Barcelona Fieldtrip: Guide to Historic Architecture

For UF architecture students Barcelona is a showcase for innovative urban design and contemporary architecture, attracting many internationally recognized architects for both public and private projects starting around 1980 and particularly in the period since the Olympic Games of 1992. New landmark buildings, along with very successful urban parks and waterfront developments, make Barcelona a living laboratory for studying urban development in the 21^st century. However, Barcelona is also a city with rich architectural traditions dating back to Roman origins with excellent examples from many periods, but particularly the unique and internationally recognized "modernisme" architecture that defined Barcelona to the world.

Historic Barcelona was created by its massive walls that date to the Roman era. The wall protected the city yet also limited its growth and expansion. As Catalonia was slowly absorbed into the emerging Spanish nation in the post-medieval era, the independence-minded Catalans were not allowed to expand Barcelona beyond the walls, causing very dense development within the constricted city. Even today Barcelona is the densest city in Europe. In 1854 the wall was dismantled and the city was allowed to expand into a new district, the Eixample, meaning 'extension'. Eixample was an innovative planned grid with chamfered corners. It is organised around the wide Passeig de Gràcia, the original unpaved Roman road. Cutting through it are major diagonal avenues that extend across the surrounding plain and absorbed outlying towns such as Gracia, Sants and Sarria creating urban villages within the grid. This coincided with the "Renaixenca" or renaissance, a movement to reassert Catalan culture and language. The "Modernisme" style of architecture that dominated the Eixample district in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries was a melding of Catalan gothic, Moorish traditions and naturalistic forms found in concurrent European architectural movements such as Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts that expressed the Renaixenca spirit of Barcelona. Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona's best known architect, did not consider himself a modernista, but his work is universally associated with the style.

The Old Town (areas contained within the old Barcelona walls) has 3 districts: El Ravel, Barri Gotic, and La Riberra. In this densely packed zone of narrow winding streets you will find fragments of Roman walls, underground archaeological museums, gothic palaces, the medieval Cathedral, a few Renaissance buildings, some Modernisme (extraordinary Palau de la Musica Catalana) and a few striking modern buildings such as Richard Meier's Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). The ancient Roman gate "Portal de Gisbe" is in the Placa Nova and La Rambla, the main pedestrian street of Barcelona today and the major street of medieval Barcelona, connects the Old Town to the waterfront. Look for dragons. They are everywhere.

Modernisme architecture first appeared at the Universal Exposition of 1888 and lasted as a style until about 1930. While found throughout Barcelona, it was a dominant style when the Eixample District development was occurring. Along Passeig de Gracia, a wide pedestrian friendly boulevard starting at the Placa de Catalunya, you will find the Illa de la Discordia (Block of Discord) with 3 adjacent very different but outstanding modernista houses: Casa Morera, Casa Amatller, and Gaudi's Casa Batllo, a World Heritage Site open for tours. Further north on Passeig de Gracia is Gaudi's La Pedrera (Casa Mila) apartment building of 1910 with Gaudi exhibits, building tours and the "witch scarers" on the roof. This area of the Eixample District is full of great Modernisme details everywhere you look. The high point of Modernisme architecture and a symbol of Barcelona to the world is Gaudi's Church of the Sagrada Familia. Started in 1882, the project has continued since Gaudi's death in 1926 trying to be faithful to Gaudi's vision. There is an elevator up one of the towers with spectacular views and a museum under the church with Gaudi's huge building models and his unique structural analysis models using wires and weights. Another unique Gaudi project is the Park Guell at Gracia "above the diagonal" as they say in Barcelona. Designed as a garden suburb housing estate for Gaudi's major client, only a few houses were built but Gaudi's fantasy architecture created one of Barcelona's most beloved parks. Take Metro Line 3 to Lesseps or Vallcarca stations and walk to the open street escalators that take you up the hill to the park side entrance. The mosaic dragon sculpture at the main entry has become a much used symbol of Barcelona.

There are several municipal markets (mercat) worth visiting. The largest, Mercat de la Boqueria is a 19^th century confection of wrought iron and glass located along La Rambla in the Old Town area. The Mercat de Santa Caterina also in the Old Town area near the cathedral has been rebuilt with a colorful sculptural roof by Enric Morales and Benedetta Tagliabue. The markets have very interesting little bars and restaurants mixed among the food venders.