Park Guell.
Well, they have few hills in Barcelona. It is not a flat city at all. One of the hills has been chosen for another grand project of Gaudi – a “garden city”. The idea was to build a housing estate for the rich locals. Never worked, as usual. But the park has managed to become yet another wonder of the famous madman. It is on a hill. Very much so. So the walking up the very steep road, almost 45 degrees, was not for the unfit. Though worth the sweat of course.
Ahhh... the entrance is so sweet! Two spectacular pavilions at the both sides of the gates – bring a thought of gingerbread house. Cute and somewhat “baked&iced”.
And then right in front of you – the stairs leading to the Grand Terrace. There are few reptiles greeting you as you walking up the stairs…the serpent head, the lizard and something I cannot identify with any known to me species – all parts of a fountain. The dragon is definitely a famous image, the visit card of Park Guell. (and oh my god, I’ve just learned that it has been vandalised just few days after we’ve been there! Some people are so pathetically sad…or stupid )
The most impressive place in the park is “market hall” and of course the Grand Terrace. Personally I liked the hall better. They say it has 86 columns, but I never bothered to count. They are huge and the side ones are inclined. The columns are hollow and function as water drainage for the terrace above that they support, apparently. When we walked into the hall, there was some lonely violinist playing something melancholic…the acoustics of the colonnade clayed the melody into various shapes, carried her around the space, squeezing between the huge columns, smearing her onto the ceiling like a soft butter, reflecting off the big mosaic rosettes swelling down from the ceiling. Enchanting...
The terrace has another famous feature – the longest bench in the world (they say): a serpentishly shaped and decorated with the fragments of broken tiles again – Gaudi’s favourite material. When we’ve been there, there was a sun shining and the playful colours of the bench tickled wonders in your eyes. The sitting of the bench has those comfortable “waves” made by the buttocks of naked workman sitting in the clay. At least that’s how the legend has it. But the bench is comfortable to sit, that’s true, even considering that my buttocks might be of totally different size from the workman’s…
There are few walkways in the park with the arches supported by some strangely shaped pylons. They are leaned and twisted and look like they grow from the ground:
There is also a pretty pinky cottage in the middle of a park. Gaudi purchased it for himself, but doesn’t look like he spent lots of time there. It has a museum with some samples of furniture that Gaudi designed as well. The cottage although pretty, feels out of the space there – too normal compare to the rest of the weird mixture of stones and trees…
Park Guell, although very famous, wasn’t in fact very “gaudi”, like his other creations. We had a nice time walking around it, but it was not a “wow” place to me. Tune in for the next portion of Gaudi-Fantastic!
Well, they have few hills in Barcelona. It is not a flat city at all. One of the hills has been chosen for another grand project of Gaudi – a “garden city”. The idea was to build a housing estate for the rich locals. Never worked, as usual. But the park has managed to become yet another wonder of the famous madman. It is on a hill. Very much so. So the walking up the very steep road, almost 45 degrees, was not for the unfit. Though worth the sweat of course.
Ahhh... the entrance is so sweet! Two spectacular pavilions at the both sides of the gates – bring a thought of gingerbread house. Cute and somewhat “baked&iced”.
And then right in front of you – the stairs leading to the Grand Terrace. There are few reptiles greeting you as you walking up the stairs…the serpent head, the lizard and something I cannot identify with any known to me species – all parts of a fountain. The dragon is definitely a famous image, the visit card of Park Guell. (and oh my god, I’ve just learned that it has been vandalised just few days after we’ve been there! Some people are so pathetically sad…or stupid )
The most impressive place in the park is “market hall” and of course the Grand Terrace. Personally I liked the hall better. They say it has 86 columns, but I never bothered to count. They are huge and the side ones are inclined. The columns are hollow and function as water drainage for the terrace above that they support, apparently. When we walked into the hall, there was some lonely violinist playing something melancholic…the acoustics of the colonnade clayed the melody into various shapes, carried her around the space, squeezing between the huge columns, smearing her onto the ceiling like a soft butter, reflecting off the big mosaic rosettes swelling down from the ceiling. Enchanting...
The terrace has another famous feature – the longest bench in the world (they say): a serpentishly shaped and decorated with the fragments of broken tiles again – Gaudi’s favourite material. When we’ve been there, there was a sun shining and the playful colours of the bench tickled wonders in your eyes. The sitting of the bench has those comfortable “waves” made by the buttocks of naked workman sitting in the clay. At least that’s how the legend has it. But the bench is comfortable to sit, that’s true, even considering that my buttocks might be of totally different size from the workman’s…
There are few walkways in the park with the arches supported by some strangely shaped pylons. They are leaned and twisted and look like they grow from the ground:
There is also a pretty pinky cottage in the middle of a park. Gaudi purchased it for himself, but doesn’t look like he spent lots of time there. It has a museum with some samples of furniture that Gaudi designed as well. The cottage although pretty, feels out of the space there – too normal compare to the rest of the weird mixture of stones and trees…
Park Guell, although very famous, wasn’t in fact very “gaudi”, like his other creations. We had a nice time walking around it, but it was not a “wow” place to me. Tune in for the next portion of Gaudi-Fantastic!
