I was y attracted by the movie Midnight in Barcelona, whether it is the Spanish guitar in the courtyard under the moonlight at night, or the various flowers on the Ramblas, from the young men and women in love on the colored porcelain benches in the Park Güell, to the setting sun through the stone promenade of the sudden and hidden light, the romantic and lazy atmosphere everywhere. So, we started a storming trip to Barcelona, planning to use our feet to measure this dream world created by Gaudi.
Kissing Wall El muro del beso -- Palau de la Música Catalana -- Arc de Triomf -- Parque Güell -- Casa Vince -- Casa Milà- -Casa Batlló
Barcelona truly deserves to be the capital of art, even next to the cathedral, masterpieces are everywhere. Have you guessed it yet? It's a door with quite a design. It is said to be the work of Gaudi.
Not far from the cathedral, there is a tall, glass-walled modern building, the COAC building of the Catalan architects' guild. The simple murals on the facade of the building are particularly eye-catching.
It is said that this sketch mural from Picasso's pen.
It is said that this sketch mural is from Picasso's pen.
It is said that French people are romantic, but after I came to Barcelona, I was infected by the romance of Spaniards, which is different from the French, and more passionate and strong. At the end of an alley behind the architect's building, a mosaic wall is erected, and from a distance, the whole wall is four pieces of lips that are kissing passionately.
This wall from a distance is two people are kissing, especially sexy plump lips, kissing look perfect. Up close, the big kiss is made up of countless small photographs, all of which are taken by Barcelona citizens in very everyday, ordinary photos. This contrast from near to far is very surprising and special.
The wall was built to commemorate the Battle of Barcelona in 1714, and the artist solicited photographs from the public, and eventually put together the wall with 4800 tiles made from different photographs in red and pink colors. Barcelona people's romance is very special, the way to commemorate the war is surprisingly not a monument to heroes, but a kissing wall.
We continued to walk in the old town, not far from an interesting sculpture of the human face on the side of the road, it is carved from a flat stone, called "a piece of the head", to take advantage of the people's visual illusion, looking at a distance, showing a three-dimensional effect of the head. The most interesting thing to me is that he was dragging a big braid.
In the alley behind the "piece of head", I accidentally saw a small Arabian-style dome, and could not help but run over. It's a beautiful building!
The Palau de la Música Catalana, built in 1905-1908, is one of Barcelona's most stunning modernist buildings.
The exterior walls of the Palau de la Música Catalana are decorated with groups of sculptures based on folk songs, encompassing traditional Catalan and Arabic elements, and are very colorful and eye-catching.
This is the masterpiece of Gaudí's teacher, the modernist architect Montaner, a centuries-old modernist masterpiece.
It is hard to imagine that such an architectural treasure is hidden in an alley in a very crowded neighborhood of Barcelona's old town. The narrow alley in front of the Palau de la Música is barely big enough for a single car to pass through, and even with a wide-angle lens, it's hard to get a good shot of the whole thing.
The ground floor of the Palace of Music is supported by huge columns forming the arcade, red, yellow, green, sky blue and other bright colors to express the cheerful and lively as the main color, in the middle of the porch columns on top of the carving of a crown emblem.
The corridor columns are densely covered with colorful floral patterns put together by mosaics.
The hole in the columns surrounded by the mosaic is actually the ticket window of the Palais de la Musique, which is very cute and a bit childish.
The only way to get into this magical concert hall is to join one of the seven daily tours, Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 15:30, and follow the prescribed route under the guidance of the official interpreter, who speaks five languages - Catalan, Spanish, French, English, and Italian - alternating one every half hour, with the English language changing to the other every half hour. The tour is conducted in five languages: Catalan, Spanish, French, English and Italian, alternating between them every half hour, with English being the most popular.
Unfortunately, the day we visited was a Sunday, and there were no tours, so if you wanted to go inside, you had to buy a ticket for the evening show. We had no choice but to give up.
The main entrance of the Music Palace is a slightly curved square arch made of red brick and decorated with reliefs, colorful and delicate.
Columns covered with mosaic puzzles, huge group sculptures and brightly colored and detailed frescoes dress up the whole building.
