November 16, 2019: An Excursion to Ronda, Spain
	November 13, 2019: Barcelona's Sagrada Familia/Boarding the Viking Jupiter
	Return to the Index for 2019

The Viking Jupiter stayed in port last night and will be here until mid-afternoon, when we will head out for Malaga, Spain. Viking cruises include shore excursions (although most often the included excursions are walking tours or bus tours in whatever port the ship is docked. But since we've been to Barcelona a number of times before, we're just going to do the walking tour today.

Today's tour will be a combination of tour bus rides and walks at a couple or three stops, so just for convenience, I'm going to divide up this page into arbitrary sections, based loosely on the stops we made and the rides between them.

An Overview of our Day Tour of Barcelona

Today's tour will begin at the cruise ship dock when we board our bus at 8:30 and head off into Barcelona.

Today's tour involved basically two stops, with the rest of the tour being viewing monuments and buildings from the bus. This was OK, since today it is misting and sometimes raining, and walking long distances isn't all that pleasant.

On the map at left, I've highlighted many of the monuments and buildings that we saw on our tour.

The first part of the tour was a bus ride from the ship onto the mainland, and then generally north towards La Sagrada Familia. On the way, we passed numerous monuments and interesting buildings, many of which we tried to photograph (with limited success due to the weather and the movement of the bus). You'll see from the order of our pictures the general route that the bus took.

We parked a few blocks from La Sagrada Familia, and our guide led us through the streets to it. We had just spent some hours there yesterday, and so today didn't take all that many pictures (particularly since the weather today was worse than yesterday).

From La Sagrada Familia, the bus took us to a spot near the Plaza Catalunya so that we could walk through the streets of Gothic Quarter. Our main stop on this part of the tour was the Basilica de Santa Maria. Unfortunately, shortly after we arrived at the Basilica we experienced the heaviest rain of the day, and so decent pictures of that iconic structure were hard to get.

Then we walked southward through the narrow streets and small squares of the Gothic Quarter down to the Avenue Colom, where our bus was waiting for us for the trip back to the Viking Jupiter.

You'll note that I haven't marked a route on the map; not only can I not reconstruct it accurately (particular the route that the bus took), but I really don't think it matters exactly where each of the photographs we got was actually taken.

The Bus Trip to La Sagrada Familia

From the ship, the bus headed over to the mainland and then went northeast along the broad avenue by the coast, in the general direction of Parc de la Ciutadella. There were a few things to see along the way.

Mirador de Colum

For example, right at the foot of La Rambla near the sea, we passed the Columbus Monument. As you can see from the picture at left, the monument is currently undergoing some renovation, and is currently closed. While you can still walk around the outside of the monument of course, you cannot go inside. The last time we were here, we came to this monument, but didn't know that if you go inside, you can take an elevator inside the column to the viewing gallery at the top, 120 feet above the ground. Of course, today wouldn't have been a good day for that anyway.

This major landmark on the Rambla was built in 1888 for the Universal Exhibition as a tribute to Christopher Columbus, who chose to disembark in the port of Barcelona on his return from America. The column itself is made of cast iron in the Corinthian style, and contains the elevator; the viewing gallery is perched on top.

From the gallery, if you look north, you can see most of the Gothic Quarter, an area we'll be traversing later on this morning- including the Barcelona Cathedral, the Santa Maria del Mar, and the bustling Rambla. If you look towards the sea, to the east, following the coastline, you can see the Olympic Marina (which we will drive by) and the modern Forum (which we will also drive by this morning). To the south stands Montjuïc Hill, with its castle at the top. Looking west (as well as north) you can see the Collserola Natural Park (referred to as the "lungs" of Barcelona for its open greenspace) that surrounds the city of Barcelona like a giant kidney bean.

At the top of the monument, dominating the sky of Barcelona, the statue of Christopher Columbus holds a navigational chart in his left hand, and points to the route to America with his right. (We were way too close to the monument to get a picture of the top of it from the bus this morning.) Quite near the Columbus Monument is the old Port Authority Building. The renovated building is now part of the Port Vell complex, which includes a large marina, shopping, theatres, and a huge aquarium, all connected to La Rambla by a new, curvaceous walkway called "La Rambla del Mar".

