re-constructions and renovations of Monuments

City Palace Berlin, Sagrada Familia Barcelone, FrauenKirche Dresden, Lower Town Quebec City, Ara Pacis Rome, Parthenon Athens.

In my life of travelling and living abroad I have come across many sights which have been resurrected from the past or cleaned up or re-built. Why do governments do it, in most cases to recapture shares of the mass tourist market, tourist want to see things they do not have back home. Per example see London like Mary Poppins or the Rome of the Popes or early Christians or see ancient monument reborn after centuries of neglect. We want to recapture the past and with our modern sensibilities pretend we are just like the ancient, though sometimes it makes for funny situations, per example one remark often heard when visiting a former Royal Palace now a museum, tourist no.1 will say to tourist no.2 Can you imagine living in a place like this, it must have been nice.
The reality is if either of these persons had lived in the past centuries, they probably would have been peasants in the fields working hard and would never have come anywhere near such a place, this because of social barriers and strict divisions of society.

In 1962 the old City of Quebec the portion within the old Walls and the Lower town below by the St-Lawrence river dating back to 1608 was in ruins. Things were so bad the Provincial Government was considering bulldozing the whole thing and making it all modern. Luckily the Federal Government owned most of it and forbade the grand scale demolition, it also started to invest into rehabilitating the City walls, Quebec is the only city in North America with complete defensive walls and gates and dozens of stone homes from the 17th Century built in a French Norman Style. Today people from around the world come to Quebec City to see La Vieille Capitale, because Quebec was the Capital of the French Empire until 1763 and then the Royal Capital of Canada until 1820. So history is everywhere in its historic streets.

 Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires, 1688

Place Royale, Ville de Quebec

Petit Séminaire de Quebec, 1664

I started to visit Athens around 1998 though I had often flown over the City in the late 1980's never had I actually visited.
Athens was a small city until 1960's it is only in the last 35 years that a real estate boom has made it
into a megapolis, though the total population is 800,000. Not exactly Montreal or even Rome at 3 million people.   The Symbol of the City is the Acropolis and the Parthenon built originally in 480 BC and re-built in 438 BC to honour the Goddess Athena Parthénos, ( Virginal Pallas triomphant) who protects her City and its people. The Parthenon is said to be the most perfect Doric style temple ever built.

To my mind the Parthenon is the symbol of the Western World, there is no more beautiful site than to watch the Sun rise in the morning and its rays hitting the White with a golden tinge Pentelic marble of the Temple making it shine as if it was made of gold.  When you look at it you are reminded that theatre, philosophy, democracy, trial by jury, all come from this ancient site.

The statue of Athena stood in her temple until the fifth century AD when a fire destroyed it. With the arrival of Christians the Acropolis and the Parthenon suffered vandalism and then the Ottoman Turks occupied the site for many centuries until that fateful day when a Venetian Captain Morosini attacking Athens from the Sea aimed his canons on the Temple which at this point was used as a gunpowder store by the occupying Ottoman Turkish army. The explosion from the direct hit in September 1687 caused the devastation we see to this day. However in the last 25 years Greek Archeologists with funds from the European Union have worked at restoring this ancient temple and others on the Acropolis, like the small temple of Athena Nike and the main entrance gate the Propylae and the Erechtyion returning them to what they were like before the attack by the Venetian fleet of 1687. It is also a function of consolidating the buildings and preventing any further degradation. Using titanium rods on the blocks instead of steel which rust and then eats away at the marble. In some cases new marble blocks have been carved to replace those to weak or degraded. In my lifetime I can say that I have seen the Parthenon and the other temples restored or reborn. Many might say why restore such an ancient site, I think that in this case given the importance of this sacred place for us Occidentals, this hill must continue to live forever.

Temple of Athena Nike, restored 2011

Propylae gate, Acropolis in restoration 2010

Parthenon under continuous restoration in June 2014.

The Capital of Saxony, Dresden was totally destroyed in a fire bombing by the British forces on the night of 14 February 1945, 600,000 civilians died burned alive in the firestorm. Dresden was not a strategic city and had no military value, it was known for its culture and art. Canaletto had made a very famous painting of the city in the 18th century. This painting was so accurate in its architectural detailing that it was used to rebuilt the city from its ashes after 1989. 

