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There is soul in these streets

Art, architecture, history, sport. Catalonian capital Barcelona's vibrant streets reflect all these and much more

CATALONIA'S PRIDE Barcelona has a pulsating energy

The first irreconcilable impression of Barcelona that one gets is how unlike it is from the rest of Spain. The impression then only gathers momentum. In fact, Barcelona (the capital of Catalonia) could with ease pass off as a cosmopolitan, stylish sibling of any other European city. Catalans by virtue of habit, proudly state that they are from Catalonia (refrain from calling them Spaniards). It is almost as if in their subterranean consciousness, they identify Catalonia as a small but distinct and separate country.

Barcelona has a feisty, exotic and unpredictable terrain. Hedged by wooded hills and the sea, this Mediterranean port has had an explosion of artistic expression. It is as though the city's soul is circumscribed by art, design, style and creativity. Its riotous ornamentation gives Barcelona a wonderful, self-assured look and poise. Alternatively, it is at times labelled as a haughty city.

La Ramblas, Barri Gothic and the surrounding maze of streets constitute Barcelona's atmosphere and soul. La Ramblas (name derived from Arabic denoting a stream) was originally a small stream, which eventually got paved. It is the most lively and busiest pedestrian boulevard. As a foil to Barcelona's chic urban streets, the historic Gothic Quarter's (Barri Gothic) medieval appearance has been duly preserved. There are numerous narrow lanes, multiplying further into alleys; all in tight, compact spaces holding an inalienable tenancy of history (it is in one of these squares that Christopher Colombus was received by the royalty Ferdinand and Isabel on his return after discovering America).

The compelling lure of La Ramblas and Barri Gothic is their accommodation of diverse elements in their space. The juxtaposition seems almost theatrical. On this seemingly contiguous area, you have food, birds, flower markets, churches, opera houses, theatres, shops, cafes and museums (varying from art to textiles to erotica). Into this decorative jungle, musicians, dancers, jugglers and a multitude of street performers with a speculative eye trained on tourists perform their acts. What stood as truly original were the impossible feats performed by two artisans with a football as a tribute to their home team FC Barcelona.

Almost every square foot of these busy sidewalks is stamped by human breath and odour. The bustling energy is palpable. The cafes (each advertising to serve Barcelona's best sangria, tapas and paella) are perennially full.

"Not all those who frequent this bailiwick are tourists," says Carlos, a proprietor of a newspaper stall at La Ramblas.

The Barcelonans too make a fine art of hanging out with nonchalance. They may blithely dine out and create visual brushstrokes of enjoying the pleasure dromes of their city. They, however, are the most hardworking, commercial-minded Spaniards. The Catalonian air of freedom has been won from sinister dark shadows (of Spanish civil war, of Franco's dictatorship) with staunch, hard work and obsessive pride.

Barcelona's topography is dotted with architectural offerings of its most flamboyant, inventive and controversial architect Antonio Gaudi. He had a soaring and definitive imagination of how lines and colours of edifices should resonate; a profound relationship with its surroundings and Nature. He started a whole movement (called Modernisme) of building with colour using a mosaic of ceramic tiles portraying floral motifs, mixing Medieval images with facets of art nouveau. Parks, public spaces, residential complexes, schools and royal estates were all given daring flourishes and embellishments by Gaudi (he abhorred straight lines and symmetry).

Barcelona's most frequented and easily Gaudi's most famous yet incomplete work is La Sagrada Familia. As one stands next to the cathedral, the stone tableau echoes a voice of the dead architect. The cathedral's spiralling towers with sinuous curves, the pillars and columns sculpted like trees with roots and flowing branches, the detailed facades, the sense of unique geometry... it's like a visual textbook of Gaudi's school of architecture.

In his lifetime, Gaudi could only complete a small part of his complex blueprint (the North Eastern façade is the much revered section of the church as it was personally supervised by Gaudi). More than a hundred years later, the construction still continues. Through the site hordes of people walk curiously undiminished, exclaiming over the sheer verticality of the towers and attempting to envisage the complete picture. As an architect on site categorically dismissed the much delayed schedule by saying, most of the great churches of Rome and Florence took over 200 years to build.

Barcelona has an ingenious artistic legacy. Artists like Picasso, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali at some phase of their life soaked in the environment of Barcelona. They have done huge volumes of work whilst they were anchored in this port city.

At Pablo Espagnol, a re-creation of a Spanish village depicting various geographical areas of Spain, artisans have gathered to form a forum for their craft. The craft ranges from jewellery making to painting, glass blowing, woodcraft and metal-craft. On the surface, the small boutiques could seem to be just souvenir shops. A deeper look reveals sheer enterprise and creative innovations.

A middle-aged craftswoman, specialising in hand embroidery, recognising our Indian nationality, showed us a book she was reading. It was a Spanish translation of Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali. We were duly informed that the best translations of Tagore's books were in Spanish, followed by Russian.

Truly, the cover design and layout of the book would have gratified the grandmaster artist and poet of Shantiniketan.

SADHANA RAO

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