The ‘cradle’ of Catalonia. This is how the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll is known and no wonder. Founded by Comte Guifré el Pelós (Count Wilfred the Hairy) in the year 879, under the direction of the Abbot Oliba, it became a major religious and cultural centre, with a large and majestic Romanesque church and a scriptorium with great literary production, on a level with other abbeys in Europe during this period
The monastery’s 12th century portalada is the most outstanding feature of the complex. This doorway that welcomed the faithful and curious, is one of the great sculptures of European Romanesque. It is completely sculpted with scenes from the Old Testament and allegories. This is why it became known as "the Bible of stone". Its monumentality bears witness to Ripoll’s years of splendor. It is with good reason that for many years the monastery was also the pantheon of the counts of Besalú and Girona.
The building underwent several stages of enlargement and reconstruction due to the lack of space, fires, an earthquake and plunder.In 1886, the Bishop of Vic, Josep Morgades, commissioned the reconstruction of the monastery to the architect Elies Rogent. Ripoll recovered the church and the cloister of the 11th century monastery with a Romanesque Revival interpretation.
Today, you can visit Santa Maria de Ripoll and a Visitors’ Information Centre has been opened as well as a permanent exhibition focusing on the scriptorium, in which its importance is explained.
The history of Sant Feliu de Guíxols can be summarised based on this Benedictine monastery, which combines architectural styles from the 5th to the 18th century. The first monastery built here on top of former Roman structures dates back to the 10th century and retains the Porta Ferrada, which was integrated as a portico entrance. Later, other elements and constructions were incorporated, including the Gothic church and the new convent from the 18th century.
Today you can visit part of the building along with the Torre del Fum" (Smoke Tower) and the "Torre del Corn" (The Horn tower), located on each side of the church. In its day, these acted as defense towers. From the first of them, smoke signals were emitted using wet straw. From the second, a shell horn was sounded in times of danger.
The municipality of Sant Feliu de Guixols was established and grew up around the monastic complex. For this reason, this significant building was chosen to house the Museu d’Història de la Ciutat, the town’s history museum along with the permanent exhibition on health and the rural doctor.
Today, the history of the monastery is still being written. And in the rooms of the old Palau de l’Abat (Abbot's Palace) you will now find the Espai Carmen Thyssen dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
Is it possible to feel like a bourgeois of the early 20th century by visiting a Romanesque monastery? Sant Benet de Bages shows how heritage adapts to new uses over time. In this case, a medieval monastery that became the summer residence of Ramon Casas’s family and finally the tourist and cultural centre that it is today.
The first church (pre-Romanesque) was consecrated in 972 with a community of twelve monks. However, it was not until the 12th century that the abbey would experience its period of splendor, with the construction of a new church and the cloister. The latter of these is the true Romanesque star of the group. Between the pillars there are semi-circular arches that rest on double columns with sculpted capitals, all of them original.
As a result of the confiscation by Mendizábal, the monastery was abandoned. It was in the year 1907, that Elisa Carbó i Ferrer, mother of the painter Ramon Casas, bought the land of Sant Benet and adapted the quarters of the monastic community to create a residence. The renovation was designed by another illustrious name: Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Particularly outstanding is the modernista (Art Nouveau) terrace, which occupies part of the old cells of the monks.
Today, through the use of new technologies, the visitor can delve into the building’s monastic history and modernista past. Moreover, in 2007 in the surroundings of the monastery, a complex known as Món Sant Benet was opened, which in addition to disseminating heritage, also focuses on gastronomy and the landscape.
The temples of Sant Pere, Sant Miquel and Santa María, which originally formed the Paleolithic "cathedral" in Egara, have undergone multiple stages of construction that have left their mark in a variety of styles, -from late Roman to Gothic styles- and artistic disciplines. It is, therefore, a monument unique to Catalonia.
The first building is a paleochristian complex that served as the bishopric of Egara, of which there are still vestiges of the temples of Santa Maria and Sant Miquel. The fact that there are three churches has historically been interpreted as a "copy" of the ancient Byzantine model -two churches and a baptistery- but after recent excavations (2000-2007), scholars think that the church of Sant Miquel was not used as a baptistery, but rather that it had a funerary use. Therefore, we find ourselves in a paleochristian cathedral, set out as a miniature city with several outbuildings and temples.
The second stage of construction dates back to the ninth and tenth centuries following the Christian conquest of the territory dominated by the Muslims. Therefore, the style is Pre-Romanesque; there are many signs of this era in the churches that were eventually finished in the third and final stage, by this time the Romanesque (11th-12th centuries).
The group comprising the Theatre-Museum with the dome and the Torre Galatea (with its façade decorated with manequins, eggs and loaves of crusty bread) is the most emblematic icon of Figueres’ urban landscape.The building itself is considered to be the world's largest surrealist object. But, at the same time, in its interior it houses many masterpieces by Salvador Dalí.
The Theatre-Museum, built on the remains of the former Figueres Theatre, was designed and planned by Dalí himself as his great personal project. Its collection of paintings enables the visitor to go on an artistic tour, starting with the painter’s early work (The Smiling Venus and Port Alguer). Besides this and most importantly, the Museum covers the explosion of surrealism with emblematic works such as the Spectre of Sex-Appeal, Leda Atomica, The Basket of Bread and Galatea of the Spheres.
Also of particular interest is a set of works that Dalí created specifically for his own Museum, such as the Mae West Room, the Wind Palace gallery, the Rainy Cadillac and the painting Gala Nude Watching the Sea which at 18 metres distance appears as President Lincoln.