The devastation of Dresden was total and after the end of the Second World War, Dresden was behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. There was no money for re-building and very little effort was made to repair the damage inflicted. Most of its civilian population had died, so the Communist authorities decided to rebuilt here and there in a haphazard way outside of the old city limits. The Lutheran Church wanted it's main temple re-built because of its association with Martin Luther who had preached there. But all this re-building had to wait German reunification in 1990, from public donations from around the world the Lutheran Church was able to rebuild the Frauen Kirche of Dresden originally built by architect George Bahr in 1726 it had survived intact other wars and invasions until that fateful night in 1945.

The plan to rebuild this one church gave the impetus to massively rebuild the old city including the other churches and the Royal Palace of the Princes of Saxony, the Semper Opera house and other palaces and museum. We first visited around 1999, the old City was a field of construction and the Frauen Kirche was only half rebuilt. When we returned in 2014 most of the work was complete and the Church itself had been re-dedicated and is now serving the Lutheran Community of Dresden. 

Dresden is also famous for its porcelain and the celebrated Meissen Porcelain factory. Some 23,000 pieces of 17th and 18th century porcelain can be admired in the Zwinger Palace forming the private collection of the Royal Family of Saxony.  Then the beautiful Art museums and the Residenzschloss or Royal Palace and its incredible precious jewels and other rare objects collections, requiring a minimum of 2 days to fully appreciate the wealth of the collections which can now be seen as prior to 1939 in all its glory.

Dresden and the FrauenKirche on the New Market Square, 1742 by Bernardo Bellotto

Dresden re-built in June 2014

FrauenKirche re-built in June 2014

FrauenKirche in ruin after fire bombing of 1945 with the Statue of Martin Luther. Reconstruction will start in 1996 only.

Partial view inside the FrauenKirche, Dresden, 2014 (Lutheran Baroque)

Despite the beauty of the reconstruction and how faithful to all the details to ensure accuracy, I was somewhat disappointed, difficult to explain, maybe it was the realization that I was not looking at the original Church or City but a faithful copy. I also wondered if future generations will understand what happened to this city in 1945, one could understand if they forgot all about it or disbelieved any tale of war and mayhem.

Moving on to Rome where nothing is ever changing or so it seems one could be forgiven for the fact that much of what we see today in Rome is often the case of the will of men to change the city to suit a political program. It is often said that Rome looks like a theatre set, every angle is like a theatre set design to attract the eye to a beautiful panorama.
First the Popes on their return from Avignon in France decided to remake Rome.
The numerous well preserved Temples of Antiquity were dismantled to be used in the rebuilding of churches and public works. Then other works of art were used to decorate palaces and gardens, often with a beautiful effect. However much was also destroyed carelessly for mercantile reasons.

Unified Italy as of 1870 embarked on a program of changing Rome to suit its new image as a Republican Monarchy opening new streets like Via Cavour and Via Nazionale in the heart of the City and building the great walls along the Tiber to prevent winter floods. Then when Mussolini came to power in 1923 he wanted Rome to reflect its imperial glory so he employed historians, archeologists and architects to find all those pieces of the puzzle that were still buried and he resurrected temples or part of them like the Temple of the Vestal Virgins in the Roman Forum or the Arch of Titus or went on to build the Via dei Fori Imperiali crossing the whole of the ancient Forum area so he could have great military parades à la Hollywood.

So when you visit Rome today the ruins you see are the work of the Fascist era (1923-1943), unwittingly Mussolini helped the Italian Tourist Industry for decades to come. Tourist have something to see.

One such monument amongst many to have been resurrected and it is a magnificent one, is the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar to Augustan Peace) as the name indicates it was to celebrate world peace brought about with the pacifying of the Barbarian nations. A monument built as a testimony to the legacy of Octavian the nephew of Julius Caesar better known to us as Augustus the first Emperor of Rome (63BC to 14AD) and probably the greatest and best. His legal legacy still resonates with us today and is found carved in stone on the side of the building housing the Ara Pacis, the Res Gestae in Canada Lawyers call it the Law of Evidence.