The Head of Barcelona

The bus followed Columbus Avenue (Passeig de Colom) northeast, and soon we passed "El Cap de Barcelona"- (1991–1992) is a surrealist sculpture created in 1991-1992 by American Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Its English title is "The Head of Barcelona".

The sculpture was Lichtenstein's first outdoor work using ceramic tile. It is said to acknowledge Antoni Gaudí and Barcelona's affinity for mosaics.

The sculpture stands tall on the waterfront in the heart of the city. Made out of concrete and ceramic, it is an abstract rendition of a woman's head and appears exactly how one would expect a Lichtenstein sculpture to be. Lichtenstein did not start experimenting with three-dimensional art until the late 1970s, and prior to this his main focus was on pop art. He mainly painted on large canvases and his paintings resembled comic-strip art; his signature use of bold primary colors, thick dark lines, thought bubbles containing context and sound effects, and dots used as a method of shading, can be seen in most of his works from 1961.

(I wanted to describe the sculpture to you, but I realize that the angle from which I photographed it from the bus wasn't a good one, and so I am also including here a stock photo of the sculpture taken from the opposite side and on a good day. It'll help you understand the elements of the sculpture.)

Although it is very abstract, it is clear that the sculpture was made to resemble the head and face of a woman. It is made up of thick pieces of concrete completely covered in red, yellow, blue, black and white mosaic tiles, and from far away it looks like it could be a painting. The woman's eyes look like thick blue and black brush strokes; same with her nose, and her lips look like Lichtenstein could have used a quick stroke of bright red paint. The left third of her face, the side with the blue nose and eye, is covered with white tiles, while the right two thirds of her face is covered in a grid of red dots, typical of Lichtenstein's pop-art style. Lichtenstein added other artistic elements to this sculpture as well. Below her head, what would probably be considered the woman's neck, is a tall, flat stroke of blue and white that extends all the way up through her face and ends a few inches above her head. Perpendicular to the blue and white stroke is a stroke of yellow and black, beginning at the bottom and then reappearing at the top of her head.

Similar to his sculptures from the early eighties, specifically his Brushstrokes pieces, the entire sculpture looks like it could have been painted with a few quick strokes of paint. The difference between these earlier pieces and The Head of Barcelona is that his Brushstrokes pieces are created with painted aluminum while The Head is his only piece made out of concrete and covered in mosaic tiles. The reason for this difference in his sculptures is because The Head of Barcelona was built to resemble the style of Antoni Gaudi, the Catalan architect who is famous for employing organic lines and mosaic tiles throughout his architecture, and for which Barcelona is known.

Pla de Palau

Another quarter mile up the avenue we arrived at Pla de Palau, one of Barcelona's most famous squares. In medieval times, the area was a trade center, owing its flourishing to the well-developed sea trade. It was also a center of business and life. Pla de Palau was composed of different buildings, some of which have preserved their original form through years, including the one you see behind the monument here- the the Llotja de Mar, a monumental neoclassical building from the eighteenth century. The original medieval building was destroyed during the War of Succession.

In the foreground, you can see the back of "The Font del Geni Catala"- a monumental fountain dedicated to the Marquis of Campo Sagrado, captain general of Catalonia between 1824 and 1827.

"Catalan Genius"

(Once again, the bus only provided a view of the fountain from the back side, but it is the front side, shown at right via a stock photo, which is by far the more interesting.)

The work is signed by the architect Francesc Daniel Molina and was inaugurated in 1856. The sculptors Faust Baratta and Josep Anicet Santigosa participated. After the Civil War it was restored by Frederic Mares. It is one of the few preserved examples of monumental empire-style sculpture.

The winged character holding the star represents the "Catalan genius", the four seated women are allegories of the four provinces of Catalonia and the four sea horses represent the main rivers (the Ebro , the Segre , the Llobregat, and the Ter).

