The Streets of Barcelona – Wanderlust @78

“Man makes art for man and hence it must be rational.” – Antoni Gaudi

While walking on the streets of Barcelona, the first thing you’ll notice is its architecture and the most important styles are the Catalan Gothic style and the Modernisme, which is a cultural movement at the end of the 19th century protagonized by Antoni Gaudi.

Here are some of Gaudi’s architecture, also some buildings and monuments that can be found in the very artistic streets of Barcelona.

One of the most famous of Gaudi’s architecture is La Sagrada Familia, a large unfinished Roman Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882.

Casa Batllo was originally built in 1875, but not resembling the way it looks like today. It was bought by a rich businessman named Josep Batllo i Casanovas in 1903 and he decided to hire architect Antoni Gaudi for its renovation. Gaudí’s work on Casa Batllo was from 1904 to 1906.

Casa Mila is an unconventional building designed by Antoni Gaudi. The name Mila came from the fact that it was a home to the Mila family, occupying the main floor and rented out the rest of the other apartments. It is also known as La Pedrera, (stone quarry) because it resembles an open quarry in appearance.

Las Ramblas, Barcelona is one of the more famous landmark that one will see in Barcelona. It is a tree-lined street with lots of pedestrians, souvenir shops, live performances of human statues, works of artist, vendors. But frankly, aside from all the bad publicity, the crowd, and the pickpockets (luckily I didn’t encounter one)I wouldn’t miss walking here. The vibe, the excitement and the general feeling that you get while walking is the highlight of it all.

Street paintings

Tapas for lunch at Las Ramblas

The Las Arenas de Barcelona is now a commercial shopping complex. The structure was first built and used as a bullfighting arena.

The Aduana Building at Port Vell in Barcelona is a Neoclassical building in the Square of the Gate of Peace opened in 1902,

The architecture of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya is beautiful by day and fabulous by night.

Bird’s eye view of Barcelona taken from the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

The Josep Maria Jujol designed water fountain in the centre of Placa d’Espanya.

Beside it are the Venetian Towers

El Cap de Barcelona or The Head of Barcelona, is a surrealist sculpture created by American pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein. He was commissioned to create a sculpture for the 1992 Olympics. It was originally to be placed in the mountains but later on was decided that it is more suited to the old port, near the marina.

The Woman with Bird by Miro, sculpture bequethed to Barcelona in 1983.

Here are more amazing architecture that can be seen in the streets of Barcelona.

I wasn’t able to go to Park Guell, although it’s just very near the Sagrada Familia, because of lack of planning. My daughter did and she is sharing these photos through my blog.

NOTE to Self: In my next visit to Barcelona, I have to make sure I prebook everything needed to be able to go in the La Sagrada Familia. It is suggested to see it from an hour or two before sunset or sunset if I can.