The monument was built at the request of the Roman Senate in July of 13BC and was located in the Field of Mars an area nowadays around the Via del Corso and Via del Parlamento. The soil being quite soft in the area the weight of the monument caused it to sink into the ground and only 60 years later it was half buried. Eventually it disappeared completely only to be re-discovered by accident during excavations in 1568 under Palazzo Chigi and more fragments surfaced in 1859 and in 1903. Those fragments ended up in the Vatican Museum, the Villa Borghese, the Uffizi Museum and the Louvre in Paris. In 1937 to celebrate the 2000 Birthday of Augustus, Mussolini ordered that the whole monument be excavated and re-assembled in a new site by the Tiber and next to the Mausoleum of Augustus at Ponte Cavour and Via Tomacelli, a special building was also built to house the monument. That building was again completely re-designed in 2006 by architect Richard Meier. Nonetheless the Ara Pacis is a very important monument for the Western World.

I studied that monument in school as a kid and imagine how wonderful it was for me to see it in 2007 for the first time in person. Though the white marble stone today does not show the original colours, think of an Hindou Temple, every year on the anniversary of the birth of Augustus the monument is displayed at night with a show of light so the public can see it again as it was then, the bold colours are jarring to our modern sensibilities.

I visited the Ara Pacis numerous times and am still in awe of its magnificent grandeur.

West side  

 East Side

Members of the Imperial Family, all can be identified by name.

One monument which is being re-created from scratch is the City Palace of Berlin, for centuries this was the Palace of the Princes of Brandenburg, then the Official Palace of the Prussian Kings and finally the Palace of the German Emperor until 1918.

The palace was bombed and burned in 1944 but could still be restored, however with the partition of Germany in 1945 it fell in the Eastern Sector of the City and the Communist authorities decided to blow it up in 1953 to make way for a military parade ground instead, more goose stepping. 

The palace was in an area of Berlin which housed a unique complex of buildings, university and museums at the end of the ceremonial road Unter den Linden (under the linden trees) which starts at the Brandenburg Gate. The palace was located on an island on the Spree River next to the Lutheran Cathedral and all the museums housing the various art and archeological collections. 

As of 1990 the new united City of Berlin and the Federal Government of Germany decided to renovate all the historical buildings of the Eastern sector left derelict by the Communist government for decades. In fact in 1985 the East German government had threatened to blow up every historical building in its sector if the West German government did not pay the full price of reconstruction. Had this plan gone ahead much of the 800 years of the history of Berlin would have been lost forever. 

Berlin has been one huge rebuilding project since 1990, it's infrastructure, the rail system, the U and S ban and its real estate all of it renewed or rebuilt. The Lutheran Cathedral, the various museum on the island and every other monument and palace rebuilt. Frederick II the Great is back on Unter den Linden riding into the City again a top his monument. The one missing link was the City Palace, it took years of discussion and consultation and finally the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) sitting in the rebuilt old Reichstag building voted in favour of rebuilding, the City of Berlin also supported the plan. However first the old East German Parliament building had to be demolished and that took 3 years when it was discovered the building was full of asbestos. 

Palast der Republik, GDR, Berlin in 1977

The idea is to rebuild the palace on the outside as it was before 1918 and make of the interior a modern University conference centre and library with museums on foreign cultures. It will be called the Humboldt Forum after the German brothers Alexander and Wilhelm Von Humboldt. With the palace rebuilt the entire area will have a homogenous architectural look recalling the 18th Century and the age of Enlightenment. 

What the rebuilt City Palace or Humboldt Forum will look like in 2019.

I have been following the entire saga since the beginning in the 1990's and this December construction of the shell of the palace is complete. Though the Federal Government of Germany will pay for the entire completion of the inside of the structure the decorative Baroque elements on the outside must be paid for by private donations and at the moment some 60 Million Euros still need to be raised, completion date 2019. It should be said that a lot of controversy surrounds this project, though now it is well on its way to be completed. Though it is only to fulfil a wish to have the city centre whole that this project was put forward, many advocated that something different be built. However historically speaking for 600 years a Palace stood in this place. See the link
http://berliner-schloss.de/en/humboldt-forum-new-palace

You can see a photo of today 1 Dec 2014 at 21:05 Berlin Time and how advanced the construction of the Palace is at this point, they are at the roof top.
http://cam01.berlinerschloss-webcam.de/?id=1417459501

