Mercat of Sant Antoni: Restored Market to Open in 2018

After 8 years of work, the remodeled Mercat de Sant Antoni is expected to be open to the public during the first months of 2018. With an important investment made by its own market stand owners and the local government, around 60 million EUR all in all, another jewel in the history of Barcelona, will be recovered in all its splendor. Do not expect it to be just like La Boqueria or at least that is the intention of the project that seems very concerned with the avalanche of tourists in Las Ramblas.

The addition of more space, including two new squares plus the inclusion of a small museum (an archeological excavation site has unveiled part of the old city walls and Via Augusta) promise to make this 135 old market something more important than just a collection of stands. There will be 4 underground floors, two for parking lots, 1 for storage and 1 for commercial areas.

The origin of the Mercat de Sant Antoni is a remnant of the 13th century Mercat dels Encants, a marginal market outside the walls that was moved to Carrer del Consolat in 1850. In 1882, Rovira i Trias finished building the iron market, and there were almost no houses in its surroundings, the working class neighborhood of El Raval.

Update 02/02/2018: According to several sources the restored Mercat de Sant Antoni will be opened by the end of April or beginnings of May. Local retailers have accepted the proposal of using awnings for the Sunday market and the book market. Such awnings will be located in the areas which were previously the market yards, now regained for public use. Lighter retractable metal canopies in a highly resistant metal structure will be used.

Crypt Pillars and Ceiling at Sagrada Familia Cathedral

Close your eyes and think about architecture, try to establish a pattern of what is something astonishingly beautiful for you and for people in general and I am sure that when you open them again you will hardly come even closer to what Antoni Gaudi should have had in his mind when he created these beautiful pillars and that odd ceiling for his Sagrada Familia Cathedral. Who would have thought of such daring strange shapes then, by the end of the XIX century and who can think of them right now unless you take a computer and use an advanced software to calculate mathematical possibilities for architectural impossibles.

Catalan Modernist Ceiling at Hospital de Sant Pau to Celebrate Barcelona Photoblog's 2.000.000 visits!

This is one of the ceilings inside one of the many pavilions in the modernist complex at Hospital de Sant Pau.

All buildings have been restored  and opened to the public inside a complex called Recinte Modernista. Now a small fee is charged to enter and admire these beauties reborn.

This and other pictures I have, were taken with a cellphone and do not make justice to the real thing. The impression I get when I take a look at the result of such magnificent restoration is that everything has turned back to be like brand new, as if the hands of the skillful craftsmen had been working on those mosaics and those stain glasses yesterday.

A whole range of architectural wonder has been unveiled for all the world to see.

(By the way, I am happy to announce that today Barcelona Photoblog has reached 2.000.000 visits since it first saw light back in 2006. It's been years of hard work and of meeting very nice people here at the blog. I hope you have enjoyed it somehow. That really means something to me. Thanks to all those that made this incredible figure come true, thanks for your time and your comments. Happy to share my modest work with you all)

Update: In 2017 Barcelona Photoblog reached almost the 3 M figure but I decided to stop using the website that kept track of my visits.

Palau Baro de Quadras - Ramon Llull Institute's Brand New Headquarters

Built between 1904 and 1906, Palau Baro de Quadras, is a beautiful sample of Catalan modernisme. This palace was designed by architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch for Baro de Quadras (baron of Quadras). The building's main entrance is at Avinguda Diagonal 373, where you can appreciate a very elaborate façade of European Gothic influence blended with Neo-Plateresque style.

From across the street you seem to be standing before a Renaissance Italian palazzo rich in lattice work. Worth mentioning are the gargoyles and floral adornments on this side of the palace. On carrer Roselló there is a backdoor entrance. That side, features a Modernista style with some hints of the Wiener Sezession school (Vienna Art Nouveau or Jugendstil).

This emblematic place was known till last October as Casa Asia, which is a public cultural institution devoted to the promotion of projects to strengthen relationships with that continent and that is going to inaugurate its new premises inside Hospital de Sant Pau's modernist complex. For those who don't know, the old Art Nouveau buildings there have been restored and will be used for other services.

Palau Baro de Quadras has been donated by the City Town Hall to Ramon Llull Institute. As part of their mutual collaboration, the City Council will integrate in the institute's consortium with the intention of participating in the international promotion of Barcelona and Catalonia.

Institut Ramon Llull is a public body created to foster Catalan language studies at international universities and to promote Catalan cultural production in all artistic areas.

