to see him, but other people displayed banners against the Pope’s visit.
INTERIOR:
Inside the Sagrada Familia, as in the outside, all things are dedicated to religious concepts. As you can see, the majority of columns have got a tree shape. Gaudí wanted that the inside of this church looked like a forest. The temple has a latin cross plant. The lateral naves have a place dedicated to the choir. The church has 36 columns of 20 m, more or less, and it has a lot of windows with different colours. The light is the protagonist.
Ainoa, Marc and Sara.
Monday 24 January 2011
DEAR FRIENDS
Saturday 15 January 2011
Salvador Dalí by Andrea, Sara and Jessica
Salvador Dalí was born in May 11, 1904 in Figueres (Girona). It was a Spanish painter. He's considerate one of the greatest representatives of Surrealism. - Galetea of the Spheres (1952): It is a portrait of his wife, Gala, held with spheres.
- Persistence of Memory (1931): It was created after observing a few pieces of Camebert exposed to the sun a hot August day.
- The Enigma of Desire (1919): In the picture, there is a desert landscape that resembles the Empordà plain. It is location of the house where Dalí spent his childhood.
- Girl in the Window (1925): It represents the artist's sister, Ana Maria, looking out of the window, back at the vacation home the family owned in Cadaquè, at the seashore.