When the monument was inaugurated, the figure of the young man at the Font del Geni Catala was completely naked. A few days later, the city bishop ordered his genital organs to be removed and the remaining hole covered. In 1980 it was revealed again, but only the testicles remained. During the 1990s, it was fitted with a resin tube, and in 2008 its parts were fully restored. Whew!

The Old Water Tower

As the bus passed through the Parc de la Ciutadella, we saw the tower at left outside the windows, and got the best picture of it we could. As it turns out, the structure was an old water tower, now no longer used.

Frank Gehry's "Fish"

Minutes later, the bus drove by the unique structure at right. The guide was hard to hear, so I waited until creating this page to look up the building which, as it happens, is what is known as a 'folly' - a structure that does not have a particular practical purpose - something between a sculpture and a building.

The large fish was designed to glimmer and twinkle, like a fish moving under water. The building works well from far away- it can be seen from all of the way down the beach. Once you arrive however you discover the golden fish is hollow - a shock for some true architect lovers. The bus was very close to the structure, so the fish shape wasn't immediately apparent. As we passed by, I got another view of the structure from a different angle.

Frank Gehry is a Canadian-born American architect, residing in Los Angeles. A number of his buildings, including his private residence, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are cited as being among the most important works of contemporary architecture in the 2010 World Architecture Survey, which led Vanity Fair to label him as "the most important architect of our age". Gehry's best-known works include the titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It was his private residence in Santa Monica, California, that jump-started his career. Gehry is also the designer of the future National Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. And for those who love their celebrity gossip, he is a close friend of Brad Pitt.

As we turned around to the northwest, towards Barcelona's "Arc de Triomphe", we passed a couple of interesting skyscrapers, and nearby we also passed an interesting park, with this long row of flagpoles stretching into the distance.

Presently, we came to another monument in yet another circle- the Rius i Taulet Monument. Francisco de Paula Rius i Taulet was mayor of Barcelona four times between 1872 and 1889 and was the man who brought the 1888 Universal Exhibition to the city. The monument to him is outside the entrance to the Parque de la Ciudadela, at the end of the Passeig Luis Companys.

Along with the Arc de Triomf, the monument is one of the few structures that survive from the Exhibition; there are a couple of others in the park itself (which Rius i Taulet can also claim some of the credit for). Rius i Taulet was also responsible for approving the Statue of Colombus and must also take some of the blame for telling Gustave Eiffel that his design for the Eiffel Tower was not wanted in Barcelona as it was really ugly and way too expensive, something the Barcelona tourist board must have hated him for ever since.

The Arc de Triomf is a triumphal arch built by architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. The arch crosses over the wide central promenade of the Passeig de Lluís Companys, leading to the Ciutadella Park that now occupies the site of the world fair. It is located at the northern end of the promenade, facing the Passeig de Sant Joan.

The Arc de Triomf

The arch is built in reddish brickwork in the Neo-Mudéjar style. The front frieze contains the stone sculpture "Barcelona rep les nacions" ("Barcelona welcomes the nations") by Josep Reynés. The opposite frieze contains a stone carving entitled "Recompensa" ("Recompense"), a work from Josep Llimona's earliest period, representing the granting of awards to the participants in the World Exposition. The friezes along the sides of the arch include allegories of agriculture and industry and of trade and art. The two pillars of the arch feature bats carved in stone, which were the emblem of King Jaume I, who ruled over a period of prosperity in Barcelona.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Here are a few more pictures that we took as the bus approached and then passed the arch on its way along the avenue. Structures similar to the Arc de Triomf can be found in many other cities, most notably including the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Wellington Arch in London, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch in New York City, and the Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest. This arch, however, is not a military one; it does not celebrate the country's military victories, but rather was built as the gateway to the 1888 World Fair and was thus intended to welcome people.

A few blocks from the arch, the bus pulled over beside a small pocket park, and we all got off for our walk over to the Sagrada Familia.

At La Sagrada Familia

From the point where the bus stopped, right by a very small park a few blocks south of the basilica, our guide led us through the interesting streets to La Sagrada Familia.