In 1988 the Loggias Room exhibition area was added, showing the later work of Salvador Dalí, based on scientific experimentation and the study of classical painting.
The Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres together with the Castell Gala Dalí de Púbol and the Casa-Museu Salvador Dalí in Portlligat, make up the Dalí triangle of Empordà which enables visitors to immerse themselves in the life and work of one of Catalonia’s most international painters.
The Pau Casals Museum is one of the most significant testimonies of the legacy of Pau Casals, one of the most universal Catalan musicians, who revolutionised the world through innovation in playing the cello.
The building it occupies is the Vil·la Casals, which the musician had built in 1910, on the seafront in Sant Salvador, El Vendrell. Originally designed as a summer house, it was renovated in the noucentista-style, along with the Music Room, the garden and the viewpoint. Casals lived there until 1939, when he had to go into exile and never returned.
In 1972, the musician and his wife, Marta Montañez, created the Fundació Pau Casals to conserve the heritage contained in their house in Sant Salvador. After his death, La Sala del Sentiment, La Sala de Concerts and La Sala del Vigatà were opened to the public and in 1976 the house was opened as a museum.
In the current museum, opened in 2001, the visitor can admire various sculptures, paintings, musical instruments, photographs, autographs, pieces of furniture and other personal belongings of the musician, in addition to participating in various activities aimed at the promotion and dissemination of music.
In the middle of Montjuïc, in Barcelona, under the shade of the trees, the white volumes of the Fundació Joan Miró do not go unnoticed. In its interior, it holds more than 14,000 pieces by the surrealist painter, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics and tapestries. One of the most important aspects of the Fundació is that it preserves nearly all Joan Miró’s preparatory sketches, with more than 8,000 drawings, invaluable material for understanding the work of the artist.
The collection was originally created with a donation from Joan Miró himself and has since grown with donations from family, friends and collectors.
Through the Foundation’s collection, you can take a journey through the artistic life of Miró. Starting with his early paintings with their clear influence of Impressionism, Fauvism and French Cubism (Chapel of Sant Joan d'Horta and Portrait of a Young Girl). Progressing on to his fully surrealist phase (The Bottle of Wine) and his well-known collages (Homage to Prats). And ending with his works on the Civil War (Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement) and his paintings of the constellations.
But the museum is not only notable for the work it houses but also for its architectural and museological concepts. Miró wanted to open a foundation that would look to the future, that would not become a temple of collectors' objects but rather a place of discovery and debate. And with this objective, he asked the architect Josep Lluís Sert to construct a building with its own personality. The result is a piece of architecture that serves as the perfect showcase for the work of the artist.
Behind the church of Sant Pere Nolasc, in the Plaça Castella in Barcelona, there are three simple buildings with straight angles and pure shapes. They form the Dispensari Central Antituberculós (Central Antituberculosis Clinic), the first complex exclusively dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis in Catalonia and one of the finest examples of rationalist architecture in the country. The architects responsible for the project, Josep Lluis Sert, Joan Baptista Subirana and Josep Torres Clave, members of GATCPAC - were not looking to design an ostentatious building, rather the best technical solution for constructing a health complex.
The clinic is a set of three four-story concrete buildings with a raised floor in the form of a right angle or 'L'. The complex's construction, between 1934 and 1937, helped to promote a particularly dense urban area.
Inspired by the rationalist architecture movement that promoted functionality and simplicity, the architects took into consideration the criterion of Dr. Louis Sayé when building the compound: structures needed to allow for proper ventilation and air circulation as well as good sunlight for the treatment of patients. And this was achieved, although the trio of architects had to fight certain bylaws in the process.
The pavilion is a one floor, horizontal structure resting on eight steel pillars that support the weight of the flat roof. There is no enclosed space, nor doors, and there is almost no separation between the interior and exterior.Pure and simple geometry dominate the building.
Glass walls, green marble, golden onyx from the Atlas Mountains, Roman travertine, cement, steel, chrome and water were the 'ingredients' used by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to design a building with remarkably austere but expressive qualities.
This singular structure was built for the Universal Expo of 1929 in Barcelona. Mies Van der Rohe's German Pavilion was a "modern coup" amid the sumptuous Noucentisme buildings that defined the development of Montjuic.
Despite being conceived as an ephemeral building (it was dismantled once the Expo was over), it existed long enough to become a benchmark of the rationalist architecture movement (during the 1920s and 1930s ). So much so that in 1954, on the 25th anniversary of the exhibition, the architect Oriol Bohigas pushed for the pavilion's reconstruction. This became a reality after more than 30 years, in 1986.
A former fisherman's hut in Portlligat, Salvador Dalí moved here in 1930 and continued to work here until 1982. Since its initial construction, the painter began acquiring other similar huts and, over forty years, defined what would be the home as it is today, considered by some as "a true biological structure".
The building, designed by Dalí and Gala, is a labyrinthine structure organised around the so-called "Saló de l'Óssa" (Hall of the Bear). From this central area, the home spreads out through a succession of small rooms connected by corridors, small level changes and culs-de-sac. The rooms have windows of different shapes and sizes but with one common denominator: they frame the Portlligat bay, a place that is a recurring theme in Dalí's work.
The home, which the writer Josep Pla described as "surprising, extraordinary and never seen before" was a refuge where Dalí led "a life of asceticism and isolation" after living for many years in Paris.
In 1982, after Gala's death, Dalí did not return to Portlligat. With the painter's death (1989), in 1994 the house became a small museum areaadapted by the architects Oriol Clos i Costa and José Ramos Illán. Together with the Castell Gala Dalí de Púbol and the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres, make up the Dalí triangle of Empordà
