Sagrada Familia. Antoni Gaudi. Barcelona. Part 6.

I found this the mostly detailed image on the insert in National Geographic, December 2010.

If you hover to enlarge the image you can learn the fascinating facts and even see the organic forms Gaudi drew his inspiration from to create an enchanted garden.

This facade was built in Gaudi's lifetime.

Last year by someone's monstrous idea they started to drill the speed train tunnel

right under. Goodness ! Why on Earth right underneath this magnificent Cathedral?

Specialists and officials claim that there's no danger. 

Unbelievable !  It took a century and a half to build it. To put at long term risk

all THIS?

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Sagrada Familia basilica is undoubtedly one of the greatest Wonders of the World.

Indisputable laws of gravitation and perspective humbly surrendered to the obsessed  genius of Antony Gaudi who spent 30 years of his extraordinary life and the last 23 years entirely devoted to this larger than life project.

Architectural straightforwardness and strict geometry he brought to melting, transforming them into waves, crystals and exotic plants and flowers.

In his infinite fantasy the stone became weightless and pliant, the staggering height of the spires touching the clouds (and the highest one is not finished yet) was unimaginable at the time and is astonishing even today 130 years later since the foundation was laid down.

This holy quest started in 1883 and has seen many changes during the lifetime of its creator who had calculated the most daring and challenging engineering innovations and foreseen every tiny detail of décor, light, acoustic, imagery.

Gaudi created a miracle without any realistic hope to see it through finish. He predicted that like in medieval times through Renaissance it may take centuries to complete this majestic cathedral: “ My Client is not in a hurry”, the architect used to say referring to God. So be it!

That proved to be a true labor of eternal love for his successors and, even as I fear to fall for cliché, it became a world wide recognizable proud symbol of Catalan Glory and perseverance. The Moderniste masterpiece. 

Unprecedented thing is that this giant and breathtakingly beautiful structure is funded and built entirely on private donations and contributions and of course on the proceedings from tickets bought by 2.5 millions visitors a year!

The Catalans are working with admirable enthusiasm and persistence since the beginnings through the turbulent 20-th century, devastating wars and after war misery. 

The construction came to a frightening halt for almost 25 years after some vandals during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 burnt down Gaudi’s studio and many of the irreplaceable models, documents and papers vanished.

The humanity should be grateful to the unrivaled efforts of  Australia-based architect Mark Burry who worked for 31 years and devoted his life to this enormous project collecting patiently drawings, bits and pieces of whatever he could find and restore to retrieve “the building’s structural DNA” with computer’s help.

 Notice the green/golden mosaics which bring sparkle to the flowers.

Later the round openings become skylights. 

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Talking about miracles, God’s blessing and modern technologies… Against all odds and tribulations…it is almost completed.

If it wasn’t for the giant cranes the visitors wouldn’t guess this is a massive construction site so meticulously accurate it’s maintained and managed.

A few years ago the interior was finished and in November 2010 Sagrada Familia was ceremoniously consecrated by the Pope Benedict XVI . Halleluiah!

How lucky we are to see it, what a privilege!

You enter, aaah!   look around  and… loose yourself in an enchanted garden! You simply can’t take your eyes  off this fantastic space. The stems of the gracious columns end up way up high with the flowers, not gothic vaults, but myriads of flowers. I felt like the most tiny, beautiful and happy butterfly, I felt like flying among those daisies…

First impression is an extra orbital delight.

As I had no camcorder but only a photo camera I simply had to use the video mode to try to capture the space. Slowly zooming in uuuup and slowly out dooooooown,  it really felt like flying, freely soaring to the flickering sunflowers and hovering in the glowing space. Vertiginous feeling of happiness, divinity,  “unbearable lightness of being”.

There’s a tiny secret to share from one fellow traveller to another. If you ever happen to visit try to come early in the morning, when bright and young sun shines through giant lacy windows and streams in trough stained glass, coloring the inside in happy rainbow colors, making the flowers of the ceiling fill the space with fantastic golden glow. That’s the moment when light plays its magic and everything comes to life.