From the bus, we walked through a few interesting streets; Barcelona (and, I guess, Europe generally) is extremely walkable, and there is always some little shop or old building to look at. And there are actually people out on the streets- running daily errands, most of which don't take the person more than a few blocks from home.

After only two or three blocks, we could see the Sagrada Familia up ahead.

If you have been working your way sequentially through this photo album, you have just left the page for our visit yesterday to this same site. Yesterday, we saw both the outside of the basilica and the inside as well, and we also took a trip up to the top of the Nativity Tower. But if you haven't yet seen that page, but want to see a comprehensive set of pictures of the basilica and learn something about it and its history, you should visit that page.

Today, though, we are just walking around the outside, and so all our pictures are external. But we did get a selection of good ones that you might want to have a look at.

1/22 2/22 3/22 4/22 5/22 6/22 7/22 8/22 9/22 10/22 11/22 12/22 13/22 14/22 15/22 16/22 17/22 18/22 19/22 20/22 21/22 22/22 < >

I've selected about twenty of the exterior shots we got today to include here; a few of them do show the same part of the exterior but from different angles. Rather than give you twenty thumbnails to click on individually, I've just put all twenty pictures into a slideshow, and that slideshow is at left.

To view the pictures, just click on the little "forward" and "backward" arrows in the lower corners of each picture. (The slide show "wraps", so going forward from the last picture will take you back to the first, and vice versa.) There are 22 pictures in the show, and you can tell which one you are on by referring to the index numbers in the upper left.

Enjoy having a look at the complex exterior of the Sagrada Familia!

We walked back to the bus via a different route, and we headed off towards the Plaza Catalunya.

Driving to Plaza Catalunya/Walking to the Barcelona Cathedral

From the bus pickup near Sagrada Familia, we drove towards the Plaza Catalunya (at the top of La Rambla). Along the way, we passed new buildings and old:

On the way, we also passed a simple parish church and, as we navigated our way through Barcelona, a number of broad avenues.

After fifteen minutes or so, the bus came to Plaza Catalunya, and pulled up along its west side to let us out for our walk to Santa aria. As soon as we alit, we snapped a few pictures- a sculpture on this side of the plaza, some interesting buildings on the far side, and the plaza itself. Here are some of those pictures:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Incidentally, in the first picture, the sculpture is "Tarragona" (sculpted in 1926) by the artist Jaume Otero (1888-1945). Otero won the First Class Medal at the 1911 Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where most of his works reside (especially in Plaza Catalunya). This particular work was created for the 1929 Exhibition. (He actually made two copies; the first was in stone, but when a commission decided abruptly that all plaza sculptures should be bronze, he made another. The stone one was placed some distance away on Avenida Diagonal.)

Otero's work is in the classic style, with harmonious and refined forms that seek the perfection of classical Greek sculpture. Even so, his works show a somewhat eclectic taste- a combination of influences. His works are often stylized, particularly when he accentuates the femininity of his figures, and display a tendency towards "decorativism"- exemplivied by his careful work on details, such as fabrics and reliefs. In the background you can see the Cases Rocamora, a set of three residential structures with separate entrances but a common facade (a common unifying technique in many European cities). This particular building dates from 1914-1917, and is easily recognized due to its red brick domes.

Our guide led us down the Avenue of Saint Peter, and on the way we stopped to look at a few things of interest. It was overcast, a bit threatening, and cool, but the walk was nice nevertheless.

At one point, we stopped to look across the street at what at first appeared to be a regular store sign but which, on closer look, turned out to be a gigantic thermometer; I had never seen anything quite like it before. Note that it appears to show a temperature of 12°C; this made it about 51°F.

Nearby, on our side of the street, our guide stopped at an old drinking fountain- the cast iron affair you can see at right.

It wasn't actually a drinking fountain, but rather a communal water source, as the platforms and spigots of the samovar-like structure were more suited to filling up containers. But in one of the pictures we took, the one shown at left, you can see that this doesn't stop everyone from trying to take a drink at the fountain.

