El Cap de Barcelona. This massive mosaic is right in the center of Barcelona, and we stumbled upon it as we were exploring the city. It is MASSIVE and thus has good potential as a landmark for when you're lost. You can tell people to just meet you by the big face.
This is said to be a nod to Antoni Gaudi and was built by the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein for the Summer Olympics of 1992.
This is said to be a nod to Antoni Gaudi and was built by the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein for the Summer Olympics of 1992.
One cannot go to Barcelona and miss the art and architecture of Antoni Gaudi! Here we are in the Park Guell at Gaudi's fountain. This fountain is insanely beautiful. I knew that it was in Barcelona, but I had forgotten about it. We were riding through the park on bikes and rollerblades, stopping to see various pieces of art as we passed them by, when we burst through a path and found ourselves in front of this masterpiece. The fountain is huge, and the water is an unreal blue-green. The detail of the fountain is like nothing I have ever seen, with dragons and other mythical creatures spitting water at all angles. The winding steps up the back of the fountain are so uniquely Gaudi as well. This was my favorite piece of art that we saw in Barcelona.
Here we have a nice selfie of me with the Casa Batllo, another one of Gaudi's famous works in Barcelona. Gaudi's art and architecture helped to give birth to the Modernisme movement and give the Catalan people a national style, which was important as they were experiencing their own Renaissance in the mid-19th century. Gaudi's unique character can be seen in the facade of the Casa Battlo, which looks like a pile of skulls and bones with a dragon on top. This type of style was unprecedented and was thus very controversial for it's time, but the people of Barcelona have grown to consider it to be a huge source of pride for their people.