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Barcelona and Catalunya

Rick Steves' Europe: Episode # 503

The creative spirit of Spain's Catalunya — the land of Picasso, Gaudi, and Salvador Dali — is on a roll. We'll get caught up in the festivity of Barcelona, enjoying the vibrant street scenes, tasty tapas, and pedestrian-friendly Gothic Quarter. Then we'll take a scenic side trip to mountaintop Montserrat, and finish with an artist's pilgrimage along the Costa Brava to Salvador Dali country. In seaside Cadaques, we'll visit Dali's home, and in nearby Figures, we'll experience his playfully surreal mausoleum/museum.

Travel Details

Pinotxo Bar

La Boquería market on the Ramblas, it's just to the right as you enter.

Picasso Museum

Picasso's personal secretary amassed a huge collection of his work and bequeathed it to the city. Picasso, happy to have a fine museum showing off his work in the city of his youth, added to the collection throughout his life. (Sadly, since Picasso vowed never to set foot in a fascist, Franco-ruled Spain, and died two years before Franco, the artist never saw the museum.) The collection is scattered through several connected Gothic palaces, six blocks from the cathedral in the Ribera district (Montcada 15–23, ticket office at #21, Metro: Jaume I, tel. 932-563-000).

Church of the Holy Family (Sagrada Família)

Gaudí's most famous and persistent work is this unfinished landmark church. He worked on the Sagrada Família from 1883 to 1926. Since then, construction has moved forward in fits and starts. Even today, the half-finished church is not expected to be completed for another quarter-century. (But over 30 years of visits, I've seen considerable progress.) There's something powerful about an opportunity to feel a community of committed people with a vision working on a church that will not be finished in their lifetime (as was standard in the Gothic age). Local craftsmen often cap off their careers by spending a couple of years on this exciting construction site. The church will trumpet its completion with 18 spires: A dozen "smaller" 330-foot spires (representing the apostles) will stand in groups of four and mark the three entry facades of the building. Four taller towers (dedicated to the four Evangelists) will surround the two tallest, central towers: a 400-foot-tall tower of Mary and the grand 550-foot Jesus tower. A unique exterior ambulatory will circle the building, like a cloister turned inside out. The temple is funded exclusively by private donations and entry fees, which is another reason its completion has taken so long. Your admission helps pay for the ongoing construction (Metro: Sagrada Família, tel. 932-073-031).

Dalí Theater-Museum

The museum fills a former theater and is the artist's mausoleum (his tomb is in the crypt below center stage). It's also a kind of mausoleum to Dalí's creative spirit. Dalí had his first public art showing at age 14 here in this building when it was a theater, and he was baptized in the church just across the street. The place was sentimental to him. After the theater was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War, Dalí struck a deal with the mayor: Dalí would rebuild the theater as a museum to his works, Figueres would be put on the sightseeing map...and the money's been flowing in ever since.

Even from the outside — painted pink, studded with golden loaves of bread, and topped with monumental eggs and a geodesic dome — the building exudes Dalí's outrageous public persona. The museum has two parts — the theater/mausoleum and the "Dalí's Jewels" exhibit in an adjacent building. There's no logical order for a visit (that would be un-Surrealistic). And, naturally, there's no audioguide. Dalí said there are two kinds of visitors: those who don't need a description, and those who aren't worth a description (tel. 972-677-500, much of Dalí's art is movable and coin-operated — bring a few €0.20 and €0.50 coins).

Updated for 2010.