The Gardens of Santa Clotilde, located on a truly beautiful cliff top with views over the sea, are considered to be the model of the noucentista garden. They were made by the architect Nicolau Rubió i Tudurí, a close follower of Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier, who designed, among other things, the gardens of Montjuïc and the Parc de la Ciutadella.
In an attempt to restore the classical forms, the gardens were designed in the manner of the old gardens of the Italian Renaissance. They are structured on the basis of a terraced incline, where the diversity of species of Mediterranean plants alternate with small ponds and groups of sculptures.
Near the main entrance to the gardens is the casa original that is noted for the semicircular arches on the ground floor, a large terrace and a three-storey turret. To the south face of the tower there is a painted tile panel dedicated to Santa Clotilde dating back to 1930.
The gardens have been arranged around the main set of steps, known as the Escala de les Sirenes, (the steps of the Sirens), which runs from the terrace of the house. As one descends, there is the smell of resins, laurels and aromatic plants with the sea in the background.
Casa Masó is the birthplace of the architect Rafael Masó , a symbol of the development of "Noucentisme" in Girona. Perfectly integrated into the urban environment, the building consists of a ground floor, three apartments and the roof.
The current house is the union of four craftsman-type houses purchased by the Masó family. The façade in Carrer Ballesteries combines the Secessionist style with Barroque-inspired elments. At the rear, glass and ceramic collonades frame the Onyar river.
Rafael Masó made two major alterations to the house. The first, in 1911, when his father commissioned him to adapt the house to the needs of a large and socially ascending family. The second renovation was in 1918, when his brother inherited the house. In addition to unifying the façades, he designed the staircase, the stained glass windows and much of the furniture inside.
For the renovations, the architect turned to the "Modernista" (Catalan Art Nouveau) style prevailing at the time, although he continued to introduce more elements of the nascent "Noucentisme" movement.
Since 2006, this affluent house has been the home of the Rafael Masó Foundation and is currently the only house along the Onyar open to the public.
The Exile Memorial Museum (MUME) is the first museum facility dedicated to preserving the memory and legacy of Republican exiles caused by the Spanish Civil War.
Located at la Jonquera, the border crossing where most of the exiles escaped, the MUME is defined as a space for memory, history and critical reflection. A project that is not only limited to the task of exhibition but which promotes historical research and educational outreach.
Its permanent exhibition presents the phenomenon of exile throughout history, placing the emphasis on the Civil War and the subsequent republican defeat and withdrawal. The dispersion of refugees through the Pyrenees on the path to France and the fate of several thousand refugees who crossed the border is one of the points of interest of the exhibition. The experiences of the exiles and their cultural legacy from testimonies and documentary heritage complete the exhibition.
2700 years ago a tribe of the ilergetes created a settlement on a plain near the current Arbeca (Les Garrigues). It was a good place to cultivate the land. But despite the serenity of the place, the ilergetes feared enemy attacks and therefore raised an imposing fortification which was almost impregnable. This makes Els Vilars a unique construction in the Iberian, Catalan and European worlds and one of the essential stops on the Iberian Route.
In an oval shape, the fortress was completely walled and had watchtowers. To access it there were only two, small doors. If entering the settlement was difficult, approaching it wasn’t an easy task either: in front of the walls, a barrier of stones stuck in the ground (chevaux-de-frise) prevented the passage of outsiders on foot or on horseback. A large moat completed the defensive works. Inside, the homes were arranged around a square dominated by a huge pit.
All these structures are visible today, thanks to the restoration and conservation of the site. Seen from the air, its perfectly oval plan can be appreciated and the edges of the rectangular homes that housed the hundred or so inhabitants that lived in Els Vilars.
The ilergetes lived there for 400 years and then left the site abruptly. Why they did is still a mystery. Its strength was so unique it became a model for the Iberians of the Peninsula.
History stops again and again at Roses. Founded as a Greek colony, its location makes it a strategic point in the Mediterranean. For this reason, the site has experienced various occupations and has been a target of numerous attacks. Today, the Ciutadella is a modern cultural centre and an extraordinary site.
Brought together over an area of 139,000 m2 are the archaeological remains of the Greek colony and later Roman colony of Rhode, the Romanesque monastery of Santa Maria and the structure of the old village of Roses, which even retains some medieval fortifications.
The current walls are fortified with large bastions dating back to the Renaissance and modern eras. It was in the 16th century that the King Carles V the Holy Roman Emperor, commanded the Ciutadella and the Castell de la Trinitat to be built to protect them from pirates and Turks.
In 1814 the French themselves were the ones who wanted the Ciutadella, which has been restored and was opened to the public at the end of the 20th century.
Since 2004 within the enclosure, you can visit the Museu de la Ciutadella, a contemporary building which summarises the history of the complex.
The Seu Vella is formed by a set of buildings strategically located on Turó de Lleida(Lleida Hill), which dominates the city and the surrounding plain. It is one of the most important cathedrals of Catalonia, especially noted for its sculptural work and for the cloister, one of the largest and most spectacular in Europe.
