EXCURSIONS FROM THE COSTA DORADA - BARCELONA

Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain’s most prosperous city is the capital city of Catalonia. The inhabitants speak Catalan.
Barcelona is an open to the sea city. The harbour has become one of the favourite stop-off points for luxury cruise liners.
It's a chic city, full of vibrancy, energy and art, an open air museum.
Barcelona is a city rich in architectural, artistic and cultural heritage. This city has been around for over two thousand years and as a result it has a million different sites, monuments and shows to interest the plethora of visitors that come its way each year.

The Rambla is, of course, the best known landmark of Barcelona, and deservedly so. Meandering down from the Plaza de Catalunya to the Columbus statue, filled with newspaper kiosks, flower and animal stalls, and all sorts of artists, it is undoubtedly the place where everyone comes together, both tourists and locals, from the most inconspicuous to the most exaggerated representative of all sorts of urban tribes.
A visit to the Market of la Boqueria is advisable to enjoy an incredible contrast between colours and activity, ideal to discover why Mediterranean cuisine is internationally known due to its ingredients. The best products from Catalonia in one place.

Just off the Rambla, you can find the Plaza Real, one of the places with most tradition and interest around the city. It has a fine arcade, palm trees and lamps designed by Gaudí. It is an interesting square ideal to relax and enjoy a coffee in one of the many cafes.

Gaudí is the city’s most internationally renowned and emblematic architect. His buildings are a must-see attraction which leaves everyone who sees them speechless with wonder.
Born in 1852 in Reus (Baix Camp, Tarragona) Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was the son of a family of copper makers. From childhood, Gaudí was an attentive observer of nature. He watched his father and grandfather working, as they beat the copper with skill. He felt attracted to colours and geometry.
When Gaudí was 17, his family sent him to Barcelona to study architecture. He had a good grasp of calculus and was an imaginative student of great dexterity. His early works attracted the interest of the Catalan bourgeoisie, who immediately entrusted him with the execution of creative and unique buildings.
The Sagrada Família is the most famous work of Gaudí, to which he dedicated all his life to the extreme that he lived inside the precinct to closely follow the works. To point out, it is the unique great temple at present in construction everywhere in the world. This cathedral became the hallmark of Barcelona.

The Casa Milà (1906-1912), better known as La Pedrera (the Catalan for quarry), comprises a series of limestone curtain walls on the outside and has inner courtyards decorated with murals. Its facade ripples around a street corner and has large windows and balconies with recycled wrought iron balustrades. La Pedrera, was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984.
The Casa Batlló is one of the Eixample district’s most charismatic buildings. The refurbishment of the previous building called for a new concept of ornamentation, which gave precedence to colour and light. The façade has unusual decorative motifs of particular interest. The interior reveals Gaudí’s interest in the functional nature of handcrafted work.

The Picasso Museum is indispensable for understanding the formative years of Pablo Ruiz Picasso. The genius of the young artist is revealed through the more than 3,500 works that make up the permanent collection. However, the Picasso Museum also reveals his relationship with Barcelona: an intimate, solid relationship that was shaped in his adolescence and youth, and continued until his death.
Barcelona also is Montjuïc with its splendid views, the Olympic Stadium, the Miró museum and the ‘Poble Espanyol’, or Spanish Village, built for the 1929 International Exhibition in order to provide an insight into the wealth and diversity of Spanish cultures. It houses 117 life-size replicas of buildings, streets and squares from different places around Spain. The Poble Espanyol is an open-air museum of architecture, a privileged viewing point overlooking the city of Barcelona, set out like a traditional village, peaceful, free of traffic and set among woodland.
Montjuïc Castle is an imposing castle that dominates the city since 1640. It was primarily used to repress the people during two centuries. Repression of the anarchists in the XIX century and prison for the political prisoners under Franco.
Nowadays, it’s a military museum.