And please don’t miss ascending to the mid top of the spire. Fantastic view of the city and the sea on the horizon. But the most fascinating is the look inside the lacy and transparent, see through tower. How tiny and fragile we are! And yet how powerful human imagination can be! 

This 5 min. fragment is my very first experience to make a video. It was shot in video mode on photo camera. I dubbed it with beautiful Ennio Morricone music from my disc and sincerely hope it doesn't contradict with any copyright laws. Please let me know if it's working. I just have to show you the movement of this the most splendid, unforgettable space I've ever seen.

Thank you for coming.

See you soon.

Natalie

The distorted very top of the spire with colorful mosaics and the Cross.

*All images are copyright by Natalie Rapoport.

Casa Mila - La Pedrera. Antoni Gaudi. Barcelona. Part 5.

Extremely unusual, as everything Gaudi created, apartment building on Passeig de Gracia the size of entire block built for Mila family in 1906-1910  was the last residential work of Antoni Gaudi. After it was finished the architect committed himself completely to the most important project of his life Sagrada Familia cathedral.

Casa Mila was instantly dubbed as La Pedrera – The Quarry for some similarity and wasn’t accepted unanimously. In fact it was ridiculed for the futuristic wavy façade and balconies called seaweed mounds.

Notice the beautiful wrought iron lamp posts.

It looks fantastic  a hundred years later no doubt it’s undulating free shaped facade was a rather controversial creation at the time. The same happened a bit earlier with Eiffel Tower. The general public simply wasn’t ready to accept anything that much unconventional.

And though the architect made many alterations to comply with regulations even within the rules he was able to built an extraordinary edifice. With all it’s architectural and structural innovations, floating form, arches, steel and pillars it was so ahead of time. It had even an underground parking garage, an unheard of a luxury at the early 20-th century Barcelona.

Only a few apartments are open for visitors. Filled with occasional period pieces without any interior design concept  they are now far cry from what was envisioned by the architect who designed a whole collection of furniture, lighting and accessories including door knobs and hinges for unique rooms without straight walls. Just enough to give the slightest idea what it was like.

The inner light court, gothic attic and multileveled rooftop terrace with decorative chimneys are also open to the public.

An entire book could be filled just with the images of wrought iron elements, gates, screens, balconies and many small details created with 

unprecedented artistry by Badia brothers whom Gaudi trained since they were young.

The inner court with asymmetrical windows and in pastel colors let light in every apartment.

Gothic attic of La Pedrera the place for promenade in bad weather were now is a small expo of Gaudi's scaled models and furniture. The arches are fascinating and the light plays magic.

Hard to imagine but by 1960-s Casa Mila light and beautiful today was painted for decades in gloomy brown color fell in a prolonged disrepair and an extensive renovation was undertaken. Unfortunately it was more harmful than restorative. Much of unique  ceiling woodwork, decorative plaster, sculpting and cast iron of the main floor was removed and lost. Irreplaceable loss to much of our chagrin.

The chimneys on the steep rooftop terrace. Who are these futuristic creatures? 

View from the top on Passeig de Gracia.

By 1984 it was finally added to UNESCO Catalogue of World Heritage, an honorable status it certainly deserves.

La Pedrera today is one the main highlights of Barcelona beside Sagrada Familia where I’d be happy to invite you next time.

See you soon and have a wonderful weekend. It looks like spring is coming at last.

Natalie

* All images copyright by Natalie Rapoport

Antoni Gaudi. Casa Batllo. Barcelona. Part 4.

If any movie set designer would like to recreate the Sea Kingdom palace in all its fantastic splendor he probably could start with the famous Casa Batllo by Antoni Gaudi as an impulse to trigger an enormous imagination. Even if you’ve seen the images somewhere before you’ll be stunned: it’s ABSOLUTELY not what you’ve expected and certainly not like anything else you could imagine as a residential building. 

