Palau and its Muses

The concert hall

It's a mouthful--Palau de la Musica Catalana--the Catalan Music Hall, for short.  It's not the Barcelona Opera House, this music hall was founded by a choral group!  Something about that really resonates with me.

Exterior reflections

I have been in venues ranging from  Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Meyerhoff, the Paris Opera, to little church auditoriums, campfire circles, chapels, and tiny community centers.  I can honestly say that this space is the most unusual I have ever encountered.  From the public spaces, to the seats, to the stage, it resembles nothing else I have seen.

Public space windows

I have said it before; I like sleek lines.  Clear lines.  Uncluttered and unadorned lines.  The Palau is none of these.  And yet I was charmed--enough to see what is booked there in October so I can include a performance there on a return trip to Barcelona.

The public spaces are bright and airy, and reminded me  of the main salon in Casa Batllo.  Outside there are a series of columns, all decorated in broken ceramic tile mosaics...no two are alike and where that normally would bother me, it worked in this case.

Roses everywhere

 I didn't get the sense of grandeur of say, the Meyerhoff, so imagine my surprise when I learned that the seating capacity is nearly the same.  I wanted nothing so much as to get on stage and see what the acoustics were like, but that will have to wait for another day, surely.  There is extensive use of ceramics and glass, so that HAS to make for brighter sound.

Columns on the outside balcony

Ceramic mosaic work

The ceiling has peacock inspired details in the corners.  Roses, a symbol for the Catalonians, is ever-present.  The centerpiece, of course is the funnel shaped skylight--it looks for all the world like  Tiffany glass.  The colors are vibrant and the purpose was to bring light into the interior of the building.  After having been in the surrounding streets, I finally understood why this was so important.

Central glass light funnel

Like Tiffany glass

Muses look on from behind the performers

One of the features that charmed me the most were the half statues/half paintings on either side of the back of the stage.  These characters represent Muses--the folk muses on one side and the classical muses on the other.  They are presented in such a way that they seem to be entering from the ether to not only inspire the performers, but to take an active part in the music-making.  I have ALWAYS said that music is not a spectator sport, and apparently the Muses of Catalan music are in agreement.

Muses--a closer look

She's playing along

I love the fact that this building was conceived by, built and maintained by, and is still owned by the choirs of the area who keep alive the Catalan music traditions.  Many of the productions involve flamenco music and dance.  In fact there was a troupe rehearsing while we were visiting.  Exciting and interesting to watch, I find rehearsals often, no USUALLY, more rewarding that the actual performance.  My old ORCA colleagues will attest to this.

Singers carved on the exterior of the building

Catalonians  LOVE choirs

After the tour, the clock and our stomachs signaled that it ws lunch time, so we had coffee, rather I had coffee and a sandwich at the Music Hall cafe.  The prices were surprisingly reasonable and the food was good.

Woodwork and roses

During my less productive times in Barcelona, I fretted that we weren't on the go enough, that we were missing things the city had to offer.  It's true that we we left some major sights un-explored  But I think we did and saw enough to get a feel for the city.  True, I didn't lose my head and heart right away, but I did see enough to know that I will return, and soon.

Barcelona Old Quarter and Market

One of the narrow "pass throughs"

Two things really interest me when I go to a new place:  the market and the antique stores.  Friday morning we spent getting lost in the old quarter of the city, marveling at the produce inside the city market and peering in shop windows full of old artwork, dishes, and religious regalia.  I finally "got" it--that Barcelonan obsession with light and air.  There is precious little of either at ground level in the old quarter, so I saw why those two qualities were prized in all the modern buildings that started going up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  They finally knocked down the walls that enclosed the old city and began to spread out and up.  The narrow, dark streets were  charming, for a short, touristy period of time, but how difficult it must have been to actually live there, especially when the Industrial Revolution brought dozens of factories to the neighborhood.  It must have been a choking, horrible, hazardous place to live.  It's too bad that it took getting lost in that maze of streets to open my eyes to the rationale behind the Modernist movement, but at least I learned.

Dark alleywas--but safe

yearning for the light

Slo--children at play

A new outfit for Bernie?

Lorraine suggested we get tickets for the English guide tour of the Palau--the concert hall of Catalan Music.  We had some time to fritter away before our designated time, so we took to the narrow, winding and definitely not grid-like streets of old Barcelona to see what we might encounter.  We headed off in the general direction of the market and eventually emerged from the shadowed neighborhood into the light of the market street. 

Me as a greengroceress?

Jewels of the season

The market sports a colorful roof and had plenty of foot traffic out front.  We made our way there and went in. 

Tempted by the veggies?

Now I am no rube when it comes to markets--Carcassonne has one three times a week, so I am used to piles of fresh fruits and vegetables gleaming like loose gems in a jewelry store.  Maybe it was the lighting here, but the produce had a special shine to it.  It was artfully arranged, purposely to draw your eyes and your shopping basket.  Thankfully we were both simply "tourists," and didn't have real use for fresh produce.  But we did treat ourselves to some vacuum packed Serrano ham.  There were fish stalls that were so clean that they barely even smelled of the sea itself, much less fish!  The items were a pleasure to look at, and one of the women fishmongers was singing a Catalan folksong as she cut up and prepared her fish for presentation.

Cones of snacks--ham in the background

Duck?  Goose? Quail? What kind of egg would you like today?

We  found some walk-away snacks--crisped ham with either veggies or breadsticks in paper cones. Tempting.  There were spices, and exotic, Spanish and Catalan desserts.   I was thrilled to see locals lining up to get their sausage and breads.  I always like to see where people-- who live in a place and do not have to eat all their meals out, like tourists do--buy their food. 