On the second floor of the Palais de la Musique is a semi-open-air balcony, which is beautifully guarded by a row of vase columns; the upper end of the flower columns supports three small peacock-screen balconies. With the ubiquitous mosaic puzzles and paintings, the whole building is like an exquisite work of art.
Colorful sculptures and ceramic mosaic decorations are the most prominent features here. There are 14 flower pillars on the second floor balcony, each of which is decorated with a different floral pattern made up of mosaics.
The tops of the columns are decorated with flower-shaped capitals, like blooming flowers. It is said that there are three thousand roses hidden here in one ****, which are scattered on the roof, wall pillars and glass, like a player's secret garden.
Outside the third-floor balcony hangs busts of three great composers, Wagner, Bach and Beethoven.
Further up the third-floor terrace is a mosaic mural with a modern cabaret theme, which made me think furiously that this was originally the home base of the Barcelona Choir.
We leaned back extremely hard, trying to get the entire Palace of Music in the shot. Strikingly carved into a corbel where the two facades of the concert hall meet is a set of magnificent bas-reliefs based on Catalan folk songs and fables. This group of sculptures breaks through the confines of the narrow terrain to emphasize the presence of the main entrance and highlight the beauty and elegance of the Music Palace fa?ade.
The red brick fa?ade, columns, bas-reliefs, colorful paintings, and mosaic collages not only visually collide and intertwine with each other, but also blend Spanish and Arabic elements in an architectural style that makes the entire building a new and innovative work of art.
The cafeteria in the foyer is the only place where you can enter for free. The ceiling of the hall is lavishly decorated, but the red brick pillars are so simple and pure.
The café is the gathering and dismissal point for visitors. Compared with the external decoration, the cafe of the concert hall is much more exquisite and gorgeous decoration: marble columns, decorated with beautiful mosaic patterns and geometric relief graphics of the ceiling, colorful large glass partitions, antique classical lamp post ......
In addition to coffee, there are also a number of delicious snacks, so that people waiting for the to pass the time while waiting for a tour or enjoying a concert.
Seeing the pillars covered in flowers again made us instantly feel like we had stepped into a cafe full of flowers.
The Four Cats Café is located deep in a narrow alleyway in the neighborhood. It is a gathering place for many artists and intellectuals, and Picasso, Dali, Miró and Gaudi have all been regulars here. Picasso also made a promotional poster for Four Cats, which later became the cover of the restaurant's menu today.
To take advantage of the free time slot, we decided to get to Parque Güell by early evening, via Parque de la Ciutadella, the largest green lung in the city of Barcelona.
Parque de la Ciutadella is located between Parque de la Ciutadella and the Arc de Triomf. Triomf is a straight boulevard lined with neat palm trees and unique street lamps. As we traveled, we were also pleasantly surprised to find a map of the area painted on the pavement.
The magnificent building on one side of the street is the Court of Justice of Barcelona.
Built as the main entrance to the 1888 World's Fair, the Arc de Triomphe de Barcelona is a Moorish Revival style building made of richly colored red brick. It is carved in gold, antique in color and isolated and towering, so it looks particularly striking and spectacular.
All the sculptures on the Arc de Triomphe are white, contrasting with the red color of the main body. The front frieze is engraved with "Barcelona rep les nacions" (Barcelona welcomes all nations); the back frieze is called "Recompense"; the Arc de Triomphe has 12 statues of women, which represent honor and prestige. statues represent honor and prestige; and the top is adorned with the provincial emblems of the other 49 provinces of Spain.
In Europe, many cities have their own triumphal arch, but Barcelona triumphal arch structure rigorous and romantic, especially red triumphal arch is not rare, can be described as unique.
Barcelona Triumphal Arch, more magnificent than the triumphal arch of Constantinople in Rome. In the evening, the area around the Arc de Triomphe in the Castle Park is a great place for running and walking.
After a short bus ride, we finally arrived at Parque Güell, a paradise designed by Gaudi, which I had longed for.
Stepping through the gates of the park was like entering another world. On the uneven terrain, Gaudi designed distinctive corridors that twist and turn between the mountains and forests.
Gaudí succeeded in combining nature and architecture into a perfect whole, using the local uncut brown rocks, complex structures, but quite primitive style, the artistic interest and architectural style to the fullest.