A rainbow mirage on Passeig de Gracia, not a single straight line or angle: wavy walls and rooftop, curved balconies looking like the sea shells or the white mascarade masks playing make believe with you.  The whole façade is laughing. Just looking at it makes me happy. Mosaic splashes of sparkling glass and ceramic inlays in blue-turquoise-purple-green colors are mesmerizing. I could stay there transfixed for hours. The beauty is hypnotic.  

As it might be hard to believe but this emblematic Modernista gem wasn’t built from scratch. There was a classical otherwise an unremarkable building which was destined to be demolished when Gaudi was commissioned by a textile tycoon Josep Batllo to create an exclusive and outstanding dwelling for his distinguished family.
An so be it. The architect decided against pulling down the building, which by coincidence was built by one of his teachers, instead he completely remodeled façade and refurbished it in 1904-1906 at the very pic of his professional glory. Even having to comply with strict regulations he set the sails of his untamed imagination to create this marina fairy tale, and a wavy back of a scaled sea dragon topped the roof of an unusual house, outstanding indeed. 

 























The rooftop terrace with ornamented chimneys.
The architect was meticulously serious about the tiniest detail. Not a color spec in wane. Not only every scale-tile was diamond shaped and individually colored with artistic precision, each and every is heavier at the bottom corner as if they’re melting.

Just wait till you get inside. Because of this unending fluidity you feel like floating not moving. I watched the visitors for a moment. With audio tours pressed to their ears they start to move funny in slow motion as this underwater kingdom embraces them. 

The dunes of the undulated ceiling centered with magnificent chandelier. 

The extraordinary interior design called for an extraordinary furnishings and light fixtures and Gaudi designed quite an impressive collection for his buildings. Not much survived though and some are displayed on the the upper floor. This hall on the main floor is empty and available for special events. One can only imagine what it was like originally.

The sea theme prevails.  Barcelona is a city on a seashore after all and it felt only natural for the architect to be inspired by the waves and fantastic underwater creatures.

An enclosed fireplace with cozy seating.

Every window hinge is custom made for this fantastic space. The stained glass geometric ornaments add more color to the inside. The Moderniste chandelier in cafeteria.

The sea motives and palette are everywhere in all possible variations, shapes and undertones. The culmination is an inner well court with a skylight , clad in shiny tiles blue as the sea, lighter at the bottom more intense to the top to increase the effect and to visually distribute the streaming light more evenly. 

 The Entrance and main staircase.

Free formed windows on various levels, transparent balconies, frosted glass on  landings and elaborated Art Nouveau lift (so busy that I hadn’t even a split second to take a picture). Looking up - you’re in the sky, looking down you’re in the open sea.

Climbing up and up, as apartments aren’t accessible for visitors, you’ll reach house service quarters in the snow white attic. Beautiful gallery, pure soft forms and light and it was just a passage between storage, laundry and servants rooms. Perfection of calming lines and peaceful whiteness before you’re coming out to blinding sun of rooftop terrace and unbelievable array of colorful chimneys and a sleeping dragon covered in melting scales. He is obviously a good Dragon, not a bad or dangerous one. Just guarding his kingdom. 

   

Attic. Household service area. Natural soft light. Mother of pearl pastels. Ornamental tiles.

A walk out to the roof terrace with a sand castle on the ceiling. 

Melting soft corners and mosaic clad columns.

Gaudi’s contemporaries mentioned about his hard temper, gloomy disposition and most of all the extreme obsession with architecture. But not much written left, letters, diaries or memoires.

Gaudi was completely preoccupied with his work and didn’t welcome any destruction or socializing. He was a lonely star, better to say volcano.

But look at this eruption of colors, images and forms: intriguing and light, cheerful and playful!   

*All images copyright by Natalie Rapoport


To be continued.
See you soon.
Natalie