When we regrouped, Chris led us through town to the site of
the remaining city wall. It was right by the antiques market I’d seen yesterday,
although the market was closed today. He took us to the remnants of the old
draw bridge and roman aqueduct. The aqueduct looked like something out of a
history book. I could easily see how it was shaped to bring water into town
from the Pyrenees, relying only on gravity to push the flow into town. The draw
bridge was long gone, but its location was marked and a new stone ramp stood in
its place.
Behind us was a large mural with stick figures scribbled on
a concrete canvas. Chris explained that it was actually painted by Picasso.
Behind it was a building that was completely boarded up.
“You are lucky it is covered today,” Chris said. “It is the
ugliest building in Barcelona. Ironically, it is the architecture school.” We
laughed.
The large ornate church that I’d seen yesterday was the largest
Cathedral in Barcelona, called The Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Unlike the
Church of the Tree, this building was very decorative with familiar towers and
spires. Chris had some black and white photos of the original building. In the
early days, it had been a very plain looking building as well. At one point,
the government had gone through and “beautified” it as part of decorating the
city for tourism. The cathedral had been dedicated to saint Eulalia, who had
been tortured and eventually beheaded for being a Christian.
There was a line waiting to get into the cathedral. Chris
told us they charge admission at the main door, but that there is a side
entrance the locals use to get in for free. He took us past the old aqueduct,
and up the “drawbridge.” As we walked through the old alleys, soft violin music
could be heard as the melody of “Ave Maria” twinkled through the streets.
Several vendors were selling incense right by the church and the various smells
ranged from sweet to very sour.
We found the side door to the cathedral and went inside. The
inside was incredible. What had looked like a normal church from the outside
was actually an open air sanctuary. Palm trees grew in the middle of the room,
among flowing streams and bubbling fountains. White geese wandered around as
symbols of purity. The confessional was made of tightly woven bamboo trees and
the baptismal font was an actual fountain.
At each of the shrines that surrounded the room, little red,
glass candles were available for sale. They came in all sizes (depending on how
much one was willing to pay) and some of the shrines had piles of flickering
red flames sparkling on the table in front of them.
We regrouped outside the cathedral around a memorial for a
group of rebels who had been beheaded. It reminded me of the horrific tortures
I’d seen in the Museum of Medieval Torture in Prague. Interestingly, this group
was beheaded in 1970…just 43 years ago.
Winding through the streets, Chris led us to a square that
he said was quite famous in movies but quite sad in reality. We heard more
music as we walked along, but when we came into the little square, what we saw
was fascinating.
Line up along one wall were five or six priests in long
white robes. One was holding a bible, one was carrying a cross, and a third was
swinging incense like a tetherball.
Across from the priests were over a dozen nuns, in blue robes and
habits. The priests would read several verses from the bible, then the nuns
would sing some sort of chant. The entire thing was in Catalan, but I
recognized what it was.
It was the Good Friday Stations of the Cross.
We watched for several minutes until Chris called us aside. “Well
this square,” he explained. “has history that is quite sad. This building here
was an orphanage and this square was actually the playground for the kids.
During the Spanish Civil War, this square was targeted. It was bombed and shot
up on a regular basis, creating mass terror that even the kids weren’t safe.
Look at the scars on the wall. You can still see the shrapnel and bullet
holes.”
We stayed in the square for several minutes, watching the
ceremony and looking at the very small (shamefully small, in Chris’s opinion)
memorial to the children that were killed in the war.
As we left the square, Chris pointed out the gargoyles on
the various buildings. Unlike most gargoyles, these were not scary monsters,
but rather cute looking animals or funny looking people. He said the most
famous is an elephant one. The artist had never seen an actual elephant before,
so he carved it based on a description. The outcome looked more like an
anteater than anything—but even that was a stretch.
Guitar music followed us as we walked along. It was
mysterious and only enhanced the magic of the ancient stone buildings and wild
tropical plants. Chris took us to some of the oldest Roman ruins outside of
Rome. In more recent days, apartments have been built around them (sort of a
gimmick to have a roman pillar coming through the dining room) but there were a
few still standing in one courtyard. This particular courtyard was VERY well
hidden behind several small stone arches in the wall. The small corridor that
hid them was very dark, but the pillars were unreal. They were absolutely
massive!
Leaving the ruins, Chris took us to the steps of the palace.
He created a grand scene for us saying, “You are now standing where the Old
World and the New World met for the first time. Christopher Columbus came down
that street and walked into this courtyard. Queen Isabel was standing on those
steps. She was expecting him to bring back gold, but instead he brought slaves.
Right on this spot is where the Europeans and the Native Americans met.”
We took in the significance of this spot. He pointed out a
few other things in the courtyard, including ash on the wall from where people
were burned at the stake.
“Columbus was actually promised that he could be king of any
new worlds that he discovered. Isabel liked him, but Ferdinand hated him. When
Isabel died, Ferdinand tore up the deal and never rewarded Columbus what he’d
been promised. Ironically, Isabel died of syphilis, which she got from
Columbus, which he got from the New World. So he kind of did himself in there.
“Ferdinand and Isabel did a lot to condense the kingdoms of
Spain and expand the Spanish empire. They also did a lot of horrible things.
Prior to their rule, Barcelona had been a city of peace. It is one of the only
recorded times in history were protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims lived
together in total peace and cooperation. There was recognition, appreciation,
and even admiration of all religions. But, as we all know, Ferdinand and Isabel
started the Spanish Inquisition. They drove out the Muslims, killed the Jews,
and forced the protestants to become Catholic.
