Barcelona Guide Bureau’s guide opinions: Artur Costa Carreras

Why Barcelona Guide Bureau (what is the difference between you and other guides) ?

All the guide of Barcelona Guide Bureau love their work. All the guides are well prepared to do their work. As we love our work we always do our wor !
Why Barcelona is a “must” ?

Barcelona is now 2023 years old. Regarding the history of Barcelona, we can tell you about: Iberians. Greeks. Fenicians. Romans. Visigoths. Arabians, Jewish and Cristians till nowadays. We would like to tell to future tourists about you in the coming centuries.

Your favourite place in Barcelona and why.

The terrace of the Archdeacon House (16th  century). From that place I have a look at more than ten centuries of Barcelona history. The Roman entrance door, the Romanesque church of  Santa Llúcia, the gothic walls of the cathedral, the Renaissance court-yard of the House, the Barroque Palace of the Bishop, and the modernist “touches of class” by Lluís Domènech I Muntaner to the College of
Lawyers. And if I add that this buiding is housing nowadays the Official Archives of the City with documents from the 13th , you can understand that this is a summary-place of Barcelona City.

A curiosity about Montserrat.

More than a curiosity I have a recommendation. All the different walks that
you can enjoy around the mountain range of Montserrat. Most of the peaks have got a name given by the numerous rock climbers in the area. And there is a tradi-
tion for catalan people: You have to go up to Montserrat …on foot!!! at least one time in your life. I accept that I have still to do so.

A  curiosity about Park Güell.

If you want to go deeply in Catalonian mind you should read “L´Auca
del Senyor Esteve” by Santiago Rusiñol (1907), a modernist  playwright and paintor. It is the story of a family and their shop through the 19th and 20th centuries. There is a delicious scene, where all the family goes on Sunday to the “Muntanya Pelada” (“bare mountain”) for a popular party. They have lunch and they dance all together. This bare mountain is just the place where Antoni Gaudí was constructing the Park Güell (1900-1914), an unsuccessful project of urbanization for the Count Güell, his Maecenas and protector.

A curiosity about Sagrada Familia.

I have two anecdotes heard by different colleagues:
-“That  tree- referring to the Cyprus in the Nativity Façade- is there because it is
Christmas ?”
-“The Sagrada Familia is a private church. That family must be very rich, isn´t it?

A curiosity about Montjuic.

The Mountain of Montjuic has always been a stone quarries area, providing with
stone the city of Barcelona. There are different “sots” in the mountain. In one of
these “sots” we have la “Font del Gat”, a very popular place with a fountain; on
Sundays, in the beginning it was full of people for lunch and dance. In that place
there is still a Restaurant in a building designed by Josep Puig I Cadafalch.

A curiosity about Gaudí.

“The true silhouette is born of the structure itself” (Gaudí). This sentence from the Architect may possibly help to understand some aspects about the works of Gaudí.“The critics dwelt on the “visionary” character of his architecture, pointing out certain excess in his sensivity. This judgement said nothing about the singularity of Gaudí in the architectural aspect, or the exceptional validity of his technical conceptions for the future, and this silence is undoubtedly due to a radical  ignorance of Gaudi´s work (Juan Perucho: “An anticipation architecture”.) With the sentence above, Gaudí seems to defend himself. The fundamental of his art is in the structure and the silhouette comes only later on, naturally, without effort.

A curiosity about Catalan People.

“Els Catalans de les pedres en fan pans”. This is a popular saying that we can translate by “ Catalans make bread from stones”. It is said that catalan people use to be mean. So the proverb speaks about our hability for taking advantage of any situation.

Three tips to enjoy Barcelona.

A travel over the ancient port with the cable car in direction to the beach.
A summer music concert in the Plaça del Rei by night.
A view of Barcelona from the Atalaia attraction in Tibidabo park.