The Ramblas and La Boquería

THE RAMBLAS

We could say that this avenue of Barcelona is the most well known by everybody, specially for the big quantity of tourists that come here.

This avenue is from Catalonia square to the port ("El Moll De Fusta"). The statue of Colom indicates the end of the Ramblas. In the avenue we can see different human statues and some shops to attract the attention.We can also see important buildings like "el Liceu"(theater), la Boqueria, Wax museum,… and a lot of catering trade, that with years, has been increasing ( and the prices too). Next to the Ramblas we can see the Raval ( called ''Barrio Xino''- Chinese neighborhood).

LA BOQUERÍA

"La Boquería" or Saint Joseph market is a famous place in Barcelona. It's on "Les Rambles". We can call it Saint Joseph market for 2 reasons:

- When the edification was started it was Saint Joseph's day.

- The place was built on the Saint Joseph's convent.

This market has got great popularity among the visitors and buyers because it's very colourful and we can found a lot of products of the best quality. In 2004 a book about this market was published.

"La Illa de la Discòrdia"

The Illa de la Discòrdia (English: The Island of Discord,), is a block of flats in Passeig de Gràcia in the Eixample District of Barcelona. The block is known for having buildings by three of Barcelona's most important Modernist architects: Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Antoni Gaudí and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, in close proximity. As the three architects' styles were very different, the buildings clash with each other and the neighbouring buildings. The three buildings were all built in the early years of the 20th Century. The block is on the southwest side of Passeig de Gràcia, between Carrer del Consell de Cent and Carrer d'Aragó. The three houses are the Casa Lleó-Morera, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Casa Batlló, designed by Antoni Gaudí, and Casa Amatller, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Lluís Domènech was born in Barcelona in 1850 and was an important modernist architect he was also a teacher of architecture. His most famous buildings are the Hospital de Sant Pau and the Palau de la Música Catalana.

Antoni Gaudí was born in Tarragona in 1852 and was an important modernist architect. The most significants buildings are the Sagrada Família, the Casa Milà, the Casa Batlló and the Park Güell. He died because a train hit him when he went out of work.

Josep Puig i Cadafalch was born in Barcelona in 1867 and was an important modernist architect. The most important building is the Casa Amatller.r.

Barcelona's Cathedral

Barcelona's Cathedral

The cathedral was constructed throughout the 13th to 15th.

Barcelona cathedral is one of the most representative examples of catalan and spanish gothic architecture.

The present church was begun in 1298, but it stands on the side of buildings of earlier periods.

This crypt is dedicated to Santa Eulalia.-> She was co-patron saint of Barcelona,

a young virgin who suffered

martydom during roman times in Barcelona.

Cloister

Here we can see the cloister and here it’s celebrated The dancing egg tradition . This tradition consists of puting an egg over a fountain and then the water that’s going up makes the egg “dance”. And this only happens for Corpus Christi, 60 after the Pascua.

There are five gates outside the cathedral ant there is a gate inside that comunicated the church with the cloister.

1- Main gate

2-San Ivo’s gate

3-Piedad’s gate

4-Santa Eulalia’s gate

5- Santa Lucía’s gate

6- Gate that comunicted the church with the cloister.

7-Cloister

8-Santa Eulalia's crypt

By: Vicky Muñoz and Montse Jimémez

Parc Güell

The architect of Parc Güell is Antoni Gaudí. He was a wonderful Catalan architect of the 19th century. Gaudí was the architect of “the Pedrera”, “the Casa Batlló, “the Sagrada Familia”, etc. Antoni Gaudí was born in 1861 and died after being run over by a tram in 1926.

The Parc Güell is a fabulous amb emblematic park in Barcelona. Parc Güell was built 108 years ago. Parc Güell is situated in the north-west of the city, on a hill in the disctrict of “Gràcia”.

The main intention by Gaudí was to make a luxury urbanitzation outside Barcelona. It would include 60 houses but the original plan was never finished because the landlord didn’t have money and sold the land. The council of Barcelona bought the land and they turned the land in to a park, and hired Gaudí as the architect. The land became the park between 1900-1914.

Decoration:

The decoration of Park Güell has a lot forms. These forms are wavy-shaped with very shiny colours, mosaics, wavy-shaped columns... On the roof, there are also very beautiful mosaics, with crystals and coloured stones. In a middle of Park Güell, there is a double staircase with a big dragon.

You can see the decoration of this whole area. There are broken tiles of irregular shape. After taking the stairs, there is a big space suported by 86 columns. The beautiful roses of the roof tiles are made of glass. In a big square, called Greek theatre, there are a long twisting benches. Gaudí refused to destroy the mountain to create paths. On the contrary, he took advantge of the irregularities of the terrain. By using the real stones of the place he wanted the desing to be an integral part of the natural landscape.

