Industrial Park
What I’ve learned on my trip that Catalonians have that natural ability to transfer ugly industrial scrap into something if not beautiful, but at least intricately enigmatic. There are various tin man sculptures, decorated old factory chimneys and industrial parks everywhere. Fascinating mix of the famous works of the famous names with the works of the yet unknown modern artists and sculptors all scattered around the city, hidden within residential areas, occupying the corners of the small city parks. You can just walk aimlessly and be sure to see odd statues in awkward poses or a piece of concrete reinforcement representing something dreamy and beautiful…to tell the truth, I’m not exactly a fan of such. But some did amuse me while wandering around.
Industrial Park was created on a site of an old textile factory. It is a park, but with the zest. There is an artificial lake, and trees, just like one would expect from ordinary parks. It is levelled according with the natural landscape elevating and from lake there are stairs and at the top of the stairs there are series of former factory chimneys pretending to be futuristic-looking watchtowers …The large structure in cast iron also functions as a slide for children…the guide book says it is a Dragon coming out of the lake…but my imagination couldn’t cope with this.
Park Joan Miro
Another example of converting ruins into gardens is Park Miro. This one was build on a site of the municipal slaughterhouse. It was supposed to be a garden of palms, pines and eucalyptus trees. Unfortunately, when I was there, there were construction works going on and I didn’t see much of a “park” part of the Park. I only saw the infamous sculpture of Miro Dona i Ocell (“Women and Bird”). It’s a huge (22 meters) ”thing” standing in the middle of a pond. And if somebody can find where is the woman and where is the bird in it, please let me know. Although perplexing, the sculpture is also bright and impressive and was certainly worth a visit.
Montjuïc
It is a hill. Almost in the centre of Barcelona. There are various attractions on it, so I wandered around for some time. Firstly there is this magnificent palace – National Palace. It was built in the beginning of 20 century for the International Exhibition. What I like about Barcelona a lot – they seem to find a good use of anything purpose-build before. There is a Museum of Catalonian Arts in National Palace nowadays.
And at the bottom of a hill, right in front of the National Palace there is yet another wonder- Font Màgica - Magic fountain. It was build at the same time and still works! How fascinating is that?! LOL we went to see it late in the evening, because this is the time when the Magic begins - spectacular display of light, water and music. Truly amazing.
Another attraction of Montjuic - Poble Espanyol (Spanish village), a collection of mock houses in different Spanish architectural styles. To be honest I expected some cheesy tourist trap there, but yet again they found a perfect use for this model village purpose-built for the International Exhibition – there are craft workshops in these Spanish houses and you can watch them making stuff and then buy it right there. Neat idea.
The landmarks of 1992 – Olympic grounds on Montjuic. I’ve got there late afternoon and was the only lonely visitor there…it was a bit of eerie star trek experience when I walked through the forest of futuristic pillars with wires towards the TV tower which on itself is somewhat a piece of modern art.
More to come...
What I’ve learned on my trip that Catalonians have that natural ability to transfer ugly industrial scrap into something if not beautiful, but at least intricately enigmatic. There are various tin man sculptures, decorated old factory chimneys and industrial parks everywhere. Fascinating mix of the famous works of the famous names with the works of the yet unknown modern artists and sculptors all scattered around the city, hidden within residential areas, occupying the corners of the small city parks. You can just walk aimlessly and be sure to see odd statues in awkward poses or a piece of concrete reinforcement representing something dreamy and beautiful…to tell the truth, I’m not exactly a fan of such. But some did amuse me while wandering around.
Industrial Park was created on a site of an old textile factory. It is a park, but with the zest. There is an artificial lake, and trees, just like one would expect from ordinary parks. It is levelled according with the natural landscape elevating and from lake there are stairs and at the top of the stairs there are series of former factory chimneys pretending to be futuristic-looking watchtowers …The large structure in cast iron also functions as a slide for children…the guide book says it is a Dragon coming out of the lake…but my imagination couldn’t cope with this.
Park Joan Miro
Another example of converting ruins into gardens is Park Miro. This one was build on a site of the municipal slaughterhouse. It was supposed to be a garden of palms, pines and eucalyptus trees. Unfortunately, when I was there, there were construction works going on and I didn’t see much of a “park” part of the Park. I only saw the infamous sculpture of Miro Dona i Ocell (“Women and Bird”). It’s a huge (22 meters) ”thing” standing in the middle of a pond. And if somebody can find where is the woman and where is the bird in it, please let me know. Although perplexing, the sculpture is also bright and impressive and was certainly worth a visit.
Montjuïc
It is a hill. Almost in the centre of Barcelona. There are various attractions on it, so I wandered around for some time. Firstly there is this magnificent palace – National Palace. It was built in the beginning of 20 century for the International Exhibition. What I like about Barcelona a lot – they seem to find a good use of anything purpose-build before. There is a Museum of Catalonian Arts in National Palace nowadays.
And at the bottom of a hill, right in front of the National Palace there is yet another wonder- Font Màgica - Magic fountain. It was build at the same time and still works! How fascinating is that?! LOL we went to see it late in the evening, because this is the time when the Magic begins - spectacular display of light, water and music. Truly amazing.
Another attraction of Montjuic - Poble Espanyol (Spanish village), a collection of mock houses in different Spanish architectural styles. To be honest I expected some cheesy tourist trap there, but yet again they found a perfect use for this model village purpose-built for the International Exhibition – there are craft workshops in these Spanish houses and you can watch them making stuff and then buy it right there. Neat idea.
The landmarks of 1992 – Olympic grounds on Montjuic. I’ve got there late afternoon and was the only lonely visitor there…it was a bit of eerie star trek experience when I walked through the forest of futuristic pillars with wires towards the TV tower which on itself is somewhat a piece of modern art.
More to come...