Another project this one in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain is the Church of the architect Gaudi, La Sagrada Familia under construction since 1882 it is nearing completion now due to strong tourist interest and ticket sales to visit the site. As a child I had heard of this church by Gaudi and how no one knew if it would ever be completed. Antoni Gaudi died in 1926 in Barcelona run over by a street car. After his death no one knew if the church could be completed, since it was very much his inspiration which created this masterpiece. Then the Spanish Civil War saw a great deal of chaos, the Catholic Church in Spain sided with the Fascist forces of General Franco and in Catalonia there was much repression of the population. The Church was no ones friend, the Republican lashed out and attacked the construction office where all the archives of Gaudi were kept everything was destroyed including the mock-ups of the final product. Now construction stopped completely, to add to this sad situation General Franco was victorious, he exiled the Royal Family and proclaimed himself dictator at the same time he allied himself with Nazi Germany. The Second World War saw more economic disaster befell Spain and despite being a Neutral country it was very isolated. After the war a commission of academics and other experts decided that the Sagrada Familia Church should stand as is incomplete as a monument to Gaudi. It was only in 1975 with the death of General Franco and the return to democracy and a restoration of the Monarchy that once again the construction work re-started but this time with a panel of artists and architects devoted to seeing the vision of Gaudi for his church in the completion of the project. Only having a few documents in private hands from the time of Gaudi and some of his writings to guide them, new financing was devised in organized tours of the site where tourist would pay to gawk at what was going on.

Here is the first drawing of what the Sagrada Familia would have looked like, a design by Francisco de Paula Villar y Lozano, the first architect who would be replaced by Antoni Gaudi. Of this original design only the underground crypt church was completed in 1900. Gaudi then changed everything and started on his vision.

Floor plan of the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi. 

The current construction schedule is going well and the Church is well on its way to be completed after 70 years of sleep. At this time though it is not clear if the main front entrance of the Basilica the Portico of Glory will be completed, the reason is that it now stands above a express train tunnel (Paris -Barcelona) and the vibration of this high speed train as it enters Barcelona may affect the front of the building. Also in 1975 the land immediately across the street was sold to a developer in what many see as a shady land deal. So the great staircase and plaza planned for the area cannot be built now since condominiums occupy this land. 

Glory Portico which may never be finished.

The Passion Portico and the Nativity Portico face parks and can easily be admired. Maybe in a way given the tortuous story of the construction of this church it is better if part of it remains unfinished.

Certainly the rest 90% will be completed by 2026, sone 144 years after the beginning of the work.

What is wonderful about this construction is that all the funds came and still come from private donations and tourists buying tickets to visit the site.  

Panoramic view of the ceiling vault of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona.

This view is dizzying but given the high luminosity of the Church and the multitude of stain glass, the gold on the ceiling, your eyes are really seeing a marvellous feat of architecture. The columns are not painted, they are stone and they take on various shades of colour as the Sun illuminates the building, this changes as the hours pass. The most magical of effect.
There are more photos at this site http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia

The basilica in 2014.

There are many more projects around the world, St-Petersburg is another one where dozens of Palaces have been meticulously restored and turned into museums or hotels. A whole generation of Russian artisan is being trained to produce furniture and other objects but also trades in refurbishing these historical buildings. This could be another entry unto itself.
In Asia Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia have projects to redo sites which have been neglected or abandoned. China redid its Forbidden City in advance of the Olympics games a few years ago, though unfortunately with little care for historical accuracy. 

  

La Sagrada and La grande bellezza, two films

In the last week we went to see two very different movies, one a documentary and another one recommended to me by our friend in London David N. We had to wait a few months but both movies were great to see.

La Sagrada as the title implies is about the great basilica under construction for the last 130 years, where Antoni Gaudi spent most of his life working. The Expiatory Church of the Holy Family as it is know in Barcelona is an incredible work of architecture. This documentary shows you through photographs, aerial shots and interviews with the different builders, architects, artists and master carvers how the work is progressing. It is almost a miracle after all the troubled times of the XXth Century to see this church nearing completion today, final completion date is said to be 2028. The question remains though will it ever be finished since the main Glory portal is still a blank concrete wall, work is however progressing well in all other areas.

There is still several groups who are for or against completion of the building work.  One is the City of Barcelona Municipal administration who appears not to be very interested in seeing the building completed, a second group is the various critics who believe the church should never be completed and accuse the current sculptors and architects of designing a Disney like building and who question what purpose does it serve to complete this masterwork. You also have the various people who work at completing the building and who are determined to see the work of Gaudi done.

Major obstacle stand in the way today, one is the main rail tunnel only 30 meters below street level of the Barcelona-Paris high speed train which passes several times a day as it enters or leaves the train station in Barcelona. Low vibration could damage the uncompleted Glory main facade of the Basilica.