The Sagrada Família

THE SAGRADA FAMILIA

The expiatory temple of the Sagrada Familia, known as the Sagrada Familia, is one of the most famous temples of the Catalan Modernism that now is one of de symbols of Barcelona with la pedrera, la casa batlló... The 1891 started the works directed by Antoni Gaudí but the Sagrada Familia is an unfinished work . It is located in the neighborhood of the Sagrada Familia, the district of the Eixample, in de middle of the city. The Sagrada Familia is a Catholic church, but not a cathedral. The cathedral of Barcelona is a Santa Eulalia.

The original project presented by Gaudí was building the temple with one big central tower 170 meters high, dedicated to Jesus Christ. A total of 18 tall towers are called for, representing in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ.

The great doors of the façade reproduce words from the Bible in various languages. Parts of the unfinished church and Gaudí's models and workshop were destroyed during the war by Catalan anarchists. The present design is based on reconstructed versions of the lost plans as well as on modern adaptations.

In 1987 Josep Mª Subirachs started do design the passion facade of Sagrada Familia. He put two conditions: he wanted to live inside the Sagrada Familia and he wanted to develop his own style without being imposed anything.

Recently, the Ministry of Public Works of Spain has projected the construction of a tunnel for the high speed train just under where the principal façade of the temple has to be built. The ministry say that the project poses no risk to the church, the engineers and architects of the temple disagree as there is no guarantee that the tunnel will not affect the stability of the building.

According to data from the year 2004, the Sagrada Família is the monument most visited in Spain, even more than the Alhambra and the Prado museum.

Sitges

Introduccion

Sitges is a small city about 36 kilometres southwest of Barcelona renowned worldwide for its Film Festival and Carnival. Its population surpasses the 20,000 inhabitants. It’s in the region of Garraf. It’s between the hills and the sea.

History

The name of Sitges, it comes for “sitja” and the meaning is “clot profund” in English “deep hole”. Miralpeix and Campdsasens were the first castles in Sitges. The castle is situated on top of the hill and it was constructed 1889 on the old castle. The first proprietor was Mr Geribert in 1041. The vineyard and the malvasia, a type of plant, are the main sources of income for the village. In 1833 the commerce was based on clothes, wine, malvasia, “aiguardent”, a type of liquor.and the cultivation of grapes or olives.

Cau Ferrat and Santiago Rusiñol

The “Cau Ferrat” was the famous meeting point of the Modernist, artists. The “Cau Ferrat” museum exhibits the legacy of Santiago Rusiñol.

Santiago Rusiñol was a painter, a writer and a Spanish dramatist born in Barcelona in 1861 and dead in Aranjuez in 1931.

He spent a few years in Paris. When he came back to Spain, he inaugurated his factory-museum “Cau Ferrat”. In 1908, he received the medal of the National exhibition of Fine arts. He was an important personality of the literary and cultural Renaissance of Catalonia, and among the intellectual and Bohemian groups of Barcelona of his time.

Carnival

It’s a surprising show. The clothes are rich in feathers, spangles… The principal vehicle is the Queen vehicle.

During the days of the Carnival the king is the “Carnestoltes” with the collaboration of the queen of the carnival. On Thursday, the “Carnestoltes” and the queen arrive.

On Friday and Saturday, the “Carnestoltes” and the queen visit the schools and the institutions. And finally, on Wednesday there is the burial of the “Carnestoltes”.

The Film festival

The Film Festival of Sitges is one of important cinema festivals in Spain and Europe. It focuses on fantasy and horror films.

It inaugurated in1967 and it offers the best international production every year. There are also retrospective and special sessions.

Sitges it’s an important gay and lesbian community. In Sitges, there are many important discos for example Pachá and L’Atlantida. The most important economic resources are tourism and industry.

Pachá

L’Atlàntida

Nerea's family

MY FAMILY

Hi everyone! My name is Nerea. I’m 13 years old I live a house with my family. We’re 3 people in the house: my dad, my mum and me.

My father’s name is Miguel Angel and he works as a mechanic in Cerdanyola. My dad is a good person! He likes watching TV when there are football matches.

My mother’s name is Isabel. She does most of the jobs in the house: cleaning, cooking, shopping and she’s very, very patient.

My favourite hobby is playing football and meeting friends. I’m a bit of a rebel.

That’s all for now, mates.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the street or at school!

CALM THE BEANS! - You won't die of starvation in Poland!

As one of the purposes of our exchange is to get to know each other's cultures, we'd like to present the most traditional and unique dishes you'll meet only in our country. Although not all of them are extremely delicious for us, we strongly believe that they can can be considered a true sign of Polish culture, which we undoubtedly identify ourselves with.

LARD - pl. smalec

It's actually a starter served before a main course, uaually with bread and pickled cucumber. It's made of pork fat or bacon with onion and spices. In fact we can't reach an agreement concerning its flavour as one of us believes it's delicious whereas the other one states that it's disgusting.

ŻUREK

'Żurek' is an Easter sour barley soup cooked on the basis of bread acid with potatoes, sausages and eggs. As a tittle-tattle we can add that you can meet it served in a loaf of bread, as you can see in the picture.

