La Ribera

February 22nd, 2012

Today we went to go visit La Ribera quarter. In the la Ribera quarter is where El Gremis or the guilds were. All of the streets in this area are named after the people who worked there in the guilds. For instance, Mirallers is where the mirror makers worked and lived. The guilds were set up so that all of the people who made one item were on the same block so that people didn't have to travel all over the city to be able to compare prices. Also, if one of the workshops ran out of some item they needed to use, they could go next door and borrow it from the next work shop. In this area houses were called "la Casa-taller" which describes the structure of the house. In these houses the workshop is on the bottom floor and on the first floor is the owner of the building, his right hand official on the second, and the servants on the bottom floor. As the floors go up the windows get smaller and smaller.

One of the most interesting aspects of this area was the architecture. buildings were originally made out of stone but covered in plaster for aesthetic reasons. Also, the walls were cut out so that the horses and carriages could pass through. On the streets the signs for which direction the horses can go are still there. 

As well, on the streets of the guilds there are little stones with pictures that indicate what guild was on that block.

Also we saw Santa Maria Del Mar which was made by the guilds. If was where royal families were buried and originally sant Eulalla's remains were buried there.

the inside of the church was very beautiful. The floors had skulls and crossbones representing the royal families who were supposed to be buried there.

We also went to el mercat del born and el fossa de les morenes which is an area where people who fought for the city were buried and there is a memorial there now so that they can be remembered.

Towards the end of our trip we saw La Llotja which is the stock exchange.

Overall i thought that this trip was very educational and that it was interesting to learn about the guilds. If it werent pointed out to me, I would have never noticed the little signs around indicating which guilds were on each street. Also, I think that the structure of the casa-tellers is very interesting. I think it is interesting that if a person has a contract they will pay the same rent until they die. 

Carnival

February 19th and 21st, 2012

Today I went to Sitges to take part in the festivities of Carnival. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it. You could feel the energy among the crowd. Everyone was so friendly and dressed in such extravagant outfits. I loved watching the parade and seeing people have a great time in the streets. Carnival came from the word carnevale which means "to put away the meat" so in the beginning of lent, since you are not supposed to eat meat, they have a celebration. Eventually the celebration transformed into a celebration of the arts as well. I enjoyed carnival a lot and although the festivities were supposed to have been bigger on tuesday night I think they were bigger on sunday night.

El Call

February 8th, 2012

Today we visited the jewish quarter of Barcelona which is El Call. The Jewish area is located in the gothic quarter. This was from the 12th- 14th centuries.

Carrer de Sant Domenec is the main street of el call so it was the area of the great synagogue, the butcher shop, the houses of important people in the community, and the gateway to the quarter at the end. Here we saw the Centre d'interpretacio del call which is a museum dedicated to the jewish history. As well, we saw the Palau de la Generalitat which is a govenrment building that holds offices. (gothic area)

As well, when walking through El Call, we went to an area which looks like a typical square with a nice little fountain in the middle. It is a place where kids come and play when they get their recess for school.

When looking closely at the walls you can see that there are bullet holes because people were lined up here and shot. 

This was very interesting/shocking to me because originally i would have never guessed that the holes in the wall were from bullets. I assumed that since the building was old it was just starting to deteriorate. Knowing this fact about this square gives a whole new perspective on an area where children are sent to play. We also passed the main synagogue in Barcelona, which is supposed to be the oldest in all of Europe. We also saw the Lloctient Palace which holds the archive of the crown of aragon. Much of the construction material was used from the headstones from the jewish cemetery. 

 Since El Call is a series of many small winding roads it was mentally hard for me to put together where I was most of the time. Overall, I thought that the jewish quarter was very interesting.

MNAC

February 5th, 2012


Today i went to the MNAC which is the Mueso Nacional d'art de catalunya. I thought that the museum was very interesting. I liked how the museum was split into different rooms based on the centuries of the art. I thought that having some knowledge of barcelona history was beneficial when coming to this museum. It was hard to get good pictures in the museum because the lighting was set certain ways in each room to give an effect. A lot of the art was religious based which was interesting to see. It was interesting to go from room to room and see how the art subjects and form changed. Going from the Roman room to the Gothic room was interesting because the art was still very religious based but you could see it changing slowly. The room with work from Picasso's blue period was unfortunately not available at the time.

Roman ruins

January 25, 2012

Museo d'Historia de la ciutat

Today we went to the Barcelona city museum which is located in the Barrio Gotico. As our walk began we saw the original roman walls that still remain and then made our way to the columns in the temple of Augustus that remain.

It was very interesting to see the columns and the areas of the roman ruins. The museum, which was found in 1931 and later turned into a museum, had a lot to offer and revealed a lot about Barcelona's past. In the museum we watched  video which showed how the city of Barcelona expanded and explained the history of "Barcino" which went through a series of name changes throughout the years based on the increase in knowledge of the city. The original city sign is below.

When walking through the ruins there was a lot to see. There were models build of the houses which had roofs that were tilted inwards so that the rain water would come in and land in the bath which was in the center of the living area. All romans cities had a public bath. They had tricliniums which is something in between a couch and a table for eating. If you were to eat at someone's table it meant that they could trust you because you were risking getting poisoned. 

There was a lot to see while in the Roman ruins. For instance, there where holes dug into the ground which were used for keeping fish, wine and dying clothes. 

As well, we saw many weapons that the Romans used as well as herbs that they would use to preserve artifacts, dye their clothes, preserve the fish etc.

Also, on display was what women used to use as perfume and makeup which as a girl I thought was very interesting.

 Overall, I thought that this trip was very educational and interesting.