Architecture from Barcelona to Zaragoza

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona

Earlier this week, I visited the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, now known as the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site. The old hospital has been restored into a renovated building that tells the old hospitals history, and serves as a beautiful place for visitors to relax and learn about the way the old hospital was ran. The site is currently more beautiful than ever and was decommissioned as a hospital due to the fact the building was no long efficient with modern medicine.

Each wing of the hospital was a separate building, and to get to another wing with a patient they would have to be rolled to the next building through a series of underground tunnels. The spaces were large and operating rooms full of windows. Two things which do not happen in hospitals today, but were thought to be very good things at the time.

Santa Maria Del Mar, Barcelona

In my history class this week, I took a tour of the beyond beautiful Santa Maria Del Mar. This church is about as old as the city itself. When Barcelona was young and all the buildings were basically one story high this church towered over the city, and when visitors arrived by boat they could see this stunning church from the shore towering above all the other buildings. (below is my view from the top of the church)

Couple interesting things I learned on the tour:

In 1429, the original rose window fell and killed a good number of people in the church. Considering this happened in 1429, everyone inside thought that this was a punishment from God and not an earthquake (which it was). The current rose window is pictured below. I was able to take this while on the tour and standing on a balcony.

All around and under this church are dead bodies. A long time ago people used to think that being buried in or as close to a church as possible would bring you closer to God. Usually, the very rich and powerful were buried inside and the less fortunate outside. Below is a picture I took while standing outside and trying not to think about what what lies many meters under my feet.

The Aljaferia Palace, Zaragoza

This past weekend, I took a trip to another city in Spain, Zaragoza. Zaragoza is the home to many stunning works of architecture including, The Aljaferia Palace. This palace is an example of Islamic Architecture built in the 11th century. It was renovated many times, and it the current home to the Regional Assembly of Aragon.

The old Islamic portions of the building are stunning. The detail and arrangement of the archways in the center space around the pools and gardens in one of the most beautiful places I have been in thus far.

Not only were the original parts of this palace amazing but the restoration work done by Peman y Franco Architects is some of my favorite so far. Instead of trying to make the palace look exactly as it did in its prime, the architects made modern renovations to the missing pieces of the space. This allowed me and my fellow classmates not to have to guess which parts of the space where original. Below is a picture of the beautiful archways, and my sketches to help me study the palace.

CaixaForum, Zaragoza

The CiaxaForum in Zaragoza is one of the more modern buildings I have visited in Spain. The museum currently has an exhibit of work by Goya at the museum, along with some work on loan from the British museum. I found the building to be a very interesting piece of work, and liked it overall.

One downside to the building would have to be that for 3 floors the stair case steps were spread out in a way that made it so only half of the class was able to walk up them all the way before giving up and taking the elevator from the 2nd to the 3rd floor. (proud to say I walked all the way up) Below is a picture of the stairs as a looked up at them from the ground floor.

On the positive side, I found a lot of the skylights in the building interesting, the museum exhibition spaces to be well thought out, and the roof deck to be amazing. The roof of the building supplied wonderful views of Zaragoza along with a large space that I suspect could house a large party of people. views. (skylights a roof top pictured below)

Aragonese Institute of Art and Contemporary Culture, Zaragoza

This is probably the first museum I have been to that I would recommend NOT going too. If you really want to go the museum was free, but otherwise I would say do not waste your time. First of all, the museum is an eye sore from the outside. I was inside the CiaxaForum when I saw this massive abstraction sticking out from all the beautiful buildings in Zaragoza.

On the inside the building did not get much better. The escalators were huge and provided a lot of wasted space with the layout. The building simply built on top of a beautiful old Roman one, but in my opinion, did not incorporate it well.

The exhibition spaces themselves were way too large, unless they were specifically made for giant installation pieces. The one nice architectural feature of the museum was the viewing terrace and it was closed for reasons unknown!

The other nice part of this museum would be the work it housed by Pablo Serrano. A sculptor that created many sculptures that beautifully abstract the human form.

Goya Museum, Zaragoza

The museum told a story of art before Goya’s time to art after Goya’s time. The collection of work that the museum housed by Goya was very limited; though, it did have a very large collection of prints of his that told real stories of the people. Goya was the court painter in Madrid at the height of his career and as it turns out a lot of his work is in Madrid and not the actual Goya Museum. Below is a picture of the one room that actual has work by Goya in it, and I got yelled at after taking the photo so I was unable to get many pictures of his work.

Roman Theater, Zaragoza

The old Roman theater and museum in Zaragoza was an incredible site to see. Usually, sites with roman ruins consist of what looks like a lot of rocks. This site was not like that. Since a theater is such a large architectural feat there was still a decent amount of the original structure excavated, and I found that the museum did a great job informing the viewer about what used to be there. For example, the metal structure that towers above the ruins is the height of what the original theater would have been if the entire thing was still standing.

Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady Pillar, Zaragoza

If you ever want to feel closer to God, I recommend coming here. Not only is the Basilica an extremely religious place, but if you pay 3 euros you can ride an elevator to the top of the basilica and literally be closer to the heavens in the sky. The views from the top of the tower are stunning, and I could see the entire city from them.

Inside the church is a ton of ornament from the Baroque style that is very elaborate and is literally made to restore faith in people. I found this Baroque church particularly interesting for its layout. It was not laid out in a cross like many of the Gothic churches that I have visited recently, but had more of a rectangular pattern.

Something more

Overall, my trip the past weekend to Zaragoza was wonderful, and I was extremely happy to see another part of Spain. Tomorrow, it will be exactly one month since I arrived in Spain. It has been a little frustrating at times trying to get settled in. People in Spain live very differently than they do in American, and I am not sure I will actually use siesta time the way it is meant to be used but overall it has been a great experience so far and I have very much enjoyed visiting the number of architectural masterpieces that I have had the opportunity to do.