barcelona cathedral part 1

I left home around noon to go to the Barcelona Cathedral. I was surprised that the subway spit me out on the Rambla for that! I looked at the map in my book and figured out I needed to go left. I went down a scenic alleyway and landed in a square with a sort of art fair going on. There were lots of white tents with artists set up to sell their various painted canvases underneath.

I shot through the square and chose another alleyway. A nice shopkeeper pointed me toward the cathedral. Upon arrival, I was a bit disappointed to find that it was under construction. Scaffolding around the 230-foot main tower is NOT going to be very nice in my photos!! I also didn’t appreciate the wall around the whole Cathedral with the sign about hard hats and other equipment that was/wasn’t allowed. I admit the cathedral was still really cool. The exterior has ridiculous amounts of detail. There were lots of people popping off of the sides—part of the façade. The carving around the windows and tops were pretty magnificent as well. I would love to know how it was made!


I went inside, past a statue of a man in the center of the main entrance. Above him is a big pointed arch with lots of sections of window in a neat pattern (although not stained glass). Around the arch, there are more archs, all with symmetrical carvings around them.
Inside, the ceiling is the first thing you see. The doors have 8-sided stars carved en bas relief.

The first thing you see when you walk in is the ceiling. It is magnificent gothic architecture. Columns lead the way to the front alter, all connecting on the ceiling in pointed arches, making X-shaped stars the whole way down. The columns were built in sections so it looks like they’re striped.


The second thing I looked at was the Capella del Santissim Sacrament I Crist de Lepant. It’s a smaller chapel off the side of the main one. It’s from the 15th century. It’s main attraction is Christ de Lepanto who led the Christians to victory over the Ottoman Turks.

Around the outer edge of the cathedral, there are lots of little chapels or altars. They are all barred across the front. Some of them are gold leafed. They all have a main saint or other important figure in the center and lots of detailed decorations around the outside. All of them also have a set of electric candles you can light for the saint with a donation. They were labeled in lots of languages (which made the English hard to find). I noticed that lots of the figures looked really unhappy (unlike Buddhas). As I was strolling along the outer edge, I suddenly realized I was also hearing a choir and an organ and a guy singing or talking periodically. Oh! Mass is happening NOW! There was a timetable of the various languages mass was given in—Spanish, Catalan, and a couple of others I don’t recall seeing English though.

I also realized that along with mass, comes roping off of the majority of the cathedral. I saw people in line to go into the confession booth. Security guarded a chained off area so only the true worshippers could get to the front. I asked them when I was allowed and was told to return at 2. I knew I could only get in for free until 1:45. Ok, so come back early and wait or suck it up and pay 5 Euros.

I went for a walk around the outside of the cathedral. Right outside the door, there was a tent with a guy selling candles and rosaries and other paraphernalia. It reminded me of the flowers and Buddhist beads for sale just outside of temples.

I went down into the courtyard of a museum near the cathedral. It was very scenic with orange trees still holding fruit and a fountain and archways. You could peer through the window to the inside. The woman next to me said to her husband that it was some sort of ruins and she HAD to get in there.


I continued up the alley beside the cathedral. I was mostly looking at the tower of the cathedral and the various gargoyley dudes popping off the edge of it. There were also lots of different animals whose mouths were downspouts. They stood on the edge of sort of spurs off of the back of the cathedral. The spurs seemed too narrow to house anything and I wondered why they existed—something to do with the structure, no doubt.
Around another corner, there was a palm tree. How Barthelona. Lots of the buildings near the cathedral had ancient looking exteriors as well. There were lots of interesting windows to look at with various sorts of carvings—some animals or arches. Further on, there was an adjoining alley. A covered bridge joined 2 buildings at the second floor. It had open archways that you could see through to further on down the alley between a railing and its pointed roof. SUPER old-fashioned scenic. I just wish I had a friend with me to take my photo underneath it!

Back in front of the cathedral, out in the square, there was a band playing and several circles of folk dancers. They quit just as I reached for my camera. They chatted a bit and then started up again. I watched as they all joined hands and did small steps. They sort of bounced up and down lightly, but all in unison. Every step was planned although they hardly moved. Then suddenly, the dance was more spirited, with bigger jumps between steps. It was mostly elderly people participating and tourists watching. An elderly lady approached me for a donation for the band. I gave her a couple of 20 Euro coins. She spoke to me only in Spanish, but I got the gist. She put a sticker on me that said Unio de Colles Sardanistes, whatever that means!


I watched for a while then decided I was hungry. I almost got run over by kids pushing each other on a skateboard on my way to eat. I also poked my head into a courtyard I’d seen earlier. It was painted yellow with a nice fountain and smooth arches. I snapped a photo and a guard came over. I thought I was going to be in trouble, but he sent me up a set of stairs for another photo. There was a carved ceiling, almost black just above the stairs. It was very impressive. I said grathiath to him on my way out. It’s too hard for me to put a lisp on one of the S sounds, but not the other.
I’d seen another foccaceria. Apparently, it’s a chain. This one looked cute too though and I decided I could go for a brie bread thing. The shop was in an old, old building. Its columns were starting to decay a bit. I liked the old feel of it. After my lunch, I went back to the cathedral and paid my entry fee. I really don’t mind supporting the cathedral.

Clearly, this is only about halfway through the day! Oops. I promise to try to write less and upload fewer/smaller pictures. Then it'll go faster and be easier to read! More coming...