Raising the Barcelona
UNIQUE SPIRIT | Sprawling Mediterranean port city takes the discovery of delights to a new level
In his recent film, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Woody Allen celebrated the charms of several beautiful women, one exceedingly handsome man, and a wholly alluring metropolis awash in food, wine, sex and eye-popping art and architecture.
The women got plenty of closeups. So did Javier Bardem. The city of Barcelona -- sensual and rough, extroverted yet mysterious, at once fantastical and muscular -- got somewhat shortchanged.
HOTELS: The Hotel Fira Palace, close to Barcelona's convention center and culture-rich Montjuic neighborhood, is being updated, but it already has much to offer. Go to www.fira-palace.com.
RESTAURANTS: Three great choices. La Gavina (www.lagavina-rte.com), has an ideal outdoor setting in the old port area. Cafe Leonardo (www.casaleopoldo.com), in the lively El Ravel neighborhood near La Rambla, is an old-fashioned classic with bull-fighting memorabilia on the walls, plates of thick slices of tomato toast that are addictive, salads that seem yanked straight from the garden, and calamari and hake that taste as if they were just lifted from the sea. Serious foodies will love Hisop (www.hisop.com), a boutique restaurant showcasing unique, ultra-modern Catalan cuisine -- everything from barnacles, to lavender-infused molten chocolate cake, to a divine sherry infused with orange.
Of course Woody wasn't trying to make a travel documentary about Barcelona -- the second largest city in Spain and the capital of its Catalonia region. And no doubt it was far simpler to spin a playful love story than to try and capture the unique alchemy of a city Robert Hughes, the art critic and Barcelona-lover, has described as "the great enchantress."
How do you even begin to suggest the multitude of delights to be discovered in this sprawling Mediterranean port city? And how do you begin to reconcile its genuine working class industrial heft with its fairy tale-like architectural dreamscapes? Those dreamscapes are in large part the work of Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926), the fabled architect of "modernisme." Gaudi embodied Spain's unique version of the Art Nouveau style -- a style comprised of crockery-encrusted walls, meticulously patterned pavements, the most sinewy wrought iron-enclosed balconies and rooftops whose chimneys resemble exotic chess pieces. And his work, and that of his fellow Catalan architects of the early 20th century, is in large part what gives the city its fantastical quality.
There also is the sheer, undeniable energy of the place. Think super-caffeinated New York, but with a special whimsy and sensuality -- from its golden opera house (the Gran Teatre del Liceu, rebuilt in all its original splendor in 1999, following a devastating fire), to its flamboyantly theatrical covered food markets (whether the spectacular La Boqueria on the fabled main street of La Rambla, or the more intimate Mercat Santa Caterina, recently rebuilt and covered with a multicolored, wavelike roof).
The early history of Barcelona dates all the way back to a crucial early period as a Roman colony, with a medieval reign in which it became a flourishing power center for trade and culture. Long periods of decline and chaos followed. But with the 19th century came industrialization, a powerful labor movement, and an explosion of the middle class and bourgeosie that created the kind of wealth needed to commission the buildings devised by Gaudi and the others who left such an indelible imprint on the city.
Barcelona was aligned against Franco during the Spanish Civil War and suffered a painful suppression of its culture for nearly 40 years until his death in 1975. The city's exuberant rebirth began in the 1980s and was set to fast forward once it was selected to host the 1992 Summer Olympics. That is when its waterfront was reborn, and now, one of the most pleasurable ways to spend a warm evening in Barcelona is to have dinner at one of the many bustling outdoor fish restaurants overlooking the port.
Another way to feast on the unique spirit of the city is to visit its two remarkable cathedrals.
First, there is the Gothic-style Barcelona Cathedral. Constructed between the 13th and 15th centuries, it is surrounded by dark, narrow, richly atmospheric medieval streets where fine classical guitarists and other musicians routinely play for passersby. During the Middle Ages, this also was the site of a thriving Jewish Quarter, though only a few vestiges of that pre-Inquisition world now remain.
