A walk through the Magic Barcelona - Part One

Barcelona, ​​like all large capitals, has, in addition to the attractions of a cosmopolitan city cornered by those metaphorical sleeping titans, which are the sea and the Pyrenees, a multitude of stories, legends and secrets that make taking a walk through it make it, after all, a great and fascinating adventure.

On the back of an underground story, among that Barcina that served for an unforgettable chapter of the adventures of our most universal knight, Don Quixote de la Mancha, to the Barcelona of the great geniuses of the Reinaixença, in whose works they left an important mark of his heterodox thinking, many are the details whose discovery offers the traveler the opportunity to enter another story, another world.

A world of shadows, enigmas and wonders, which served as the ideal setting for the work of a great Catalonian writer, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, who recently passed away and which takes us into the Chinese alleys of the soul of a city, which, always looking to the future, preserves , however proudly, an amazing past.

Possibly Gaudí and his impressive artistic manifestations are what most attract the attention of some visitors, whose amazement continues to turn into a succession of transcendental experiences when visiting places such as the Sagrada Familia –the so-called cathedral of the poor-, Casa Batlló or that esoteric wonder, which in the background is the impressive Park Güell.

But, in addition to Gaudí, Barcelona invites us to visit many places, whose spell remains unchanged over the centuries, especially if we approach that comparative Kabuki theater, with confronting masks and Chinese shadows, which is its Chinatown and we let ourselves take you through the enchantment of its most significant buildings, such as the cathedral dedicated to the figure of Santa Eulalia, Patron Saint of Barcelona and the no less significant Cathedral of the Sea, whose relevance became topical again when it served as the setting for the fascinating medieval history, by the writer Ildefonso Falcones.

Many are the surprising details of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, but for a matter of space and without trying to exhaust the reader's patience, we will cite only some of the most relevant, hoping they capture your interest and serve as a small guide to a possible visit in the future.

Among them, it is worth highlighting the monumental Romanesque mermaid, one of the most beautiful carvings in Spanish Romanesque art, which is located on one of the doorways that connects the church with the cloister, the latter element, which also has an extraordinary Garden of the Geese, inside which the interesting visitor will always find the same number of geese, thirteen, which symbolically corresponds to the number of wounds suffered by the patron saint, Santa Eulalia, in her martyrdom.

Another added curiosity of the cathedral of Barcelona and also accessible from the cloister, is located in the so-called Chapel of Santa Llucía -Santa Lucía- where the medieval tombstone is preserved, which according to some historians, would correspond to the burial tombstone of a knight templar.

Let us remember, in this regard, that in front of this chapel, the Order of the Temple had a house, which with the passage of time, was converted into the so-called Casa de l'Ardiaca, Arcedian’s House, where a curious carving is located, with a swallow and a turtle, which has a curious story behind it, which will be revealed later, in a future post in which we will pause a little longer to describe one by one the elements that are cited in this first introductory post .

A little further in front of the cathedral, in the direction of the City Hall and the Generalitat, in Bisbe street, a curious bridge serves as the stage for another of those mysterious enigmas of yesterday's Barcelona, ​​when the visitor passing under it and looking towards Above, he meets a curious skull pierced by a dagger.

It will also be seen, next to the famous Casa Batlló, another emblematic building, the masterpiece of the Reinaixença or Catalonia Modernism, the Ametller’s House, whose main entrance and whose patio, I have no doubt that they will arouse the reader's curiosity, for their beauty, its uniqueness and the astonishing mystery it boasts.

The mysterious stature of the Angel of Progress, parallel to the statue of Christopher Columbus, whose finger points towards that Plus Ultra or Beyond America, which broke the old medieval superstitions about that beyond the ocean there was nothing, which serve as a climax for a sunset walk through the magnificent port of Barcelona.

And some other places of interest and relevance, which I hope will make your walk through Magic Barcelona an attractive and unforgettable adventure.

End of the first part

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