As is usual in these types of works, the Seu Vella was built and extended over the centuries, combining different architectural styles. The first Christian Cathedral began to be built in 1193 with the aim of catering for the growing population of the city. Of the Romanesque construction, the portals currently stand out.
At the end of the 13th century elements of new Gothic style were introduced. During this period the most important works of the church were completed and the chapels, the cloister, the bell-tower and the Portal of the Apostles, were built, which carried on during the 14th and 15th centuries.
The cloister is right in front of the main façade of the Church; an unusual position in Christian constructions, which recalls the entrance courtyards of Arabic mosques. The richly ornamented capitals deserve special attention, as do the splendid views over the city of Lleida which can be had from there.
When she was just a little over 30 years old, the Queen Elisenda de Montcada withdrew from the world, remaining a widow. And she did it in the Monastery of Pedralbes, which she had founded in 1326 in the mountains of Sant Pere Màrtir (Barcelona). She lived there 37 years, with only the claretian nuns and the Gothic architecture for company.
The Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes was built in just 13 months and is noted for its great architectural homogeneity in the Gothic style. The white stones (petras albas), used to build the complex, gave their name to the area: Pedralbes.
Among the jewels of the monastery there is the small chapel of Sant Miquel, which is noted for the fresco and oil paintings (14th century), an exceptional testimony of the Catalan Gothic painting; the Gothic stained-glass windows of the interior of the church (considered the most important in Catalonia both for their antiquity and their good state of preservation) and the cloister. This is one of the largest and most impressive in the world.
Also noteworthy is the tomb of Queen Elisenda. Located between the Church and the cloister, it is a bi-frontal tomb representing her two sides: from the Church she is seen dressed and crowned as a Queen and, from the cloister, she appears as a widow and nun, with the simple Franciscan habit.
At the foot of the Cathedral of Girona, a small dome peeks above a stone building. It is the lantern of the city’s Arab baths which identifies the silhouette of this little jewel.
The building is captivating for the simplicity of its forms and, once inside, to the beauty of the play between light and darkness. The building is in the Romanesque style but follows the model of Roman baths, the Arab baths and the Jewish mikvahs from a tradition that was restored during the 11th century, with the development of the urban areas and the need to improve hygiene.
The building is divided into several rooms that allow one to move from the areas with the coldest water to those with the hottest. Visitors enter through a small vestibule that leads up to the apodyterium (the 'undressing room’);it is without doubt the most emblematic space in the baths, with a central pool of 8 sides and 8 columns crowned with beautiful decorated capitals.
Until the 14th century, the building maintained its activity as public baths. In the 20th century, the Arab baths were restored to return them to their original appearance.
In the shadow of the Lleida Pyrenees, the Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu d'Urgell is the only Romanesque cathedral that has survived until today and is the best example of the power of the Bishopric of Urgell. Its dimensions and the Italianised style of construction also provide a unique testimony to Romanesque Catalonia.
The current building of the Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu d'Urgell is the fourth to be built on the same site. It is a reconstruction commissioned by the Bishop Ot in 1090 and was finished at the end of the 12th century. Even so, for three centuries it was hidden beneath layers of plaster that had been applied during the Baroque period and it was Josep Puig i Cadafalch who, from 1918, began the restoration of its original appearance.
The result is a stone construction devoid of ornamentation. A polychrome carving of the Mare de Déu d’Urgell (Virgin Mary of Urgell), patron Saint of the city, breaks up the austerity of the interior and focuses the viewer’s gaze. It is a wooden figure from the 13th century and is hidden inside a small apsidal. Above, a 15th-century rose window illuminates the altar.
The majestic cloister has more than 50 capitals decorated with vegetative elements, men and common beasts.
Apart from the architecture, the Cathedral of Seu d’Urgell is noted for keeping one of the best copies of the famous Beatus of Liébana and a copy of the Beatus of Urgell, exhibited at the Diocesan Museum.
The Benedictine Abbey of Sant Quirze stands in the old county of Empúries. Isolated from the population, the building survived within the Albera Natural Area of National Interest. After a long process of restoration, Sant Quirze still conveys what its builders set down in the 10th century, with solid stone architecture in the Romanesque style bearing influences from Roussillon and Lombard decoration.
The monastery church is the best preserved part of the architectural complex. Its construction is very austere and ornamentation is scarce. Only the main apse is decorated: a high podium holds 5 small arches supported by semi-columns with plain capitals. But one must focus one’s view on the south apse of the Church. it was here that, during the restoration in 2006, the remains of wall paintings were discovered. Even though they are in a state of degradation, a mandorla, two angels, the sun and the moon have been discerned.
Only a part of the cloister has been preserved but, given that it is a very primitive (10th century) construction, it has great value. From here one can reach a large chamber, which could have been the refectory or the dormitory, and the Abbot's Palace. The monastery, fortified in the 14th century, retains a defence tower and the remains of the ramparts.
Outside the monastery enclosure there is the the parish church of Santa Maria, dating from the 12th century, open to the inhabitants of the area.