The city's other "gothic" landmark is Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, a quick taxi ride from the older cathedral. Begun in the 1880s, it remains a mind-boggling work-in-progress that Gaudi spent 40 years of his life planning and overseeing, though he never came close to seeing it realized before he was killed in a tram accident in 1926.
A marvel of both early 20th century engineering (though computer-generated solutions are now being applied), and complex symbolism (Gaudi's fervent Catholicism was superseded only by the fabulous extravagance and originality of his imagination), the Sagrada Familia's facade resembles a sand castle softened by rain, with 18 eccentrically decorated towers piercing the sky.
Inside (and, remarkably, tourists are permitted to enter), you will find a major construction site where laborers and artisans are hard at work. The nave, with its forest of great tree-like pillars, has a constant haze of plaster dust, and the buzzing of saws and sparks of blowtorches create a din.
Traveling as a guest of the Spanish Tourist Office, I had the unique privilege of meeting Jordi Bonet i Armengol, who has been the director of architecture for the Sagrada Familia since 1985, and whose father worked alongside Gaudi. At 83, with sparkling eyes and a sharp wit, he darts around the building's scaffolding like a young mountain goat, hopeful that work will finally be completed in 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. But for now, constrained by fundraising, he can plan only two years at a time.
True Gaudi-worshippers have no end of treasures to explore in Barcelona. In fact, an ideal way to start the day is by taking a cab from the city center to his Park Guell, created between 1900 and 1914. Forget Disneyworld. This is Gaudiland -- an almost hallucinatory theme park of sorts that initially was envisioned as a "garden city" of 60 homes for well-to-do Barcelona families tired of the crowds and pollution of the city. Though only two houses were built, the park's "landscaping," with its organically carved arcades, its mosaic beasts, its dual grand stairway, and its open hilltop terrace with a great circular "bench" encrusted in fractured tiles, is unlike any place else on Earth.
In the fashionable Eixample district -- along the grand boulevard called Passeig de Gracia -- you will find several other Gaudi masterpieces, including his extraordinary urban mansion, Casa Batlo (which makes you feel like you're entering the belly of a magnificently ornamented whale), and La Pedrera (a small apartment building with an undulating facade and Arabian Nights-style chimneys, whose romanesque-style gallery floor is home to an exceptionally fine exhibition on the architect's work).
Barcelona is a city of many distinctive neighborhoods, and two of them offer particular treasures. La Ribera is next door to the Gothic Quarter, and there, among the narrow streets lined with trendy boutiques that sell everything from the most lavish, fabulously sculpted chocolates to cutting-edge fashions and leather goods, you will find two additional treasures: The Palau de la Musica Catalana, a lavish and fantastical concert hall designed in 1908 by Gaudi's fellow Catalan modernist, Lluis Domenech i Montaner, and the Picasso Museum, a complex of small, conjoined 15th century palaces that house a remarkable collection of the artist's work from his student years, and a lovely interior courtyard cafe ideal for lunch.
The Palau (another World Heritage Site, recently reborn thanks to a complete restoration and the addition of a sophisticated open-air patio/cafe), is a magnificent brick structure decorated in a riot of brilliantly colored mosaics and glass. Located on a narrow side street -- with a facade of floral-patterned columns, and a wedding cake-like corner sculpture --the building suggests an ornate jewel box dropped from the sky. The theater itself -- with splendid acoustics and a stage wall depicting the 18 goddesses of music in a unique mix of ceramics and sculpture -- is an ideal home for classical music concerts.
And then there is the Montjuic area, the hilly backdrop for much of the 1992 Olympics. This is the site of two of my favorite museums in the city -- the Palau Nacional and the CaixaForum. The Palau, from which there are breathtaking views of the city, is filled with superbly displayed Romanesque art, modern photography and the paintings of Catalan masters, including Ramon Casas, who I have dubbed the Degas of Catalonia. The CaixaForum, a former textile factory splendidly retrofitted as an arts center, is where Barcelona's hipsters hang out. Join them in the cafe and pick up a fashion tip or two.