< >

We turned south from the avenue towards the Cathedral, and passed through a number of small, narrow streets on the way. At one point, we passed a site where an old city wall was being excavated and restored. You can see that at some time in the past two arched openings in the wall had been filled in; part of the excavation/restoration is to date these events.

Just north of the the Basilica, we came to a very small square, entering it right beside a wall made of many small tiles- each of which had a picture on them. You can see some of these tiles at left. The tiles were a couple of inches square, but the wall was composed of thousands of them.

A nearby sign said the wall was a photo mural called "El Mon Neix en Cada Besada", created in 2014 by Joan Fontcuberta. It went on to say that "The photo-mosaic mural had been made thanks to the voluntary contributions of thousands of citizens who donated photos that describe the maxim "moments of freedom". The project was part of the Tercentenary celebrations commemorating the events of 1714 in Barcelona."

I know what a photo mosaic is; it is an image made up of a multitude of small photographs, but the image cannot be really viewed up close; you have to move far enough back so the photos lose their individuality and their color and shading can be seen to make up an actual image (much as newspaper pictures are made up of thousands of ink dots). So what was the larger image? A quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes on the sign gave a clue: "The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer." If you want to see the image from a distance, just click on either of the little arrows in the lower corners of the picture at left. A bit down the street, we came to an intersection, and I happened to be walking ahead of our guide. But it was pretty obvious which way we should go.

At the Cathedral of Barcelona

We came into the plaza in front of Barcelona's cathedral from the northwest, and our guide brought us to a spot in the middle of the plaza to tell us a bit about the cathedral and then how much time we would have to wander around before joining up again to leave the plaza to the south.

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, also known as Barcelona Cathedral, is the Gothic cathedral and seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona. The cathedral was constructed from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, with the principal work done in the fourteenth century. The cloister, which encloses the Well of the Geese, was completed in 1448. In the late nineteenth century, the neo-Gothic façade was constructed over the nondescript exterior that was common to Catalan churches. The roof is notable for its gargoyles, featuring a wide range of animals, both domestic and mythical.

The first thing I will say about our stop at the Barcelona Cathedral is that it was way too short. Combine that fact with the happenstance that soon after we arrived in the plaza we had quite the rainshower (meaning that Fred and I, without raingear, had to make a beeline for a doorway off to one side of the plaza to wait it out. When it was done, there was barely time to wander around the area taking some outside shots of the cathedral, much less to go inside. Apparently, it is as beautiful inside as any large church or cathedral that we've been in, and it would have been nice to see it up close.

The cathedral is a "pseudo-basilica", vaulted over five aisles, the outer two divided into chapels. The transept is truncated. The east end is a chevet of nine radiating chapels connected by an ambulatory. The high altar is raised, allowing a clear view into the crypt. Some of these characteristics seem very unusual, and I, for one, would have liked the time to explore the cathedral. (I might say that the weather cleared quite a bit later on and, had I known for sure the way back to the ship, we could have stayed at the cathedral and then walked most of the way back later in the afternoon. Oh, well. Maybe we'll be in Barcelona again sometime, and we can put the cathedral on our list.)

The Barcelona Cathedral

The cathedral is dedicated to Eulalia of Barcelona, co-patron saint of Barcelona, a young virgin who, according to Catholic tradition, suffered martyrdom during Roman times. The body of Saint Eulalia is entombed in the cathedral's crypt.

The choir stalls retain the coats-of-arms of the knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece. In his first trip into Spain, Charles, the future Holy Roman Emperor, selected Barcelona as the site of a chapter of his Order. The king had arrived for his investiture as Count of Barcelona, and the city, as a Mediterranean port, offered the closest communication with other far-flung Habsburg dominions, while the large proportions of the cathedral would accommodate required grand ceremonies. In 1518 the Order's herald and its treasurer were commissioned to prepare the sanctuary for the first sitting of the chapter in 1519. The side Chapel of the Holy Sacrament and of the Holy Christ of Lepanto contains a cross said to date from the time of the Battle of Lepanto (1571).