But let's return to our palace. Notice in the image above, the stairway to the upper floor. Upon entering through either the main gate or the backdoor, you arrive to this place which has a small fountain to the right over a beautiful mosaic floor. Besides the profuse adornments surrounding the stairs, you really ought to see the stained glass ceiling that is slightly shown in the upper part of the photo. Some other day I will show you the gallery in the second floor and other details of this wonderful building so well preserved.

I hope you enjoyed yet another Barcelona photo here at Barcelona Photoblog. Perhaps you want to check this previous post about Palau Baro de Quadras.

But to know a place you need to see it for yourself and not just an image. Take a look at this very short video with slides that show the whole palace.

Casa Comalat Backside at Carrer Corsega 316, Barcelona

Casa Comalat is one of those secret places of Barcelona everyone would like to discover but sadly it is closed to the public. This Modernista house has two completely different sides which have been featured in Barcelona Photoblog in the past. There is the front side, magnificent, full of adornments, but sober in comparison with the backside façade, at carrer Corsega 316, which I find much more interesting and attractive.

But before we start, you should know some facts: The building is named after the its proprietor, Sr. Comalat, a moneylender that commissioned it to architect Salvador Valeri i Pupurull (1873-1954). Salvador Valeri built a house that is slightly different to other Modernista houses of the times, very rich in ornaments, very decorative, it became a perfect sample of Late Modernisme. Maybe you need a video to fully comprehend what Late Modernisme looked like and to discover what only a local Barcelona TV has unveiled, the inner secrets of Casa Comalat. The video is not in English but you really ought to watch it.

With regards to the Barcelona photo of the day, Casa Comalat Backside, you can appreciate the elaborate  ceramics on balconies and windows by artist Lluís Bru i Salelles and the over-undulating shapes framing wood blinds for the first time in Modernisme. Rigalt i Granell, a renown company at that time, was in charge of the stained glass works. Certainly, never backsides were so much better than front doors.

Previous posts:
Art Nouveau Balconies

Catalan Modernisme: Casa Comalat
Avinguda Diagonal Comalat House 

Catalan Modernisme: Cal Calixto, 26 Calle de la Diputación, Sant Sadurni D'Anoia

This beautiful balcony partly covered in stained glass can be admired on a house at 26 Calle de la Diputación in Sant Sadurni D'Anoia not far away from Cavas de Freixenet, the renown Catalan cava cellars. This is the exact spot in town to find Cal Calixtus (1885) which is the name of this beautiful sample of Catalan modernisme.

Trencadis Butterfly at Casa Fajol next to B Hotel in Barcelona

How can a place evolve so much, how can you witness the pass of time by taking a glimpse at just one odd corner of your city? You can easily guess in this picture which building came first: yes, Casa Fajol also known as Casa de la Papallona (Catalan word for butterfly) dating back to 1912. Is it possible to combine historic buildings with a touristic resort and a leisure center? Well, our architects do think so, and who are we to contradict their expertise. In 2005 they built a 3 star hotel (B-Hotel), with a fantastic swimming pool overlooking Plaza Espanya and Fira de Barcelona, that our butterfly almost touches with her antennae. That must be good for our visitors, a room with a view over our culture. But why not framing the whole scene from the platform of a brand new leisure center like Las Arenas literally rising over an old bull ring to really appreciate the clash of styles? Barcelona is the perfect spot.

Disclaimer: This post is meant to bring debate over architectural topics, culture and the pass of time and is not interested whatsoever in what should have been done or who is to blame for such contrasts.

Casa Mila by Gaudi: Modernist Staircase Detail

Art has many ways, just as mother nature never stops surprising us with her capricious designs. The creativity of man knows no boundaries and a good example of that is the work of Catalan genius, Antoni Gaudi. In this image, the staircase at Casa Mila also known as La Pedrera is just a staircase, a beautiful one in fact, but the handrail, oh, the wrought iron handrail is so profuse in impossible adornments, so elaborate, that it is difficult not to surrender to this architect's divine talent. Not that complex motifs were invented by him, since we have Baroque for that, but the new approach, the use of natural elements like leaves, conceived with such uncanny mathematical precision, sometimes quite hard to translate from his mind into the final piece, makes these architectural jewels unique.

Modernist Building, Rambla Catalunya 61 next to Arago St.

Newly restored modernist building on the corner of Rambla Catalunya and Carrer Arago.

Located exactly at Rambla Catalunya 61 this apartment building with offices to rent (I have seen one with 150 square meters advertised for 2500 EUR/month!) immediately grabs our attention for that interesting combination of undulated balconies, exuberant ironwork and glass covered galleries.

I think you should examine this Eixample quarter Art Nouveau gem closer in Google street view: Modernist House Rambla Catalunya 61.