None of the pillars of the corridors are straight, they all resemble tree trunks in a natural forest. The modeling is basically taken from the plants and animals, some of them look like elephant legs, some are like palm trees, and some are human body modeling, and these pillars of the material is all the use of local stone, although it looks rough and rustic, but it is just like heaven.
Güell Park is an open space facing the sea and is the work of Gaudi. It was originally just a bare hill, but between 1900 and 1914, Gaudi splashed his ink on this colorless canvas, bringing this "bare hill" to life.
The small pink building, slightly off the main road and hidden in the trees, is now a Gaudi museum. Although the building itself was designed by Gaudi's protégé, it fully embodies the classic Gaudi elements. The evening sunlight makes it look like a fairy tale on earth.
Along the mountain road, we came to the large platform plaza, where we saw a lot of benches, they are made of colorful broken porcelain inlaid, winding, like a long dancing dragon, and like the undulating waves, constituting a poetic mood.
The meandering benches made of stone, the surface of which is randomly collaged with mosaic fragments, are rich in patterns and details, and have hidden meanings. Here, whether it is the spatial form, or light and shadow color, from the whole to the details, are done with great interest and beauty, and surprise people everywhere.
The edge of the large platform is my favorite, which is called the world's first length of the flow-type mosaic bench. In addition to the colorful flow of the benches, creating a rich visual experience, sitting or lying here, are very cozy.
When we come to Gaudi City, we are always impressed without realizing it. Walking on the road here, looking at the colorful colors along the way, giving us a visual enjoyment. Walking through it is like walking in a colorful fairy tale world.
Mosaic benches at the same time as the square wall, as we step by step closer to the backrest of the winding benches, the heart can not help but rise a pilgrimage-like feeling, that the blue and white cartoon towers are the first to be reflected in the eyes.
Under the blue and white tower is a more cartoonish "gingerbread house", with a "Little Red Riding Hood" standing on the roof, surrounded by a number of small towers and protruding objects, with Gaudi's iconic cross set in the round windows under the spire.
When the two gatehouses appeared unexpectedly, we realized that this is the main entrance to Park Güell.
This gatehouse is definitely the most beautiful gatehouse in the world, decorated with white wavy ceramic pieces, under the blue sky and green trees, looks very naughty and childish, no wonder they are affectionately called "candy house".
It seems to be a house out of the fairy tale, like a gingerbread house covered with a layer of cream, covered with a bright glaze. The sight of this lovely house made me want to open my eyes even more and walk into this dreamy concierge with a spirit of adventure.
Under the cover of the blue-purple evening sun, the colorful Güell presents itself as more than just a miracle created by Gaudi, an ageless utopia, a playground dedicated to God!
This place can surprise you everywhere. The park is like a fairy tale about to enter dreamland, or like a giant work of art hanging in the air.
Gaudi used vernacular materials to integrate architectural sculptures, leisure plazas, road corridors, public **** facilities and the natural environment, presenting a beautiful urban space.
With the darkening of the sky, we greedily looked far away again, through Barcelona's distant clouds, those densely packed colorful buildings stand far away under the blue sea and blue sky ------
We sat from the evening, until the early lights. Tourists who come here are like us, and they don't want to leave for a long time.
Barcelona is the son of the sea, water is an important element of Barcelona's architectural design, so the blue color of this place as the tone, and the blue and purple sky against the backdrop of the sea, like the sea as soft and serene.
In the midst of the sadness, we followed the road down to a hundred columns of 86 stone columns hall. The array of columns so densely and regularly arranged is like a forest, and the top construction of the columns is spectacular, concave and convex like the ceiling roof of clouds and waves of water.
The design of the top of the hall is very beautiful, all decorated with mosaic patterns, looking up, giving people a sense of visual shock.
Below the Hundred Pillars Hall is the famous colorful Big Lizard Steps. From here, you can clearly see the exquisite dome at the top of the corridor columns, which is constantly fluctuating like waves.
This is the most famous colorful lizard fountain in Park Güell. Fountain by the lizard and chameleon two parts, the surface of the mosaic ceramic tile patchwork and become, colorful, vivid shape. Whenever the rain is heavy, the lizard and chameleon mouth will gush out from the hundred columns of the hall down the flow of water, looks particularly vivid and lovely.