In addition to Saints Eulàlia and Olegarius, the cathedral contains the tombs of numerous other saints and Barcelona notables; in this the cathedral is not unlike others we have been in. The cathedral has a secluded Gothic cloister where 13 white geese are kept, the number explained by the assertion that Eulalia was 13 when she was martyred. A program of cleaning and restoration of the cathedral was carried out from 1968-72.

The present Gothic cathedral was begun on the foundations of two previous churches on 1 May 1298; James II the Just was King of Aragon at the time, and Bernat Pelegri was Bishop of Barcelona. The church was built from the east end towards the west end, with a simple west facade completed in 1417. The cloister was completed in 1448, making the total duration of construction 150 years. In the late nineteenth century, Miguel Girona i Agrafel offered to complete the neo-Gothic facade and central tower as inspired by the original fifteenth-century design prepared by master Carlí and rearranged and drawn by the architect Josep O. Mestres. This work was completed in 1913 by Girona's children.

Just before the rainshower began, I made a couple of movies here in the plaza; I apologize for their shakiness:

The Barcelona Cathedral (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Looking Around the Cathedral Plaza (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

As I indicated before, we took refuge in a large doorway with an overhang off to one side of the plaza; the entrance was to a building containing some church offices. From this doorway, where a couple of other folks took refuge as well, we had this view out to the plaza.

This view of the right side of the cathedral complex shows the chapterhouse and part of the ruined wall that once defined an enclosed cloister. The doorway where we took refuge is at the lower right.

Here again you can see the front facade of the cathedral. It is always a shame when we visit such beautiful places on days when the weather is far less than optimal for photography. But there are many nice pictures of this cathedral online.

As we were walking over to our rain refuge as the shower started, I noticed someone feeding a flock of pigeons over by the chapterhouse and ruined wall, so I took the picture at left. Then I had the idea to walk into the flock of birds while making a movie, resulting in my own Tippi Hedren moment:

The Birds of Barcelona's Cathedral (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

At the appointed time, we met back up with our tour guide, and the meeting place turned out to be right in front of where we'd spent our time sheltering from the rain. As we left the plaza to the south, I took a picture looking back to the north.

Walking Through the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona

We were to meet back up with our bus down on Avenue Columbus- the same avenue we'd taken earlier in the day to get to the Sagrada Familia. The avenue was some six or eight blocks south of the cathedral, and we followed a circuitous route through the narrow streets of Barcelona's "Gothic Quarter". Along the way, we passed the entrance to the cathedral cloister, and we could look into it's courtyard. just down the narrow street/passageway, we passed under the overhead hallway that connected the cloister to the cathedral complex.

About a block or two down alongside the Cathedral, we made a right turn around the end of the cloister to come into the Garriga i Bachs Square- the location of the Monument to the Martyrs of 1809 (shown at left), dedicated to the leaders of the insurgency against the Napoleonic troops in the city who, after the failed attempt, were arrested and executed. In the sculpture, we see citizens Juan Massana and Salvador Aulet, the priests Juan Gallifa and Joaquín Pou, and lieutenant José Navarro, moments before their execution; each is according to his condition: military, ecclesiastical, or civil.

The idea of a monument to these men first arose in 1815, but it was not until a century later, in 1909, coinciding with the centenary of the executions, that a "tribute commission to the martyrs" was formed, led by the industrialist Andreu Garriga i Bachs. When he became deputy mayor, the project moved forward. First, the city council dedicated a city street to each of the eight executed.

As for the monument, a site was chosen next to the Cathedral, in a square newly-created on the site of a small farm (bought by Garriga i Bachs and donated to the town). The new square and the monument were oommissioned in 1911. The square was dedicated by the Queen in 1929 but the sculpture was not finished. Even when it was, the new authorities of the Second Republic decided against its placement, and it was stored in the workshop of the artist- Josep Llimona. He died in 1934.