The other is the fact that the City of Barcelona sold all the land in front of the church and directly across the street to a developer in 1976 going against established municipal zoning laws. Buildings now block the area that was to become a grand 200 meter long plaza as designed by Gaudi.

The stark unfinished front facade, Glory facade, will it ever be finished?

The 1936 start of the Spanish Civil War saw all the designs by Gaudi destroyed by the Republicans who were against the Catholic Church in Spain who had sided with General Franco and the Fascist forces, work stops completely.  In 1939 the Second World War became another obstacle despite Spain being technically speaking Neutral though it supported Nazi Germany, lack of funds was another chronic problem. After the war a commission of experts wanted the building to remain as is, an unfinished ruin or a museum, luckily they did not succeed. It was only in 1976 that work re-started again with Catalonia becoming an autonomous region as it was prior to 1936.

Today the Basilica has become a major tourist attraction bringing in millions of Euros a year, financing is no longer a problem and construction is going on at great speed, based on fragments of documentation and drawings that has been salvaged. The artists continue their work based on Gaudi inspired designs.

The aerial shots of the basilica gives a wonderful view of the building and it is well narrated with interesting interviews of the principal actors involved in this great work.
I found it to be a very satisfying documentary on a building I first heard of when in was a child in school some 50 years ago, I am so happy to have had 2 opportunities to see it and walk through it.


Possible foreign film Oscar winner?

The other movie La Grande Bellezza ( The great beauty) a Fellini style film by Paolo Sorrentino resonates with me. It was suggested to me by our friend in London David Nice, he has impeccable taste when it comes to suggesting books to read, exhibitions to see or in this case a movie.

To me La Grande Bellezza is La Dolce Vita 60 years later, in many ways Italian society has not changed and it is a sad, funny, challenging movie and like life it has elements of nonsense where you want to say wait a minute, it is also strangely immoral. It is the story of a man Jep Gambardella, an author who wrote one book in his life and became famous, the book entitled L'apparato Umano.

Jep is 65 years old and the movie opens on his birthday party at his luxurious penthouse in Rome over looking the Collosseum and the Palatine Hill, not a bad view. His friends are the old money of Rome, Princesses and Counts, authors, and simply very rich people. They dress well, they go to parties and drink a lot but do not do anything much with their lives and all of them are on the threshold of their senior years. Everyone is unhappy about how Rome let them down, that is a phrase Italians will recognize. This movie is a critique of Italian society today, of its decay, rampant mediocrity and the themes being developed speak to a sort of Italian angst about life and what it is suppose to be or not be. Rome of course is for Romans the greatest city on Earth none compare to it, never has, never will. We lived in Rome for a few years and I know exactly what that means. The problem is that Rome is an old city, very old with a seriously decaying infrastructure amid architectural and artistic treasures.

People continue to live in this old City as if things were just fine though everyone knows they are not but no one will lift a finger to change anything by fear of braking a magic spell. There is a sort of neurosis, in fact there is an expression, people will say that they miss the neurotic atmosphere of Rome. Say this to an Italian and he will smile, you spoke like a true Roman.

Jep sees his friends and old lovers decaying and dying, one is his first love who dumped him when he was 19, she married another man and many decades later upon her death her husband discovers a diary, she kept for decades, full of praise for Jep and not a word for him after 35 years of marriage. Jep wonders why did she leave me. Another friend is an unpleasant club owner on the fame Via Veneto, he owns one of those expensive night clubs full of Polish strippers, his own daughters is a stripper, claiming to be an artiste but she too is looking to cure herself of ennui, what is her problem no one seems to know, not even her. Viola a fabulously wealthy women who lives in one of the many great palaces of Rome loose her son who kills himself, he is psychotic but his mother believes that he is doing better, he too is uncomfortable with the world around him and with himself.  There is also the little daughter of a wealthy art dealer who is exploited by her parents for profit. At garden parties for a select crowd she performs, creating large canvasses of modern art which sells for millions of Euros. One women notices that the child is crying while she creates these great canvases, no one else seems to care, the party must go on.

The list of character goes on and so too the parties, the drugs and the luxurious lifestyle and not to forget the Botox clinic also set in a fantastic baroque setting. Yes Botox treatment for high society Rome is a prerequisite, everyone does it and it is obscenely expensive.