BORSCHT - pl. barszcz

The next dish which may be considered originally Polish is called borscht. It's a soup made of beetroots, which we, Poles usually associate with Christmas Eve as the borscht with noodles (a kind of pierogi, which we're going to describe later) is the most popular Christmas dish.

BIGOS

Another Polish dish is commonly known as 'bigos' and can be described as chopped meat stewed in the saurkraut. Nevertheless, it's possible to add some other ingredients, like mushrooms, to it, thus enriching its flavour and appearance.

PIEROGI

We are of the same opinion that 'pierogi' is the best traditional Polish dish. It's a cake with filling which may consist of different ingredients - it's only the matter of taste. Nonetheless, the most popular are 'pierogi' with meat, cabbage with mushrooms, cottage cheese with potatoes or fruits.

Although the dishes described above are traditionally Polish, we don't eat them very often since not only does their preparation take a lot of time but also, there are people, especially children, who don't fancy them. Anyway, you can meet them in every restaurant in our country.

Made by: Kamila Żmijewska and Agnieszka Paszkowska

LA PEDRERA - CASA MILÀ

-LA PEDRERA

This block of flats, called ‘Casa Milà’ is better known for its name in Catalan ‘La Pedrera’. It was designed by the architect Antoni Gaudí. It was built between 1906-1910 and it is located at 92 Passeig the Gràcia,a very important promenade in the centre of Barcelona.Josep Mª Jujol, an architect collaborator of Gaudí, contributed to the design.

-FAÇADE:

The façade imitates curved sea waves. Balconies are made of iron as imitating plants. They were designed by the brothers Lluís i Josep Badia i Miarnau, collaborators of Gaudí. There are many aspects in the building inspired by elements of nature as for example the sea, plants, corals, sea conches, flowers, mountains, starfishes, branches, roots, sea sponges, a skin dragon etc...

-METAL PILLARS:

La Pedrera rests on metal pillars and beams. The whole interior could be changed due to this. The same Gaudí said that if one day the Pedrera needed to be transformed into a hotel, it would be very easy to make a new distribution for the rooms.

STAIRCASE:

The staircase leads to the main floor, originally occupied by the owners, the Milá family, a very rich family of the time. Today it is an art gallery.

DECORATION:

To the rooftop terraces at the top, you can access through eight spiral staircases that are decorated externally with fragments of marble tiles. This form of decoration, which is so characteristic of Gaudí, allowed him to adapt to the curved forms product of his brilliant imagination. The chimneys on top seem warriors with helmets and are very impressive. The presence of fragments of white tiles on the roof wants to create the effect of a snowed mountain.

Miguel's profile

Ainoa's family

Hello! My name is Ainoa. I’m 13 years old and I live in a flat with my family. We’re 4 people and a dog in the house: my dad, my mum, my older sister and me. Also my small dog, Yogui.
-My father’s name is Jose and he works as a floor board installer in a company in Sant Cugat (Barcelona). My dad is a good person but is a little bit serious and lazy. He loves football. He is a Barça's fan. Also, he likes fishing and swimming.
-My mother's name is Mercedes and she works in Catalonia's hotel in the morning. She also goes to a naturopathy school on Tuesdays. My mother is a patient person that likes learning. She likes Mayan culture and she would like to travel to India or Egypt.
-My older sister's name is Erika and she goes to university to study art in the morning and she works in the “Arxiu històric de Barcelona” (the historic archive of the city) in the evenings. She's a sweet person but sometimes she is very nervous. Her favourite hobby is travelling with her friends or her family. She would like to work as an artist.
-My dog's name is Yogui. It's a small dog, He is black and it has curly hair. He likes playing and going out.
-I’m the crazy one in the family. I’m a good student. My favourite hobby is dancing but I also like roller-skating. I like meeting my friends. I would like to study “batxillerat” (post compulsory education) and go to university to be a journalist.

the weather in Spain

I've got a question: What is the weather in Spain? my mum is just so excited and she needs to know it now:P (by the way- in Poland there is a lot of snow and about -10°C:) )

Laura's family

Hi! My name is Laura. I'm 13 years old and i live in a house with my family, In my family there are four members: my father, my mother, my brother and me.

-My father's name is Juan and his job is electrician. He works in a centre of Barcelona, my city. It is a big city in Catalonia, Spain. For me, my father is a good person and helps me in everything I need. He likes old music and watching TV.

-My mother's name is Toñi or Antonia and her job is housewife. She takes my brother to his school. She always cooks, goes shopping for food, bread and sport newspapers for my father. She was born in Zaragoza.My mother also helps me with my father.

-My brother's name is Juan. He likes football very much and he plays in a team. He's always teasing me, but, after all, we're good siblings. My father and my brother have got the same name.

I'm good student. I like listening to music and watching TV. I like going to the cinema with my friends or my family. Every Friday I meet my friends. My room is full of posters, singers, actors, football players and photos of me and my friends. I like going shopping for clothes very much. My favourite store is Stradivarius.