Wednesday 16 November 2022
Today we began with the Palau de la Música Catalana, another design by Lluís Domènech i Montaner (see Monday and visit to the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau). This is an outstanding art nouveau building, and still a working concert hall. The front terrace, decorated with mosaic'ed pillars, is wondrous.
But the most breathtaking part was still to come - the concert auditorium and its glass ceiling.
Every surface was covered in glass or tiled mosaics.
Even the ticket office outside was decorated in style.
After lunch we were back on the Gaudi trail, this time Parc Güell. It is sited north of the city and was originally going to be quite a substantial housing development, but planning regulations scaled it back and there are clumps of buildings surrounded by wooded footpaths.
It was also very busy. The busiest part, near the coach park, was full of tour groups and it was impossible to get much space to oneself: goodness knows what it's like in the height of summer. The tiled walls and seats were beautiful as expected (even if full of people, including me).
And underneath is a classic Gaudi pillar ensemble with beautiful mosaics.
I managed to get a reasonably people-free shot of the iconic lizard.
We sat for a drink and watched the seagulls fight for scraps as soon as a customer left their table - although, gulls being gulls, they didn't necessarily wait until the person had gone and some had to shoo them off. We left the crowds and wandered up around past the viaducts and other Gaudi constructions (this was a path of high pot plants), admiring the view before we headed back to the city.
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