Jep on his terrasse 

Sorrentino hits all the beautiful people of Rome, the powerful Cardinal who it is said will be the next Pope, cynical, wealthy, a Prince of the Church who rides in a beautiful Rolls Royce and has nothing to say for himself, except to give out cooking recipes. The parish priest and the nun who are having an affair and who dine in a 5 star restaurant and drink Cristal champagne, how can they afford it? The ruined Count and his wife who still live in the beautiful palace of their ancestors in Rome. The palace is a museum and they have 2 rooms in the attic, renting themselves out at high society parties, their name alone brings prestige but little else. The there is the visiting Saint modelled after Mother Teresa, she comes to Rome to receive an award from the Pope, it is said she is 104 and looks it, she only eats roots.
She has not given an interview in decades and when Jep tries to interview her for his publisher she merely replies that one cannot speak of Poverty, one lives it. In one famous scene she is seen climbing on her knees as is required the Santa Scala (Holy Stairs) said to be from the Palace of Pontius Pilate, Jesus climbed those stairs on his way to his trial, the staircase was brought back to Rome by Saint Helena. At the top of which is a Christ resurrected, who has this look as if to say, well when you get to the top I'll be waiting.

The society shown in this movie is not the one seen by the traveller to Italy, you have to live there to see it, it is not open to foreigners, unless you speak flawless Italian and still, it is like a private club. A closed little world living by the rules known to the tribe, self-absorbed, languid, blaming Rome seen by many as a concept for their predicament. One scene shows a group of tourists, they are Asians, outsiders permitted to visit the City who will never be part of it, totally unaware of the traditions like the noon day gun on the Gianicolo Hill. Sorrentino is telling us that Rome has always been like that, vulgar, rough and imperious. The visitors (tourists) are looked down upon by the formal grandeur of this Eternal City.

Beautifully shot, love the musical score, it was eerily reminiscent of my years in Rome, yes we met such people living this Roman Carnival. There is no violence in this movie, the city even at night is quiet and peaceful as I remember it, people simply go on somewhat like the Tiber which flows slowly through the city. Roman Society is not a pretty sight despite the diamonds and great names. Well worth seeing, I thought it was hauntingly beautiful. In the end you discover what the great beauty was or is, it could be Rome but no, it is something quite simple.

 A movie not to be missed.








  

Endings and souvenirs of the past year

We travelled this year to Europe twice, once in May at Pentecost to the Salzburg Festival and then in November to Italy, Spain and England.
We were lucky weather wise, with lots of sunshine and only minimal bad weather.
In Canada we travelled to the theatre Festival at Stratford, Ontario and met with our new friends,
D and M of Phoenix.

Our old home but still our home

Me and our dear friend D. at dinner at friends on Via Tronto

The Christmas Italian Puppies

They will be 5 years old in February 2014. Strange to think that five years ago we were meeting them in Capena just outside Rome at the farm. 

Salzburg Festival, May 2013

Hellbrun Palace gardens outside Salzburg

Having a glass of bubbles at Café Bazar in Salzburg.

 Stratford street 

Donation by Will to the Stratford Theatre archive collection

Travelling with my own physician nowadays 

Will with Will in the background

Then when we renewed our lease here on McLeod street we decided to ask our landlord to replace the broadloom with hardwood, he agreed readily and it only took 3 days to do two rooms, very happy with the results.

In November our cruise on Azamara Quest from Rome to Seville, 23 days of pleasure in many lovely ports.

London street decorations for Christmas enjoyed the shopping and food. London has quite a few very good restaurants nowadays.

On 28 September by mother died after a 14 year battle with Alzheimer. 

A sad moment but for her it was a deliverance from a terrible disease which is little understood.

It was a very full year with many events.

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

I first heard of this Church under construction when I was in school some 47 years ago. I was fascinated that given the architect was dead and Spain had gone through a terrible Civil War and was a poor country in 1967 ruled by a dictator Francisco Franco, that this building could continue with donations to be built. Though until 1980 the construction was often halted due to lack of funds, this is no longer the case and completion date is announced as 2028. The entire financing of the construction of this church has always been through private donations from the public.

Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) built many things in his life, Barcelona is littered with his buildings, apartment blocks, houses, gardens, housing developments, all fantastic and beautiful. So my fascination with his work is a long standing affair. To my mind his work is pure imagination and intelligence, it is about beauty, nature and God's Creation. Yes Gaudi in his work represents God's creation, themes of nature, flowers, plants, animals and natural shapes are everywhere. There is Park Guell, Palais Guell, Casa Batllo, Casa Milà, there are also other buildings less known and decorative elements built by Gaudi on commission from clients, like a fantastic gate to a great estate in the Sarria neighbourhood.

Until 4 years ago I had only ever seen old photos of La Sagrada Familia and other Gaudi buildings in Barcelona, seeing them in person is a totally different experience.

La Sagrada Familia was first started in a vacant area of Barcelona, a new area of the City in 1882 with two parks on either side of the building. Strangely the main front facade of the Church, the Glory facade (South) is across a street from apartment buildings. The facade we constantly see are the side entrances, one is the Nativity (East) and the other is the Passion (West). No matter how long you look at the building you constantly discover new things to look at, a detail you missed.

 The interior when we visited November 2013 almost complete, though much of the statues and stain glass windows still need to be completed and installed. Majestic nonetheless. Note the columns are like trees with limbs climbing to heaven.

This is a very interesting postcard as it shows in the middle view what the basilica will look like in 2028 when completed. The view on the left is the portal of the Nativity and the view on the right is the portal of the Passion still not complete.

A side view with the new stain glass windows installed in the last 2 years.

A view from the sky, The front of the Basilica when completed will not have the East or West park side space. The City grew and did not allow for a more expansive Southern view.

During the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 the church under construction was nearly destroyed by anarchists who set fire to it. Luckily the damage was contained. 

Today artists, sculptors, architects continue the work to complete the building, they take their inspiration from Gaudi's ideas and concepts, but they also leave their own imprint. So you can say that there is a amalgamation of Gaudi's principal idea and their style in the final realization. Per example the stain glass windows, the concept is Gaudi clearly but the final product is the artist who has been working on the windows for the last 20 years. The same with the numerous sculptures, the current artist is executing the work based on the idea of what Gaudi wanted to do, following his instructions but the final product is that of the artist, a disciple of the school of Gaudi. His wishes are fully respected so in the end this will be still his masterpiece.

Main High Altar, the stain glass is not yet installed. The canopy over the Altar is like a great umbrella

Ceiling is like a burst of sunlight with gold rays radiating.

Crypt below the main Altar not open to visitor and only open to worshippers after 5:30pm in the evening when the main church above is closed for the day. It was built one year before the construction of the top part started, before Gaudi took over the project. It is more traditional Gothic with an Arts and Crafts floor

The darker stone is the original building of 1882 the lighter stone is more recent with the white stone at the top being the most recent addition.  This is the Nativity side of the Church.

One of the four Evangelist medallions made like thick Murano glass, it is lighted from behind. They are fairly high above and surround the main Altar.

A magnificent basilica and well worth a visit, if for nothing else to admire the architecture of the place and its fanciful decorations.

Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain

Barcelona, Capital of Catalunya an ancient kingdom in Spain. So here I get to practice both my Spanish and try to read Catalan which is a lot like French and can confuse sometimes when you read a sign and you make the mistake of thinking it's in French when in fact it's in Catalan, though the meaning is the same. We arrived early this morning 7 November, after all the waves, the sea now is like a mirror, sunny blue sky and warm weather around 23C.

We are docked in front of the Column of Christopher Columbus at the foot of La Ramblas this wide pedestrian avenue which leads up to Plaza Catalunya where you will find Corte Ingles the famous department store. We can easily walk everywhere from the ship.

We got off around 9 am and took the Hop On-Hop Off bus which takes you to all the sights with no effort. Barcelona is truly a beautiful city, full of great architecture and style and an elegant relax atmosphere. It is also a University town with 8 universities dotting the city.

It is easy to walk around, there are lots of good restaurants and we found one today for lunch quite unexpectedly. A little cafeteria-Café in the neighbourhood of Parc Guell. It was obviously a neighbourhood restaurant, all the customers new each other and the owners, the average age was about 65. The food was wonderful, good portions and the price could not be better. I had a lovely soup and 3 of those big sardines (the size of 3 fingers) on the grill, very fresh fish and good tasting too, we do not see them in Canada we are so used to the little ones in tin. Will had a paella of seafood, a generous serving for one and then a chicken breast with home made french fries. The kitchen was at the back and you could see the 2 ladies working. A glass of wine was 1 euro and a beer 1.40 euros. We thought not many fellow passengers would find such a place and we were happy to simply walk around and stumble upon it. We have found quite a few good local restaurants this way. The restaurant was called, Il raco de Dalt on Travessera de Dalt 52. The menu was in Catalan, so we had to ask for a few explanations which were given in Spanish, no problem. Perfect place for a very nice lunch, often the best meals are found in just such places.