Representing the patron saint of Catalonia, the "chameleon". What makes me feel most mesmerized is its four feet, which are so hard, as if they are afraid of falling down.
The Giant Lizard, the emblem of Catalonia.
On both sides of the steps, the low wall is winding, with colorful tiles on the wall, forming a strange and inexplicable pattern, as if a curved python.
When the lights are fully lit, the colorful walls are covered with a layer of warm yellow veil.
When the lights come on, the blue and white mushroom towers and candy-like stone houses are illuminated by the warm yellow light, making it seem as if you have entered a surreal paradise.
On the outside wall of the park, the words "Güell Park" are spliced together with broken ceramic tiles.
At night, we walked step by step along the park's facade towards the foot of the mountain.
On our way to the restaurant, we came across a super pretty building on the side of the road. Looking at the navigation, we realized that it was the famous Casa Vicens, Gaudi's first major work, when he was only 26 years old.
Casa Vicens was built in the 1880s, and although it has survived more than 130 summers, this privately owned building has always maintained a low-profile and mysterious posture, and is still so vibrant, like a young woman dressed in fashionable and trendy, standing in the streets of Barcelona, looking at the eyes, a lot of flavor.
Most of the tiles on the facade of the Vincent House are green and yellow tones, as well as green and white checkerboard-like combination of tile graphics, color unity and beauty.
The vast majority of the decorative design of the Vinson House is presented by the yellow and green tones of marigold tiles. It is said that marigolds are actually a native plant that Gaudi found on the building site of the Vincent House, which is really in line with the character of the master Gaudi, who liked to take nature as a source for many of his architectural details.
Gaudí was inspired by the dense palm trees in the area, and the window guards of the Vincent House are breathtaking cast-iron structures in the shape of palm fronds.
The fa?ade of the Vinson House is covered in tiles painted with a variety of plants and flowers, making it feel alive everywhere.
At the corner, Gaudi breaks the simple and boring straight-line intersection of traditional architecture, and skillfully utilizes the simple technique of red brick concave-convex stacking with arched windows and tile decorations to produce three-dimensional layers of rich changes in the bland exterior fa?ade.
This is a building belonging to the Moorish style, the appearance of a large number of ceramic tiles, color is very bright. When you first see the colorful Vincent House, you feel like meeting a fairy tale.
We said goodbye to this fantastic building step by step, and I wanted to memorize every detail of it.
Just a short walk away from the Vincent House was Taverna El Glop, an unpretentious, down-to-earth restaurant that we had picked out as a favorite of the locals. Perhaps because it was dinnertime, the restaurant was packed and a bit noisy.
We've had paella many times, and this time we specialized in the cuttlefish paella. Although the blackened look was not very good, the cuttlefish paella was a bit fresher and more flavorful.
Here, cuttlefish paella is almost a must at every table. I looked around and was pleased to see that the two Taiwanese girls in the neighboring seats were eating happily, and even made a point of showing their dark teeth and taking a selfie.
I also ordered a grilled pork chop, which was a middle-of-the-road affair with no surprises.
During dinner, a check of the navigation, found that the restaurant is less than 1.5 kilometers from Casa Milà, Casa Batlló. So, we decided to kill some food and walk there.
Walking to an intersection, we saw from afar, a white building stands strikingly on the corner. The entire wall is like a rough sea, with constant high and low undulations, and strange chimneys and ventilation pipes are erected on the roof. This is Casa Milà, another of Gaudi's works.
Casa Milà was the last private residence designed by Gaudi, and it is a streamlined structure that carries on Gaudi's usual eccentric style. When you come close, you can look up at the roofs that are strewn with undulating waves, as if you are in the ocean.
The wavy appearance, white stone facade such as sea water long-term erosion, and weathering of the rock body full of holes; on the rock body is twisted back around the black fence composed of iron bars, coupled with wide windows, make people think of the imagination.
This is a grotesque stone house. What sets it apart is the curvaceous design of the building's exterior. It has a high and low roof, uneven walls, a strangely designed door, and meandering curves everywhere, making the whole building particularly dynamic.