“Jewish synagogues and cemeteries were destroyed. Many of
the gravestones were used to build this palace. The Muslims that were skilled
in architecture were kept as slaves because their craftsmanship was artistic
and different.” He took us through a few courtyards and showed us bricks of the
castle that were engraved in Hebrew. We also looked at roofs that were carved
from mahogany and incredibly detailed.
As we walked around, the Good Friday procession was also
winding through the streets with one priest carrying a cross as the nuns and
priests followed him singing and chanting.
In another religious note (although it felt a little
irreverent to me) Chris took us to show us a store that sold Spanish souvenirs.
The popular item was a figurine of a man squatting with his pants pulled down. “Note
the pile of poo under his bum,” Chris pointed out. “The people of Barcelona
have stories about this man in their nativity story. They believe that he came
and pooed in the barn where Jesus was born as a sign that new life was coming.
While most cultures see poo as something nasty and gross in Spain, it is seen
as very clean and sacred. It the only purely natural thing that the human body
produces that can be used, and they often use it for fertilizer.”
It struck me as a bit odd. I’m pretty sure in every version
I’ve read of the Christmas story, nobody walked into the barn and “pooed” while
Mary was giving birth. I remember kings bringing gifts, and shepherds bringing
worship, but I don’t recall any bums dropping off human excrement. But the more
I thought about it, I did have a bit of an “ah-ha” moment. I suppose that this
radical interpretation reveals something very real about religion. The power of
religion is not in memorizing the details and believing in them verbatim. The
power is in interpreting the stories (whatever they may look like) and
discovering the love that they reveal.
“Now he is not the only odd Christmas tradition,” Chris
explained. “In Spain, they have two days of gift giving for Christmas. On
January 6th, they celebrate the birth of Jesus and the arrival of
the kings in Bethlehem. They believe that Jesus brings little kids presents on
that day. But they also celebrate on December 25th, although this
holiday is more secular. Starting on December 8th, when they
celebrate Mary being pregnant, the kids start leaving food out for Uncle
Christmas. On December 25th, if they left enough food, they believe
that Uncle Christ poos out presents for the good little boys and girls.”
Fa-La-La-La-La!
We next went to a plaza to see two capital buildings. The city
capital for Barcelona and the providence capital of Cataluña are right across
from each other in a square. Consequently, this was a frequent site for
political protests and rallies, especially when protesting independence from
Spain.
In this square, Chris pulled out his blue binder again and
told us some of the history of the Spanish civil war. I have to admit, I was
more than a little naïve on the subject. He did a great job of connecting the
end of the Spanish civil war to the start of WWII and showing how so many of
the conflicts in Europe really have been an age old blood feud between warring
families and friends.
In the end of the Spanish Civil War (1939) Spain was
controlled by Fascist dictator Francisco Franco who ruled Spain until his death
in 1975. At that point, he had appointed Juan Carlos to take the throne. Carlos
did, but almost immediately declared Spain a democracy and turned rule over to
a freely elected parliament.
Rounding the corner out of the main square and into a
smaller square, there was a tall wiry statue. This emphasized that Cataluña had
its own traditions separate from Spain. For example, Barcelona did not cheer
for Madrid in Football (Soccer.) When Madrid won the World Cup several years
back, Chris said Barcelona didn’t even acknowledge it in the papers—despite the
fact that the rest of Spain went crazy. Bull fighting has also been outlawed in
Cataluña (despite having the largest bull fighting stadium.) This has nothing
to do with animal cruelty or rights; it was just considered “too Spanish”
according to Chris, so they outlawed it. The irony is that many Cataluña
tourist traps still sell bull statues, even though a true Catalonian would have
nothing to do with them.
This wiry structure however, which was several stories tall,
did recognize a Catalan tradition. “Castell” is the official national sport of Cataluña.
It looks something like cheerleading and is basically an activity where they
build human castles, often five or six stories high. We didn’t get to see a
Castell event while we were there, but this statue marks the highest one built
in that square.
From there we walked down even more narrow streets that were
shaded by balcony plants and laundry lines between buildings. The food from the
restaurants smelled great, as did the orange trees, and blooming flowers. Chris
pointed out the art school that Picasso studied in, and took us to George
Orwell square. I was unaware that Orwell had fought in the Spanish Civil War,
and that the events of Franco’s takeover were his inspiration for 1984.
“Look at that monument they built to him,” Chris said,
pointing at what looked like a giant ball and animated piece of string. “Poor
guy’s probably rolling in his grave! He did all these things for Spain, changed
literature forever, and that’s the best we can do?”
The square was very nice though. It had a small outdoor
playground for children. These seemed to be pretty popular all over town. I’d
seen them on several streets and in most of the little squares.
“Look at the windows in the buildings,” Chris said. That was
when I noticed that most of the doors were boarded up and the windows bricked
over. “Barcelona has had a huge squatter problem, so the mayor has been
bricking up a lot of these empty buildings. At the same time, the city has a
huge homeless problem so a lot of people wonder why he doesn’t turn some of
this into apartments so people have a place to live. He’s not a very popular
mayor right now.”
The next square we went to was the Royal Square. It had a
large fountain and a fancy light post designed by Gaudi. “What do you say we
break for lunch and meet up at 3:30?” Chris suggested. We all agreed that
sounded like a good plan!
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