After the Civil War, the new Franco regime resusitated the idea of the monument to the martyrs and, in 1941, on the 133rd anniversary of the executions, the monument was installed in the reopened square. In addition, some reliefs of alabaster angels by Vicente Navarro were added above the sculpture.

The pedestal plaque commemorates, in addition to the five insurgents, the three citizens who were also subsequently executed, on June 27, for ringing the bell of the Cathedral during the execution of the first of the insurgents. Napoleonic forces located them and arrested them, and so the bells were not rung during the subsequent four executions. The plaque reads (this is the translation of the Catalan that I found online): "Fr. Juan Gallifa, Dr. Joaquin Pou, D. Juan Massana, D. Salvador Aulet, D. Jose Navarro, D. Pedro Lastortras, D. Julian Portet, and D. Ramon Mas sacrificed his life for God, for the homeland, and for the King. The city gratefully commemorates them here. MCMXXIX".

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

When the monument was reopened in 1941, with the placement of Llimona's work on the pedestal, the ensemble was completed with an alabaster relief of two angels wrapped in a cloud, the work of Vicente Navarro.

Flanking the niche, two pairs of tiles reproduce in ceramic four of the six engravings that Buenaventura Planella made in 1815. Each drawing stages a moment of the so-called "Citadel Process". These moments are: the last confession of the damned (UL), the transfer to the gallows (UR), the execution (LR), and the arrest of the rebels in the Cathedral (LL).

Each of these tiles was accompanied by a tile engraved with an explanation in Catalan. I could not find translations of these explanations, so I have cropped those tiles out. You can see a large image of each of the four tiles if you click on the four thumbnails at right. (The notations above tell you which image is which; for example, the confession is the upper left thumbnail.)

Placa de Sant Filip Neri

From the monument, we continued down the Carrer de Montjuic del Bisbe ("carrer", of course, is a "street" or "way") to come to the Plaza of Saint Phillip Neri- a small square here in the Gothic Quarter. The square takes its name from the Church of Saint Philip Neri, which presides over the square. To the right of the church is the School of Saint Felip Neri which uses the square as a playground. To the left of the church is a house used by the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. In the center of the square is an octagonal fountain, dedicated as a symbol of life. The architecture of the square and surrounding buildings is in the medieval Baroque-style.

Here are some of the pictures we took in the square:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The square was once home to the Palace of Neri built in 1752. In the mid-20th century, Gothic buildings from other areas of the city were moved stone by stone to the square, instead of demolishing them to make room for urban developments. When the hotel Neri was built it was faced in similar gothic stone to maintain the gothic style of the square. In 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, Francisco Franco laid siege to the city of Barcelona. On January 30th, one of Franco's bombs fell on the church killing 30 people most of whom were children from the School of Sant Philip Neri and some who were refugee children from Madrid (the church had been turned into a makeshift orphanage). As people pulled survivors from the rubble, a second bomb hit the square, killing 12 more bringing the death toll to 42. It was the second worst bombing hit in Barcelona during the war. Evidence of the bombings can be seen in the pockmarked walls of the church. A footwear museum used to be in the square, but it was closed in 2015 and its building sits unused.

(Our guide told us that a myth spread by the Francoist authorities stated that the pockmarks in the stone were from the bullets of an anarchist execution of church priests. This rumor was spread in an attempt to cover up evidence of the 1938 bombings.)

We found our way back to Carrer del Bisbe and continued south to one of Barcelona's major squares. The Plaça de Sant Jaume (English "Saint James's Square") is at the center of the Old City of Barcelona and the administrative heart of both the city and surrounding Catalonia. This is because the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the City Hall are located here across from one another. This square has a great historical value but the buildings currently bounding the square date from the early 19th century when the former church of Sant Jaume was demolished.

Saint James' Square (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

In the movie at left, I am looking around the square; the City Hall appears towards the end of the clip.