Across the Via Gracia, on the other side of the road, we encountered a fairy-tale castle-like building, Casa Batlló, an apartment building with an unusual appearance, representative of Gaudí's creative maturity. Although the same Gaudi design, but the style is very different, bright colors and exaggerated shape, seems to be more popular at that time the aristocrats love.
The Bartolo House has a history of more than 100 years and has undergone many renovations. The entire building's exterior walls are covered with colorful mosaics, bright colors; the roof looks like dragon scales, full of magical colors.
The exterior walls are decorated with colorful crushed porcelain tiles, which are not only colorful, but also more durable than paint. The balcony fence, inspired by the shape of a seashell, has a special sense of life, a rare breeze in the machine age.
The soft light makes the Bartolo House more gentle. Looking up, colored glass and the uniquely conceived balcony of masks and columns in the shape of skeletons enhance the legendary atmosphere.
The house's balcony, which resembles an alien's eyepatch, struck me as cool. The whole building has a dazzling beauty and one can't help but marvel at the whims of the master.
The bracket of the large window in the middle of the second floor, inspired by human bones, looks creative but does look a bit scary and crazy in the eyes of the general public, so people jokingly call it the bone room.
After nightfall, the full-width colorful windows on the second floor from afar look like the mouth of a giant beast with teeth bared, but I can't feel a bit of hideousness.
The neighborhood, known as Illa de la Discordia, is home to several exceptional centuries-old buildings that stand out from the rest of the city, and the contrast between their styles is striking.
To the left of Bartolo's apartment is a colorful building decorated with Moorish iron lattice, the Casa Amatlle, the Casa Amatlle.
The Casa Amatlle, originally belonged to the chocolate tycoon Anthony Amatlle. The illuminated, glistening stepped walls are adorned with a beautiful pink pattern that looks to me like a beautifully wrapped piece of traditional chocolate.
Now the ground floor has been converted into a very chic café, Faborit, with a counter at the entrance selling Spain's oldest chocolate, Amatje, at very affordable prices.
The intricately carved windows are eye-catching and add to the beauty of the building.
Casa Lleó Morera, the House of the Lion and the Mulberry Tree, on the corner, was built in 1864 and remodeled in 1902. Unlike many buildings of the time, it was not named after the owner, but after the lion and the mulberry tree in the decorative motif. Today the ground floor is Loewe's flagship store.
The House of the Lion and the Mulberry Tree was built by the same architect as the Concertgebouw de Catalunya, who was particularly adept at the use of floral ornamentation, with a variety of carved flowers and plants to give the exterior a bright appearance, while at the same time being fresh and girlish.
The tiles with flower handles, the reliefs and the stained glass are all very delicate and elegant, in the style of Mondaner's "architect of flowers".
Like all historic and cultural cities around the world, Barcelona is the cradle of genius and inspiration, freedom and creativity, and has even been called the "Mecca" of the world's avant-garde. It is often said that Barcelona would not be Barcelona without Gaudi's individual works.
There is no city like Barcelona, because of a person and shine, Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh, Picasso have left their traces in Barcelona, but are stuck in the plane of the paper, but only Gaudi with a beautiful, ghostly architecture, so that Barcelona has become a city of dreams.
The whole of Barcelona is a city of art raised by Gaudi. Walking through the streets of Barcelona, there are traces of this genius everywhere.
Gaudi, the crazy and romantic genius, outlined the outline of the city with natural curves, and gave Barcelona a new life with excellent architectural art, and left behind a monumental works such as the Palace of Güell, the House of Mira, the House of Batlló and the Park of Güell, which are like jewels left by the heavens in the Barcelona, and never stop glowing with light.
Barcelona is Gaudi's city, and Gaudi is the soul of Barcelona, the world's most famous city.
At this point, our driving tour of the Iberian Peninsula will draw to a successful conclusion, however, did not expect, by the impact of the new crown epidemic, we were scheduled to return to the United States on February 10 from Barcelona flights were canceled, the temporary re-signing and no flights, so there is no other way, in line with the mindset of both sides of the peace of mind, the choice to continue to travel in Europe while looking for a ticket to return to the United States.
The next stop will be Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia.
The warm winter sun pulling "teeth" record (34) Barcelona: Gaudi to create the flower of Europe (on)
The warm winter sun pulling "teeth" record (33)