Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter – the Barri Gotic – is the oldest part of Barcelona. There’s a wall here {part of which is pictured above} that dates back to the original Roman settlement, and there you see what I’ve been calling Renaissance Recycling. I’m sure there are other words for it, but I saw it everywhere in Rome, too. You have the old buildings and remnants of Roman times with medieval structures built right on top of them, incorporating the original pieces, and then Renaissance architecture, adornments, buttresses, and the like added to that as well. They kept everything and incorporated it into other buildings. Early sustainability.
We came out into this square and walked around a little. At this point, Scott and I were just killing some time, waiting for Karen and Sabrina to get into town from the airport {an adventure in itself, because their bus let them off at the university and they hiked all the way over to our hotel at the park, but that’s another story}. Anyway, we were in the square, checking out the wall, and we came around the corner and saw this.
The Barcelona Cathedral, also called the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, is the seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona. It was constructed in pieces, starting in the 13th Century. The ornate outer facade wasn’t added until the 19th Century. And all of it is absolutely stunningly beautiful. I took a zillion pictures {as shown by this snapshot Scott got of me}, but let me show you a few of the shots I got.
Isn’t that amazing? I thought it deserved its own spot on my virtual tour of Barcelona here. It was one of the top items on my list of things to see, and I’m so glad we just happened to stumble across it!
Hope everyone’s having a terrific day!
KCS
If you want more posts on Barcelona:
Hola from Barcelona | The City Garden | The Waterfront | The Gothic Quarter | Gaudi’s Architecture (coming soon!) | The Funicular Railway and Montjuic (coming soon!)