I love Barcelona and I know of many other people that have also been and fallen immediately in love with it too. It is hard not to in my opinion, from both a tourist and a travel writer perspective.
Here are some of the reasons why I fell in love with the capital city of the autonomous region of Spain, Catalonia, that sum up not only its appeal but also its intrigue.
The Architecture
Antoni Gaudí was a modernist architect born and bred in Barcelona. Pretty much every corner you turn, you can see and appreciate his unique work. For me, this is the main reason that Barcelona is so intriguing; Gaudí’s impression has been eternally left on the city and his legacy will always remain. It gives the city an enchanted feel and I adore this building:
Image by Faustonadal
Many of his buildings have a Gothic fairy tale, other worldly and imaginary quality to them, which can at times, make Barcelona feel very dreamy and unique. He is renowned for his surreal imagery inspired by nature, unusual shapes and patterns, vibrant colours and his fascinating work with stained glass and ceramic mosaics.
Image by Howard Cooper
It is a beautiful city already but Gaudí’s designs make it even more so in a way that inspires you and captures your imagination. Park Güell is the perfect place to visit in Barcelona to really get a grasp of Gaudí’s work as it was all mostly designed by the man himself! Those fairy-tale-but-unmistakeably Spanish buildings and sculptures are ubiquitous here.
Image by Elissa Muller
I love this mosaic bench that runs through part of the park, it is fascinating to look at and takes the form of a sea serpent. I was interested to learn that apparently, much of the design of the mosaic benches was the work of Gaudí’s collaborator Josep Maria Jujol who is often overlooked and in many cases nowadays, unheard of compared to Gaudí. They worked together on more than one project and seemed to be great influences on each other.
Barcelona Market
One of my most treasured experiences whilst in Barcelona has to be the market situated on La Rambla in the centre. It is jam packed full of goodies; rows upon rows of perfectly sculpted and decorated chocolates. You just want to buy EVERYTHING!
There are candied fruits all colours of the rainbow.
Tantalising fruit salads to-go packed with tropical fruits such as coconut, papaya, mango and more. Fresh meat and seafood displays full of things that you may have never seen before and glorious, colourful fruit and vegetable stalls that instantly make you want to stock up. Ooops, I just noticed the no photography symbol in this picture below – a bit late now!
I thoroughly recommend paying this market a visit, it is perfect to just wander around and to shelter from the sun for a while.
Fountains and Sculptures
When we went to Barcelona, my partner and I spent lots of time hunting down fountains; we both love and enjoy being around and photographing them, they are actually one of my favourite parts of travel. Well, here we found arguably the best one ever! After already having visited numerous parks and city centre areas during our time in Barcelona, we thought we had seen the best of the best but no – on the last day – completely by accident, we discovered this:
Situated in ‘Parc de la Ciutadella’ next to Barcelona Zoo, this fountain astounds. Designed by Josep Fontserè, the park is worth visiting alone without having to go to the zoo. Imagine spending time in a new city, admiring all the fountains and thinking you had seen them all then coming across this! It is like a tropical paradise.
It was an overcast, drizzly day so our photos didn’t come out as well as they could have but you still get a good impression of it here.
Image by Michael
This is Barcelona’s ‘Magic Fountain’ (Font Màgica.) It is an ornamental fountain that puts on spectacular and visually striking performances. We unfortunately didn’t find time to go and see this one so I can’t tell you first hand what it is like, but a fountain that lights up at night time and creates patterns with water? Sounds pretty awesome to me.
Here are some pictures to give you an idea of some of the sculptures to be found around Barcelona. There are dozens and they are all different. The one above is the instantly recognisable ‘Golden Fish’ by Frank Gehry. Most, if not all of the sculptures I’ve picked out here were commissioned for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
Image by Anecia Coppack
This is Gaudi’s colourful mosaic Salamander known as ‘el drac’ meaning ‘the dragon’ which resides in Park Güell. It is a popular photography focal point and is a much loved feature of the park.
Image by Ruth Hartnup
This sculpture is another to be commissioned for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and can be found standing proud next to the beach.
…and for good measure, a picture of the cutest sculpture ever! The happy lobster. This is ‘Gambrinus’ by Javier Mariscal and he is very popular in Barcelona, situated right next to the beach, he adds a touch of humour to the city. Just behind him on this photo is another famous sculpture, ‘Bareclona’s Face’ by Roy Lichtenstein. This one can be seen from all different directions and is hard to miss with it being so colourful.
A Book and a Rose Day
One of our days in Barcelona, a Friday to be exact, confused us immensely. Pretty much everybody was carrying a rose. Now, we didn’t really notice this until a few hours into the day. Obviously we had noticed people holding roses but not necessarily that everybody had one, but it got to a point and we were like, “Are we missing something?” We had seen more and more people holding roses and strolling along looking loved up and contented.
Image by The Sometime Photographer
We had no idea. A bit later on, we were strolling along La Rambla which was jam packed with book stalls to browse as you pleased. It was all feeling very romantic. Eventually, we found some leaflets that detailed what event we had accidentally stumbled upon, it was the annual ‘Book and a Rose Day,’ where people stroll around the city clasping books and roses on what is known as the most romantic day of the year in Barcelona. It’s also called ‘The Festival of St George’ and ‘Lover’s Day.’ How lovely is that?
The Wax Museum
I had to mention this place. My arch nemesis! Intriguing is not quite the word for this place, more like terrifying – a place of nightmares where it feels odd saying that waxworks could never come to life. I have always had a little irrational fear of waxworks and mannequins that lurk in museums unexpectedly, and undoubtedly follow your horrified/inquisitive stare as you walk past. However, I didn’t quite realise the extent of my fear until I came here. I actually paid money to enter the place of my nightmares!
Freaky royal waxworks that I couldn’t wait to get away from.
Sinister musician waxworks that seemed to really be playing as you walked past. They were at the very back of a room, right next to the entrance to the next room so you had to slowly approach them to move forward into the museum – there was no escape! They looked so real.
Me putting on a brave face to pose with Freud and his buddies. Don’t you think they look real? I kept waiting for one to move…they didn’t, thank goodness but they looked like they could at any moment!
So, that concludes the factors that make Barcelona so intriguing and why I fell in love with it. Gothic, fairy tale architecture, book and rose themed occasions like something straight out of a Spanish romance novel and the most epic fountain I’ve ever accidentally encountered. It’s a city that keeps on surprising you and there is a lot to be discovered and appreciated here. Go!
A special thank you to Laura Damant who kindly let me use her beautiful photograph as the featured image for this post! Do check out her photography, she is fantastic.
xxx
Have you been to Barcelona? If so, what did you think?