Casa Batlló: Masked Balconies

To stay in Barcelona without visiting Casa Batlló is like being in Paris and forgetting about the Eiffel tower, with all due respect to Sagrada Familia and Sacre Coeur respectively.

The famous house designed by Gaudi is so, let's say, 'different' that tiptoeing her is almost a sacrilege.

Besides the exquisite trencadis (shattered tiles) on the façade, the balconies are like carnival masks, concealed faces watching upon passersby.

The whole building has more to do with patterns we usually find in nature than with man's rationale, like the peculiar contours of the roof that simulate some sort of scaly skin as that of a lizard or a snake, or why not, a dragon, or the impossible arches and oval windows in the lower floors deprived of everything that recalls a straight line.

I tried to apply some symmetry at the moment of framing the picture but it was certainly pretty hard.

Here is a previous post about Casa Batllo.

Antoni Tapies Foundation, Arago Street 255, Barcelona

Weird places well deserve weird, psychedelic approaches. I have walked past this building a thousand times and a thousand times I haven't been able to take a decent picture. First because you have to stand on the opposite sidewalk of carrer Aragó which is a very wide street, second because it is wedged in between two awful buildings and last but not least because those wires on top, which were conceived by Antoni Tàpies himself do break all the harmony of lines with the beautiful Art Nouveau façade by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. So I thought, what the heck, I've got to give this a colorful touch. The result expresses not awe as in awesome, but rather as in aw...ful. I realize I am committing sacrilege here by trying to judge the artwork on the roof and the awkward appearance of an artistic sanctuary as it is Fundació Tàpies. In fact it is a magnificent building constructed between 1880 and 1885, one of the earliest samples of Art Nouveau in this part of the city, that breaks up with traditional 19th century eclecticism, introducing elements like iron and exposed brick, the latter evidencing clear Muslim influences. The place held the Montaner i Simon publishing house up to 1981, the most important in its field for decades (120 years of history) that became Antoni Tapies Foundation in 1990, acquiring category of historical monument in 1997. But what to say about Antoni Tàpies i Puig (he will be 87 next December 13, 2010), the incommensurable Catalan painter, sculptor and lithographer besides the fact I don't like the Cloud and Chair, 1990 sculpture on top of the building, well you better find out reading his biography at the official site: Antoni Tàpies Biography (Fundació Antoni Tàpies)

Casa Dolors Calm by Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas, Rambla Catalunya 54, Barcelona

Rambla Catalunya in Barcelona is splattered with architecture jewels of different styles and periods, most of them illustrious samples of Modernisme or Catalan Art Nouveau. In fact, there are more here (over 20) than along neighboring street Passeig de Gracia. One that I specially admire is Casa Dolors Calm by Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas that dates back to 1903. The distinguishing wood and glass gallery and the floral motifs on the façade are worth mentioning. Here is an interesting link to many representative buildings in our city where a small pic shows a front view. As you see the original is rather sober in appearance so I decided to add some infrared color that highlighted the glass panes and the wooden framework of the gallery. Maybe you are interested in other works by this artist like: Casa Bruno Quadros or the Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomf)

Art Nouveau Treasures: Casa Mila aka La Pedrera, Barcelona, Spain

We had seen the façade, we had the balconies, the door, the roof but we forgot to show you Casa Mila (La Pedrera) from inside.

Come to think of it, there is more from this mind-blowing building by Gaudi to be portrayed in Barcelona Photoblog, I am sure!

It takes some trouble to show the shadows properly without blowing up the skies so I spent some time playing with the settings in my Nikon. Anyway I've seen much better versions of this photo on the web.

To learn more: La Pedrera and Casa Milá facts and history.

Clock Tower Detail, Sant Pau Hospital, Barcelona

Sant Pau Hospital is by far one of the most spectacular examples of Catalan Art Nouveau or what is known as Modernisme.

Plenty of posts in Barcelona Photoblog fully cover this historical place from almost every angle.

At the main entrance, you face a graceful spire, rather thin if compared with similar church architectural structures in my opinion and taking into account the considerable dimensions of its clock.

I've seen many images of the entrance and the remarkable spire but I always wondered what it would look like from a very short distance.

This is the result.

In case you want to know more about Sant Pau Hospital by Lluis Domenech i Montaner and other artists please check: Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau posts or all the images in one set on Flickr.

Sculptural group Folk Song by Miquel Blay, Palau de la Música, Barcelona, Spain

Sculptural group Cançó Popular (Folk Song) by Miquel Blay at one corner of the façade in Palau de la Música Catalana.

The group is dominated by the figure of Sant Jordi, patron of Catalonia holding a senyera (our flag) and a sword.

