23: The Best of Barcelona in Visual Studio .NET

Printer Code 128 Code Set B in Visual Studio .NET 23: The Best of Barcelona

run through the museum in half an hour; Picasso fans will want to spend one to two hours See map p 512 Montcada 15 19 % 93-319-6310 wwwmuseupicassobcnes Metro: Jaume I, Liceu Bus: 14, 17, 19, 22, 24, 40, 45, 51, or 59 Admission: 5 ($575) adults, 2 ($230) seniors/students/ages 12 16, free ages 12 and under; free for everyone first Sun of every month Open: Tues Sat and holidays 10 am 8 pm, Sun 10 am 3 pm

Gr cia In the northern reaches of the Gr cia district, north of the Eixample, rises one of architect Antoni Gaud s most colorful creations This idiosyncratic park was intended as an unusual little residential community, but only two houses were built The city bought the property in 1926 and turned it into a public park filled with Gaud s colonnades of crooked columns (they look like tree trunks), narrow gardens, small fountains, and whimsical animals A large, spectacular curving bench brightened by a patterned mosaic of tile and mirror dominates one sitting area; from this spot, you get great views of the city Two mosaicked pavilions designed by Gaud flank the entrance, but the Casa-Museu Gaud (% 93-284-6446), where the master lived from 1906 to 1926, was built by Ram n Berenguer Gaud s models, furnishings, and drawings fill the interior See map p 512 Carrer d Olot % 93-219-3811 Metro: Vallcarca Bus: 24 Admission: The park is free; the museum costs 4 ($460) Open: Park daily 10 am to sunset, museum daily Oct Mar 10 am 6 pm, Apr Sept 10 am 8 pm

Eixample The Sagrada Familia is reminiscent of a giant, drippy sand castle kids get a kick out of the bizarre style Certainly the weirdest-looking church in Europe, this ongoing project represents the architect Antoni Gaud s creativity at its whimsical, feverish best Only 8 of what will be 13 spires and the two lesser facades are finished The Civil War interrupted construction, but it has been picked up again as a slow trickle of donated funds allows work to continue on the nave, remaining towers, and main facade You may only need an hour to tour this work-in-progress, but you can easily spend three just climbing up and down, and across the lithe bridges joining its multitude of spires The architectural details are almost Gothic in their intricacy, but with a modern, fluid twist rosy brown and gray stone is flecked with the colors of Gaud s signature tile-chip mosaics You can climb conch-shell spiral staircases (or take elevators) up several of the spires to look through the rose windows with no panes Admire the rounded-off grid of the Eixample around you, and examine up close the funky gargoyles over here is the Virgin Mary, there a snail creeps up the building s side, and around the corner a stone cypress tree seems to flutter with white stone doves

Around the turn of this century, Art Nouveau arrived in Barcelona in the form of modernismo, a particularly fluid and idiosyncratic Catal n version of a larger architectural revolution The high priest of modernismo, Antoni Gaud , apprenticed as a blacksmith before taking up architecture Creative wrought-iron patterns became just one of the many signature details Gaud incorporated into his flowing, organic structures; he was especially fond of creating colorful mosaics out of chips of ceramic and mirror If you see only a handful of modernismo buildings, make them Gaud s most famous trio: the Sagrada Familia (see listing earlier in this chapter); the colorful Casa Battl (Passeig de Gr cia 43; % 93-216-0306; Admission: 10 /$12, including audioguide; Open: Daily 9 am 8 pm) with a roof shaped like a dragon s back and theater-mask balconies; and Casa Mil (Passeig de Gr cia 92; % 93-484-5979 or 93-484-5995), often called La Pedrera ( the quarry ) for its undulating rocky shape Here, especially, Gaud seemed to avoid straight lines at all costs the place looks like it s melting Casa Mil contains an exhibition on Gaud and modernismo; and for the 6 ($690) admission you can also tour the architectural fun park and swirly, ice-cream chimneys Hours are daily from 10 am to 8 pm Two other modernismo architects of note were Dom nech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch To compare them to each other, and to master Gaud , take a walk down the Illa de la Disc rdia ( the block of discord ) on Passeig de Gr cia between Carrer del Consell de Cent and Carrer d Arago Here, their interpretations of modernismo compete in the form of apartment buildings At no 35 is Montaner s Casa Lleo Morera, at no 41 is Cadafalch s Casa Amatller, and at no 43 is Gaud s Casa Battl (For these and Casa Mil , take the Metro to Passeig de Gracia or Diagonal, which is closer to Casa Mil ) Montaner also designed the gorgeous venue Palau de la M sica Catalana, Carrer de Sant Francesc de Paula 2 (% 93-295-7200; wwwpalaumusicaorg), now a UNESCO World Heritage Site Go inside to see the sky-lit stained glass of the inverse dome in the auditorium; 50-minute guided tours depart Wednesday and weekends every half hour from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm for 5 ($575) One of Cadafalch s other major works is Els Quatre Gats, a restaurant (see Barcelona s top restaurants, earlier in this chapter)

In the crypt is a museum that details the ongoing construction and shows, through models and drawings, what Gaud s original plans were and how the finished building will appear Gaud got the Sagrada Familia commission in 1883, and it consumed him He poured every peseta he had into the project and went begging door to door when funds ran out He even lived on the site for 16 years Gaud died in 1926, after being run over by a trolley, but left behind no master plan for the church Although his final design was unclear, workers inch toward finishing his masterpiece Many (often vocal) critics believe the church should remain unfinished You can be sure Gaud is keeping a sharp (albeit posthumous) eye on the proceedings he is buried in the church crypt