Here are two more pictures of the east and west sides of the square:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The Plaça Sant Jaume is located at the former center of the Roman city of Barcino, where its main streets, the cardo (modern day Llibreteria and Call streets) and decumanus (now the streets of Bisbe/Ciutat/Regomir), crossed. At this junction there was the forum and the Temple of Augustus. The Square takes its modern name from the Church of Sant Jaume, located here since medieval times, and where the city council met before the first city hall was built. The old church was demolished in 1823 when Ferran Street was being built; its demolition also allowed for the Square to be rebuilt as it exists today. The Plaça Sant Jaume has also been called "Constitution Square" in various historical periods.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

We left Saint James' Square to the southeast via Carrer de la Ciutat and continued for a few blocks, just looking in store windows and at old buildings. A selection of the pictures we took are at left. In one of the pictures, you can see one of the multitude of Catalan flags that we saw everywhere around Barcelona. You may know that Catalan independence is still an active issue in this area of Spain; a couple of nights ago, when we went out for a walk after dinner, we walked right through a city square that has been temporarily become the home of the demonstrators for this cause (and for others as well).

Continuing down the street, it became Carrer del Regomir, and presently we passed through a small open plaza- Placa del Regomir.

(Picture at left) In this small plaza, we found an old fountain- not a drinking fountain but really a communal water source.       (Picture at right) Everywhere around Barcelona we saw neat architectural or decorative touches, and in this small plaza it was the five or six identical light fixtures.

Passing through the small plaza, we continued southward, and our guide began talking about a parade of cars that come through this narrow street once a year, and shortly we found out why.

Various places in Barcelona celebrate the festival of St. Christopher with traditional blessings for cars and other activities relating to the saint’s legend. One of the most traditional acts takes place here in Carrer del Regomir as that is where the Chapel of Saint Christopher is located.

St. Christopher used to be called upon to protect against all sorts of things, but over time his patronage has become consolidated for those undertaking a journey. The saint was so popular in Barcelona that a number of legends and stories surround him. According to an eight-hundred-year-old tradition, at noon every July 10th St. Christopher arrived in the city by boat. He went ashore, and with the infant Jesus on his back he walked up La Rambla and vanished when he got to the top. Those who were lucky enough to see him would enjoy good fortune all year.

The festival of St. Christopher is currently celebrated throughout that day here in Carrer del Regomir, just in front of the chapel dedicated to the saint. Here the blessing of vehicles (almost any sort of wheeled vehicle, actually) takes place in front of the chapel. The priest blesses the vehicles and gives a sprig of lavender, a commemorative souvenir and a small print of the saint to each driver. Some drivers decorate their cars for the occasion. For some years now, vintage car enthusiasts make the most of the day to display their vehicles in Pl. Sant Jaume before taking them down the narrow street to be blessed at the chapel.

Our walking tour came to an end in mid-afternoon was we crossed Carrer Ample and continued two more blocks down what was now called Carrer de Marquet to Passeig de Colom and our waiting tour bus and our return to the Viking Jupiter.

The Viking Jupiter Sets Sail

It's odd that we still use old nautical terms to refer to modern seagoing transportation. The Viking Jupiter really didn't "set its sails" and head out of the Barcelona cruise port, but we still say that it did.

The Spanish Coast Near Barcelona

The tour bus dropped us off at the ship about 3PM, we went to the pool grill for a snack, and then wandered around the ship for a while taking pictures. Right on time, at 5PM, the Viking Jupiter began moving slowly away from the dock, made a perfect pivot turn, and then began moving southwest out of the port and into the Mediterranean Sea.

Right after we arrived back at the ship, the weather actually began to clear, and by the time we got out into the open sea, the sun was out and lighting up the coastline with its afternoon rays. Standing on the deck, we got some very nice pictures of the coastline southwest of Barcelona as we moved slowly along- at least until we lost our light.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

We joined up with Greg for a really nice dinner in the dining room and then the three of us went to the theatre for an evening show, where we were introduced to the ship's entertainment coterie- a group we would see often, and in various roles, throughout the cruise. We are looking forward to our first port of call at Malaga, day after tomorrow.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 16, 2019: An Excursion to Ronda, Spain
	November 13, 2019: Barcelona's Sagrada Familia/Boarding the Viking Jupiter
	Return to the Index for 2019