In the old building of the Casa de la Caritat in Barcelona, in a totally modern facility, there is a cultural centre of European renown. It is the Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB), which since 1994 has been working on creative research and the production of knowledge. It has, as its central focus, the city and urban culture and aims to link the academic world with creativity and citizenship.
It does this through its own projects. The most significant are the thematic exhibitions, which generate debate and awareness around the issues that shape the present. At the same time, it has also instituted forms of cultural exchange such as international discussions, the CCCB Lab, the Kosmopolis literature platform and the Xcèntric project in experimental cinema. All of these are projects which deal with the culture of the 21st century and the great transformations of the digital age in an integrated manner.
The CCCB has a collection (CCCB Archive and Xcentric Archive) where the documentation related to all the projects that have been realised since its inauguration is stored. This archive has been available to everyone since 2008.
Visiting the Centre of Contemporary Culture is to enter a space for reflection about what urban culture is. The same building, remodelled by Helio Piñón and Albert Viaplana, structured around the Pati de les Dones, brings one in. It is advisable to go up to the observation deck before the end of the visit.
During the transformation of the Cathedral of Barcelona in the 14th century, the parishes in the district of Ribera decided to erect a new church that would become one of the major benchmarks of Catalan Gothic.
Alfonso V of Aragon, ‘the benign’, laid the first stone of the temple in March 1329 to crown the conquest of Sardinia and the expansion of the Catalan dominion of the Mediterranean. The Cathedral of the Sea was built in record time: only 54 years. The whole district of Ribera participated with money and by taking, one-by-one, the stones from La Foixarda, the quarry of Montjuïc.
Observed from the outside, Santa Maria del Mar is compact, smooth, without large openings or ornaments. On the other hand, the arrangement is far from the typical configuration of the time, making room for a single open space. And the naves are built in such a way that they seem to be of a single piece.
One must pay special attention to the light. Its structure of a compact block makes it enter precisely on all four sides of the Church, without creating shadows and plays of light typical of Gothic churches. The rose window in the flamboyant style is especially remarkable.
The beauty of Santa Maria del Mar is rational and abstract and has come to captivate great architects such as Le Corbusier.
Located in the heart of the Gothic quarter in Barcelona, the Cathedral building was constructed over a period of 150 years, between the 13th and 15th centuries. The place chosen was the same on which a Romanesque cathedral and, before that, an early paleochristian temple had previously existed. The church is dedicated to the Santa Creu and Santa Eulàlia, the patron saint of the city.
The Cathedral of Barcelona is a beautiful example of Catalan Gothicstyle, far removed from the verticality of the French style. A curiosity of this building is that it has the dome at the foot of the nave, almost in touching distance of the main façade. This was so that the Gallery Royal would be lit equally with the altar.
This dome and façade date from the late 19th century and early 20th century. The façade was built on the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1888 in the neo-Gothic style.
It is one of the most significant elements of the church along with theGothic cloister (don’t miss the ‘dancing egg' on the day of Corpus Christi, when an empty egg is made to dance on the jet of water in the fountain) and the crypt of Santa Eulalia with the richly sculpted alabaster sarcophagus.
Equally remarkable is the collection of altarpieces, which occupy the inner chapels, among which there is the Altarpiece of the Transfiguration, by Bernat Martorell.
Then there is the choir which is one of the most remarkable sculptural ensembles of the International Gothic style in Catalonia. Begun in the 14th century, in the 16th century it was completed with screens depicting scenes from the Old Testament and the Passion and the heraldic paintings of the choir stall.
Right next to Vic Cathedral, the Episcopal Museum is a reference point for medieval Catalan art and exhibits masterpieces of painting and sculpture from the Romanesque to the Gothic (between the 12th and 15th centuries). The centre, with a collection of more than 29,000 pieces, specialises in liturgical art.
The large Romanesque collection allows one to follow the precise stylistic and iconographic evolution of the Catalan Romanesque. One of the star exhibits in the Museum is the sculpture group of the Descent from the Cross from Erill la Vall. Discovered on an expedition by the Institute of Catalan Studies to Vall de Boí in 1907, this work of the Master of Erill is considered to be one of the most important sculptural groups of the 12th-century Romanesque in Europe.
Just as notable is the Baldachin from the parish church of Ribes, one of the masterpieces the Museum holds. Other items to consider are the altar frontal from Sant Andreu de Sagàs, the frontal from Sant Pere de Ripoll and the Mother of God from Santa Maria de Lluçà.
Aside from its collection, the Museum is also noted for its modern and innovative museum project. For this, in 2001 it was awarded the National Prize for Cultural Heritage for its contribution to the dissemination of medieval Catalan art.
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.
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.