In the very center there is a young lady singing and surrounded by common people, workers, men, women and children.

To learn more about the building, the artists and the historic background, please check these previous posts in Barcelona Photoblog:

• The Pillars of Catalan Art Nouveau
• Woman and Child Detail - Folk Song Sculpture
• Stained Glass Ceiling at Palau de la Musica
• Muses at Palau de la Musica Concert Hall

Modernist Building at Plaza del Sol, Gracia Quarter, Barcelona

At Plaça del Sol square in Gracia quarter, the most bohemian neighborhood in Barcelona, there's a modernist building that really stands out due to its wonderful preservation. I have seen it in hundreds of pictures but I wanted to show my own version.

These pastel colors are real so imagine what a feast it was for my eyes to be able to contemplate this beauty from a terrace table across the square in the company of friends and chatting over some beers.

Buildings like this you have a gazillion in the city and believe me my friend, you don't need the beer to get a sudden break of emotive architectural admiration cause the sober ones seem to have the same expression of awe before most of them.

Come join us, it is fun, cultural and educational! By the way, you can even sit on the very floor of the square to have a pleasant chat or enjoy the best local paella at L' Envalira (Catalan link) next door. Envalira (Link from monopolizing travel company Tripadvisor)

Casa Macari Golferichs by Joan Rubio i Bellver - Eixample Civic Center, Barcelona

Another good example of modernista houses in Barcelona is located in Gran Via de les Corts 491, next to Viladomat street. Casa Macari Golferichs maybe is not that relevant if compared to other renown houses in the city but it is certainly interesting and worth the visit. It dates back to 1901 and was built by Joan Rubio i Bellver, the same architect, assistant to Gaudí for 12 years, that created House Roviralta (1903), the Escola Industrial (1912) or participated in the reconstruction of famous Casa dels Canonges. Beyond the pure architectural attraction of this house in L'Eixample Esquerra (left side of the 'Ensanche' quarter) we must say that at present its premises include a civic center, a library and a cultural area devoted to photography (Espai Català Roca) although to be exact the main building holds the Carles Pi i Sunyer Foundation. It was great to capture this beauty and I was specially captivated by this blend of Art Nouveau, Gothic and Neo Medieval elements.

Casa Ramon Oller, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 658, Barcelona

Modernista balconies are authentic Barcelona hallmarks. Catalan Art Nouveau is everywhere, in every detail and displayed in full splendor. Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, one of our main arteries holds very good samples of this art such as this apartment building at number 658. The place you see here is a restoration made in 1900-1901. The original house dates back to 1871 and had been designed by Eduard Fontseré. The reform was carried out by architect Pau Salvat i Espasa (1872-1923) later on. Notice the magnificent ironwork especially on the tribune and the leaded glass panels.

Art Nouveau Flower Motif on Old Modernist Pharmacy Façade

To welcome the new week I would like to share with you this beautiful flower motif found on the façade of the antique modernist Viladot pharmacy and laboratory once featured in this blog and located if I remember well, on the corner of carrer Bruc and Ronda de Sant Pere. One of those small details scattered here and there in the city that you won't find unless you take a walk out of the usual touristic route.

Casa Enric Laplana or Casa Mundó, Passeig de Sant Joan 6, Barcelona

Last Saturday I went for a walk down Passeig de Sant Joan to test my brand new Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX lens. I stopped before this building attracted by the beauty of the balconies. I did not know the name which I found later when I got home.

After some research online, I learned that it is called three different ways Casa Enric Laplana or Casa Mundó or Casa Estapé and was build by Bernardí Martorell i Puig in 1907.

This Catalan architect born in 1877 belonged to a wealthy family and received a good education. Got his architecture degree in 1902. He worked for some time in the Sagrada Familia and was a friend of Gaudi's.

His work is considered part of late Catalan modernism but some of his buildings have a touch of historicism. Many of his works were religious buildings like the Església de Sant Agustí in Sabadell, Convent de Valldonzella in Barcelona, Església dels Escolapis in Sabadell, Església i Convent del Santíssim Redemptor de les Oblates de Bellesguard in Barcelona or the Col·legi de les Teresianes in Tarragona.

Bernardí was influenced by English neo-gothic and also had a passion for oriental art and architecture. He died in Hospital de Sant Pau in 1937 of acute myocarditis.

But I leave you watching the elaborate ironwork, the orange stucco façade with serigraphed flowers mixed with the bare bricks in the upper floor. In the picture you cannot see the ceramic tile cupola on top or the stone gallery of the first floor but you can follow this link to see the full view of Casa Enric Laplana or check it on the map. The lens worked out fine by the way although I'll save it for street photography.