The one thing that bothers me a lot are the gypsies you have to have your wits about you. They are everywhere so you have to be aware of who is around you, they are very good pick-pockets. There is also a lot of police watching them. Bus stops and busy areas are of concerns because they tend to congregate in those areas. I was their victim once, so now I am very leery of them.

We have been to Barcelona before, but the details of this previous visit were a little sketchy. We visited the old Cathedral built in 1058 by the Count and Countess of Barcelona, their emblem a black bat is also the emblem of the City. This is a medieval building in the romanesque style, which is built directly into the old Roman Walls which can still be seen all around the church and the old Roman Gate, the town was then called Barica. This part of Barcelona is ancient and the streets narrow but so beautiful, so many shops offer all manner of services to decorate your house or have some repair made, antiques, porcelaine, silverware and old objects. Many services we once had in Canada but no longer have due to the shopping mall craze.

Cathedral of St-Eulalia and of the Holy Cross of Barcelona built in 1058

Tomb of the Ramon Borell Count of Barcelona and his wife Ermesenda de Carcasonna in the Cathedral

We then went to the Gaudi Church of La Sagrada Familia, and I will devote one full posting to that church still under construction after 100 years, it is a unique building and it is now 80% complete with a completion date of 2026, I will be 70 years old then and would love to see it complete, it is a marvel as it is now. There are so many architectural details, you constantly discover things your eyes simply missed. Gaudi has tried to incorporate the New Testament and all of stories and names into the building, it is a riot of details, columns are trees with branches, fruits and vegetables are represented as well as animals, the church building is a large canvas for the story of God's Creation.

So I will devote one entry just to Gaudi and this very special building. If you come to Barcelona and manage to see just one thing, that would be it.

La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi to be completed by 2026.

Some of the stained glass windows have now been installed.

On our second day here, we went to visit a site we had missed on our previous visit, the Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes. This monastery of the St-Clare Nuns, the female branch of the Franciscan Order. Queen Elisenda de Montcada founded this cloistered Monastery in 1327 with the help of her elderly husband King James II of Catalunia and Aragon. It is known that she was about 30 years old when she founded this monastery of the site of her Palace Pedralbes (white rocks), she went on to live there as a nun after the death of her husband. In her will she gave the land and all the buildings to the Abbess of the order. It has remained to this day a monastery for the nuns of St-Clare. Many of the Abbess were Noble Ladies like Francesca Ça Portella who was engaged to marry Lorenzo il Magnifico Medici.

Cloister of Santa Maria de Pedralbes

It is located way up in the posh neighbourhoods of Pedralbes and Sarria. It is well worth a visit, all the buildings are very well preserved and the cloister has 3 levels which is unusual for the period. Beautiful frescoes, the Chapel of St-Michael is under restoration and is reminiscent of the style of Giotto. There is a beautiful exhibit on the restoration of the frescoes and a video presentation explains how a single panel would be done over a period of 22 days by the artist and the technique he would follow. The garden at the centre of the cloister has a large herb garden and an orchard of orange trees with a beautiful cistern done in Majolica tiles and a circular pond surrounded by cypresses. A very peaceful place. The church itself is rather austere and done in a severe style. There are several royal tombs and a seating arrange according to monastic order, minor and upper. The nuns also have an isolated area for contemplation and prayer. The church use to be more ornate prior to 1906 when it had gothic decoration, then all was removed to return to building to its original decoration, even the side chapels were dismantled. Looking at it now, despite the magnificient original fourteen century stain glass windows, the look is severe though beautiful in its simplicity. The monastery was briefly abandoned by the sisters between 1931-1933 during the period of the Spanish Civil War and the government of Catalunya confiscated the buildings and its treasures. Opening it up to the public for the very first time since its foundation in 1327. The sister returned and re-occupied the premises, today it is a museum and a monastery.

There is so much to see in Barcelona and it is worth seeing it all, we will have to return to this beautiful city.