MY 1ST TIME IN BARCELONA

Last week I had the pleasure to visit the condal city of Barcelona.

This city started to change radically after the olympic games in 1992.

Before arrive I was so so nervous, because I had never been there.

I visited different great monuments, and now I´m going to explain their history one by one, so play attention because it´s very interesting.

1. BASÍLICA OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA -Antoni Gaudí-

The origins of the Sagrada Familia date back to 1866, the year in which Josep Maria Bocabella i Verdaguer founded the Spiritual Association of Devotees of San José, which from 1874 promotes the construction of an expiatory temple dedicated to the Sagrada Family. This buiding is in a plot of land of 12,800 m² between the streets of Marina, Provença, Sardenya and Mallorca. The first stone is laid on March 19, 1882, St. Joseph's Day.

2. CASA BATLLÓ -Antoni Gaudí-
This building was built in 1875, by Emilio Cortés Salas, but in 1903 Josep Batlló bought it, and commissioned the remodeling to Antoni Gaudí, that maked it the masterpiece that nowadays it is.

3. CASA MILÀ -Antoni Gaudí-
In 1905 Pere Milà and Roser Segimon get married. Attracted by the fame of the Gràcia promenade, they buy a buiding with an area of ​​1,835 square meters and commission the architect Antoni Gaudí to build his new residence.The construction was complex, with financial and legal problems, and was not Policy free. The part of the loft and the roof exceeded the maximum allowed. Finally, the Eixample Commission certified that the building was monumental and should not strictly comply with municipal ordinances, although the Milà had to pay a fine of 100,000 ptas. to legalize it. The Mila couple discussed with Gaudí for their fees until they reached the courts. Gaudí won the lawsuit and Roser Segimon had to mortgage Casa Mila to pay the 105,000 ptas to the architect, who donated to a nunnery.

4. PARC GÜELL -Antoni Gaudí-
It is a public park with gardens and architectural elements located in the upper part of the city. It is located on the southern slope of Mount Carmel. Güell Park is a reflection of Gaudí's artistic fullness: it belongs to his naturalist stage (first decade of the twentieth century), a period in which the architect perfected his personal style, through inspiration in the organic forms of nature, to what put into practice a whole series of new structural solutions originated in its deep analysis of ruled geometry. To this the Catalan artist adds a great creative freedom and an imaginative ornamental creation: starting from a certain baroque style his works acquire great structural wealth, of forms and volumes devoid of rationalist rigidity or of any classical premise.1 In the Güell park, Gaudí deployed everything his architectural genius and put into practice many of his innovative structural solutions that would be emblematic of his organicist style and that would culminate in the Sagrada Familia.

5. PARC DE LA CIUTADELLA -Josep Fontserè-

He designed beautiful gardens that served as a lung for the city. A place of recreation inspired by the French, English and Italian gardens, paying special attention to the Luxembourg Gardens. Gaudí also collaborated on the project, was responsible for carrying out the Monumental Waterfall, (for the hydraulic part of the fountain, as well as the design of the artificial cave that runs below the waterfall). Today, buildings belonging to the time of the Exhibition such as the Castle of the Three Dragons are still preserved,Today it is one of the largest parks in Barcelona. In its facilities is the Zoo of Barcelona, ​​in addition to the old fortifications that belonged to the Citadel such as the chapel, the governor's palace and the arsenal, in addition to all the sculptures and buildings created for the 1888 Exhibition, such as the Umbráculo, Hivernáculo, Museum of Geology and that of Zoology.

6. CATHEDRAL OF SANTA CRUZ AND SANTA EULALIA  -Oriol Mestres y Font Carreras-
Example of Gothic Style of the 14th Century 

On top of the foundations of the early Paleochristian basilica, and the later Romanesque Cathedral, the current Gothic Cathedral was built. The works began on May 1, 1298, 

We can distinguish three stages during the 150 years that the works lasted: in the first one the entire building was planned and the construction of the apse with the radial chapels, the presbytery with its altar and the crypt, and the one of the false cruise was carried out ; then the three ships with their respective side chapels were extended to the height after the choir; finally the construction of the basilica was continued until the line of the facade that was subsequently closed with a simple wall (1417). The cloister was completed in 1448. At the end of the 19th century, Barcelona's industrialist Manuel Girona Agrafel offered to cover the work of the facade and its two lateral towers that was carried out according to the plans of the architect Oriol Mestres inspired by the initial project that had already been drawn in the fifteenth century. The children of Mr. Girona completed the father's company with the construction of the dome, which ended in 1913.

7. BASÍLICA OF SANTA MARÍA DEL MAR  -Berenger de Montagut-

It started to be build in 1329. The walls, the side chapels and the façade were finished around 1350. In 1379, about to finish the fourth section of vaults, the scaffolding caught fire and the stones suffered significant damage. Finally, on November 3, 1383 the last part of the vault was placed and on August 15 of the following year the first mass was celebrated. The earthquake of 1428 caused the collapse of the rosette causing some deaths, due to the fall of the stones of the same. Although a contract was soon signed to build a new flamboyant style, which was finished in 1459 and the following year, the windows were placed. It gained a certain reputation when a Spanish book was published that told about his origins called "La Catedral del Mar".