Holiday Barcelona Blog

Barcelona is a city with impressive contructions. You'll find buildings with styles going from Gothic to Modernism. Many archaeological sites in Barcelona are worth a visit. Everyone that pays a visit to Barcelona is amazed by the impessive quality of the work of Antoni Gaudí. Stroll around the city, through the Gothic Quarter and Eixample, and you'll find an endless amount of fascinating buildings.

Barcelona is a city with impressive contructions. You'll find buildings with styles going from Gothic to Modernism. Many archaeological sites in Barcelona are worth a visit. Everyone that pays a visit to Barcelona is amazed by the impessive quality of the work of Antoni Gaudí. Stroll around the city, through the Gothic Quarter and Eixample, and you'll find an endless amount of fascinating buildings. From Roman times to the Gothic period to the Catalan Art Nouveau, "Modernism", Barcelona´s architecture naturally transmits the city's rich history. The most important styles are the medieval style, also known as Catalan Gothic, and Modernism. Besides architectual styles dating from the Middle Ages and later you can find sections of forth century Roman walls at the History Museum.

Modernism in Barcelona

Barcelona's society wanted to see great changes and make great advances in every field. The Modernism in Barcelona started with the construction of 3 buildings: Montaner y Simon, Josep Vilaseca's factory for F. Vidal and Casa Vicens. In Barcelona Modernism begun earlier and ended later than in most countries in Europe. Most of the Modernist architects expressed themselves in different ways. Some of them wanted to revive Romanesque architecture, others were ispired by the French neo-Gothicism and others were searching for a modern style in Germany or Austria. Typical for the Modernism in Barcelona was the use of elements from nature, like plants and animals. Some Modernistic buildings you may no miss when you visit Barcelona: The Casa Batlló, remodelled from 1904 till 1906 by Antoni Gaudi. You can find this building in the Passeo de Grácia. Pedrera (Casa Mila), another work of Antoni Gaudí build from 1906 to 1911. Parc Güell, an urban park on the mountain of Pelada build from 1900 till 1905. The famous Sagrada Familia. The build of the church started in 1884 and is still not finished. It's definately Gaudí's most famous work.

Renaissance

The walls of the Barcelona could not hold the city anymore because of the speed the city was growing. Therefore in 1860, Idelfons Cerda, organizes a city urban development plan: two parallel streets and perpendicular to the sea and cut in blocks. This new area is called L'Eixample.

The Medieval period

The marriage between the count of Barcelona and the King of Aragón's daughter united the two territories on both an economic an political level. Barcelona still remaind the capital of the goverment en a time of expansion begun. The city of Barcelona had a dominating role in the confederation of Catalonia-Aragon and became a maritime power in the Mediterranean. The best way to see the remains of the Middle Ages is pay a visit to the Gothic area. I'll give you some tips for places to visit in this area. The Cathedral at Plaza de la Seu (close to subway Jaume I) was build from 1317 till 1441. The neo-gothic facade was added in the 19th century. Inside the Cathedral there's an elevator to get to the roof of the building The church of Santa Maria del Mar (1329-1367), also known as the Cathedral of the sailors and fishermen. Drassanes (1378) is the largest and most complete medieval secular structure in the world.