Gay Barcelona city info

   J F M A M J J A S O N D 

temp. in C 11 12 13 16 19 23 26 25 23 19 14 11

Hours of sun per day 5 6 6 7 8 9 10 9 7 6 5 4

Days with rain 3 3 5 5 5 4 2 4 5 6 4 5

La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia is a must see! Even if you don't have

much time, don't miss it. It is the life's work of Barcelona's

 most favourite architect, Antoni Gaudí, the magnificent

spires of the unfinished cathedral imprint themselves boldly

against the sky with swelling outlines inspired by the holy

mountain Montserrat. They are encrusted with a tangle of

sculptures that seem to breathe life into the stone. Gaudí

died in 1926 before his masterwork was completed, and since then, controversy has continually dogged the building program. Nevertheless, the southwestern (Passion) facade, with four more towers, is almost done, and the nave, begun in 1978, is progressing. Some say the shell should have been left as a monument to the architect, but today's chief architect, Jordi Bonet, argues that the task is a sacred one, as it's a church intended to atone for sin and appeal to God's mercy on Catalunya.

Las Ramblas

Five separate streets strung end to end, La Rambla (also called Las Ramblas) is a tree-lined pedestrian boulevard packed with buskers, living statues, mimes and itinerant salespeople selling everything from lottery tickets to jewellery. The noisy bird market on the second block of La Rambla is worth a stop, as is the nearby Palau de la Virreina, a grand 18th-century rococo mansion, with arts and entertainment information and a ticket office. Next door is La Rambla's most colourful market, the Mercat de la Boqueria. Just south of the Boqueria the Mosaic de Miró punctuates the pavement, with one tile signed by the artist. The next section of La Rambla boasts the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the famous 19th-century opera house. Below the Plaça Reial, La Rambla becomes decidedly seedy, with strip clubs and peep shows. La Rambla terminates at the lofty Monument a Colom (Monument to Columbus) and the harbour. You can ascend the monument by lift. Just west of the monument, on Avinguda de les Drassanes, stand the Reials Drassanes (Royal Shipyards), which house the fascinating Museu Marítim. It has more seafaring paraphernalia than you'd care to wag a sextant at - boats, models, maps, paintings, ships' figureheads and 16th-century galleys.

Barri Gotic

The Barri Gotic contains a concentration

of medieval Gothic buildings only a few

blocks northeast of La Rambla,

and is the nucleus of old Barcelona.

It's a maze of interconnecting dark streets

 linking with squares, and there

are plenty of cafes and bars, as

well as the cheapest accommodation

in town. Most of the buildings date from

the 14th and 15th century, when Barcelona

was at the height of its commercial prosperity and before it had been absorbed into Castile. Around the Catedral, one of Spain's greatest Gothic buildings, you can still see part of the ancient walls incorporated into later structures. The quarter is centred around the Plaça de Sant Jaume, a spacious square, the site of a busy market and one of the venues for the weekly dancing of the sardana. Two of the city's most significant buildings are here, the Ajuntament and the Palau de la Generalitat.

La Pedrera

Another Gaudí masterpiece, La Pedrera was built between

1905 and 1910 as a combined apartment and office block.

Formerly called the Casa Milà, it's better known now as La

Pedrera (the quarry) because of its uneven grey stone facade

that ripples around a street corner - it creates a wave effect

that's further emphasized by elaborate wrought-iron balconies.

Visitors can tour the building and go up to the roof, where

giant multicoloured chimney pots jut up like medieval knights. On summer weekend nights, the roof is eerily lit and open for spectacular views of Barcelona. One floor below the roof is a modest museum dedicated to Gaudí's work.

Montjuic

Montjuic, the hill overlooking the city centre from the southwest, is home to some fine art galleries, leisure attractions, soothing parks and the main group of 1992 Olympic sites. Approach the area from Plaça d'Espanya and on the north side you'll see Plaça de Braus Les Arenes, a former bullring where the Beatles played in 1966. Behind it lies Parc Joan Miró, where stands Mir?'s highly phallic sculpture Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird). Nearby, the Palau Nacional houses the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which has an impressive collection of Romanesque art. Stretching up a series of terraces below the Palau Nacional are fountains, including the biggest, La Font Màgica, which comes alive with a free lights and music show on summer evenings. In the northwest of Montjuic is the 'Spanish Village', Poble Espanyol. At first glance it's a tacky tourist trap, but it also proves to be an intriguing scrapbook of Spanish architecture, with very convincing copies of buildings from all of Spain's regions. The Anella Olímpica (Olympic Ring) is the group of sports installations where the main events of the 1992 games were held. Down the hill, visit masterpieces of another kind in the Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona's gallery for the greatest Catalan artist of the 20th century. This is the largest single collection of the his work.