Freshest of the fresh

Salts and spices

I splurged on some vacuum packed Serrano ham and I was inspired to buy a new paella pan--just the right size for maybe two enormous or three generous servings.  Now I will have to adapt my recipe. 

The blonde in the center sang Catalan folksong while she worked

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the Music Palace......another gem.

Casa Batllo

Windows in the Noble Hall

Spines of the dragon's back roof

Br

Broken ceramic tile work is everywhere

Tortoise shell windows on the ground floor

I admit that I didn't do enough advance research to make the optimum use of my time in Barcelona. (Yet, when I look back on all my photos, I realize that I did do and see an awful lot!)  I knew of Sagrada Familia and a little about Gaudi, but it was the lucky meeting and recommendation of our fellow B & B boarder that I learned of Casa Batllo.

Family heirloom urns in the entryway

Undulating stair railing

We passed this Gaudi designed home on both the Red and Green hop on-hop off tours.  Whimsical isn't quite the right word--it's a little more serious than that.  By modern standards, it's huge, but in Barcelona of those days, it was probably not all that large.  It still is held by the Batllo family, and they have opened it to the public.  For a rather hefty fee, one can tour at one's leisure, taking as much time as needed to fully absorb all the details of this interesting house.

Bannister at the bottom of the stairs

Bannister detail at the top of the stairs

Mushroom fireplace--a cozy alcove for conversation

Cruved doorways

The light well illuminates the bottom of the house

A chandelier sort of out of character

There were lines, of course, and crowds milling about the entrance.  I showed our tickets to the young man controlling entry to the home and asked him where we should stand to wait, as we were a little early for our 12:45 appointed gathering time. (The tour  was scheduled to begin at 1:00)  The fact that they do control how many people are in the house at any given time helps with crowd size and I never felt pushed and shoved or even rushed to move along.  I could spend as much time as I needed in front of a particularly intriguing feature.  I liked that pace very much

Main hall window from outside

Same window from the other side

Main hall ceiling

Light fixture looks like a sea creature

I am not going to try to give a tour here on this page, nor am I going to give all the history of the house.  There are plenty of authoritative sources to be found by Googling Casa Batllo if you want more information.  I am simply going to post what I think are the best of my "snapshots" and an occasional photo of something I found particularly beautiful or interesting.  I will say that this house tour was worth every since centime of the ticket price and I am so glad to have done it.  I came away with a better sense of the times, of Gaudi's influence, and his importance in the crown of Barcelonan architectural gems.  This trip was a very important part in my education.

More traditional chandelier

I fell in love with these windows

A closer look

Closer still

The tour provides a mini-tablet and headphones describing the important features of the home.  I found myself wondering about the Batllo family--what were they like?  Did they have children?  What would have been like to live and grow up in that amazing house--did they ever get "comfortable" there?  Maybe I can't imagine wealth on such a scale.  I can't imagine servant quarters in my home, or servants, for that matter. 

Almost white tiles at the bottom of the light well

Darker tiles near the top

Like bringing the sky indoors

The back of the house from the terrace

Casa Batllo involves climbing steps, and lots of them.  There is a private elevator that the family used.  I would have liked to have seen a bedroom and above all, I would have liked to have seen the kitchen.  

I suppose the most striking feature of the home is the absence of straight lines....Gaudi loved curves and this is reflected in all features of the home--windows doorways, corners, ceilings, the staircase and the railings.  For someone like me, whose tastes run to Amish and Danish modern, this took some getting used to.  I liked some of the curves better than others.   

I was really fascinated by the light well in the house and Gaudi's use of graduated colors of blue--darker at the top of the building where the light is strongest to almost white at the bottom of the light well, where the light is weakest, to give almost uniform light dispersal throughout the floors of the home. 

Gaudi designed his own knobs and pulls to be comfortable

I also loved his use of stained glass, especially in the living room.  I liked almost everything about his windows, except maybe for the fact that the family's private life would have been on display to the street.  But perhaps that was the point.

Arches in the top floor, like gills of a fish

Here the servants did the laundry

I didn't get a great photo of the exterior facing the main street.  It's the most famous view and there are plenty of wonderful, professional shots of it to be found with a Google search.   The roof is made to resemble a dragon and there are particular tiles along the crest to resemble the ridges and scales of the dragon's back.  The balconies resemble bird faces, to me.  Other people see other images.  I like the floral design in the street-side ceramic work, but it does make the house look like something out of a fairy tale.  When Lorraine remarked that it looked like some of the sets in Lord of the Rings, it made me ask the question of who influenced whom?

The ridge of the dragon's back

Maybe it's my tacky side, but I would love to know the cost of this home, both then and in today's dollars.  Nowhere was it mentioned, and I just looked at Wikipedia and I could find no mention of costs, either.  Perhaps one simply does not ask such questions, but who wouldn't be curious?  AT 23.50 Euros a ticket and proceeds from the sale of merchandise in the gift shop, they are certainly guaranteed a certain income stream. I can only imagine what the maintenance costs must be to keep this building and all of its appointments in pristine condition.   I believe the Batllo family still owns the building, but I am not completely convinced of this. I would think this house is both a treasure and a burden.

I lost track of time during the tour, which certainly lasted well over an hour.  I took over 100 photographs, many of which turned out reasonably well, although the professionals certainly do it better than I.  Would I go and see this house again?  In a heartbeat.  I can't imagine all of the things i missed, enthralled as I was with the light fixtures and the subtle patterns of the walls.  I really doubt it possible to see all of the sights in this home is two or even three visits. 

Decorated chimney tops

After the tour, hunger drove us to a little side street cafe for paella--when in Barcelona.....and sangria, of course.  Fatigue and an on-coming cold (as it turned out) drove me to a 15 hour nap.  At least I would be rested for our final day in Barcelona.

Paella and sangria--ah Barcelona!