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 21st  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 GrĂ cia,  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 19th  and early 20th  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 19th  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.
   
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