Barcelona - UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Spain is one of the nations with more designated World Heritage Sites. Some of the requisites to receive this designation require the site to form a unique artistic achievement, have influenced a specific period in history or constitute an exceptional testimony to a culture no longer in existence.
If Barcelona appeals to you as a cultural destination, then exploring its World Heritage Cities is one of the best options.
- Palau de la Musica Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona
These are two of the finest contributions to Barcelona's architecture by the Catalan art nouveau architect Lluis Domenech i Montaner.
The Palau de la Musica Catalana is an exuberant steel-framed structure full of light and space, and decorated by many of the leading designers of the day. The Hospital de Sant Pau is equally bold in its design and decoration, while at the same time perfectly adapted to the needs of the sick.
Historical Description:
The inspiration of the Palau de la Musica Catalana was the concept of the 'Orfeo Catala' that emerged during the Barcelona Universal Exhibition of 1888.
This choir for the performance of Catalan music formed part of the overall political movement that developed in these years, with a resurgence of Catalan nationalism.
It was conceived on the model of contemporary groups in Britain, France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe.
After its foundation in 1891, the choir used various premises in Barcelona.
In October 1904 it acquired a site in Calle de Sant Pere Mes Alto and commissioned Domenech i Montaner, then at the peak of his career, as architect of its new building.
Construction began in 1905 and was completed three years later, when the building was awarded a prize as the best building of the year by the Municipality of Barcelona.
Domenech i Montaner had already begun work at that time on the Hospital de Sant Pau.
It was the successor of a 15th century foundation at the other end of the city, the Hospital de Santa Creu, which was inadequate to deal with the enormous growth of the population of Barcelona at the end of the 19th century.
In 1892 a Paris banker of Catalan origin, Pau Gil, left a large sum of money in his will for the construction of a hospital in his native city, to be named in honour of his patron saint. The land for this was purchased in 1898 and Domenech i Montaner received the commission to design it.
Work began in 1901 and by 1911 eight blocks of the complex had been built and were in use.
The work of Domenech i Montaner was once again honoured in 1913 by the award for the best building of the previous year (in fact, the third that he had received, as a consequence of which the architect was awarded a Gold Medal by the city).
In 1913 the architect brought his son, Pere Domenech i Roura, into the project, and they worked together on the church and further hospital blocks until Lluis Domenech i Montaner's death in 1923 at the age of 73.
Pere Domenech i Roura was responsible for completion of the project, which continued until 1930.
More information can be seen on the UNESCO official website
- Works of Antoni Gaudi
Seven properties built by the architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) in or near Barcelona testify to Gaudi’s exceptional creative contribution to the development of architecture and
building technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
These monuments represent an eclectic, as well as a very personal, style which was given free reign in the design of gardens, sculpture and all decorative arts, as well as architecture. The seven buildings are: Casa Vicens; Gaudi’s work on the Nativity facade and Crypt of La Sagrada Familia; Casa Batllo; Crypt in Colonia Guell.
Historical Description:
Antoni Gaudi was born in 1852 in Reus, a small town south of Barcelona, and he died in a street accident in 1926.
The intellectual context towards the end of the 19th century in Catalonia was marked by the so-called 'Modernisme', a movement that extended from ca 1880 to the First World War, parallel to currents such as Naturalism, Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau. It was motivated by return to traditions as an expression of national identity, as well as by the introduction of modern techniques and materials as part of progress.
Modernisme in Catalonia differed from the other movements becoming particularly important for popular cultural identity.
It found expression in literature and music, as well as in painting, sculpture, decorative arts and architecture.
Catalonians were well aware of the ideas of Viollet-le- Duc, John Ruskin, Macintosh, and others. The best known architects include, apart from Gaudí, who is difficult to classify, Lluís Domčnech i Montaner, whose principal designs in Barcelona are on the World Heritage List.
More information can be seen on the UNESCO official website
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