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Wonders of Barcelona

If you are looking for the 7 wonders of Barcelona, in this page, I will talk about the 7 marvelous things to discover. The city has such much beautiful monuments or interesting parks to see that someone can be lost in the choices even for a person living here.

In fact, it was very difficult to choose because there are a lot of great things that I find beautiful and impressive but at the end, here the list.

The catalan music palace (calle palau de la música 4-6). Declared in 1987 World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it was a project by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and this building is a pure beauty.

Inaugurated in 1908, it is the headquarters of the Orfeó Català society founded in 1891 by Lluís Millet and Amadeu Vives, it was and it is still a symbol of the catalan culture, the reason why you will see a lot of decorations of the symbol of Catalonia representing by the 4 sticks. You can’t stay indifferent, no matter if you are in or out because the inside is as much spectacular as the outside. The main façade is made of red bricks decorated with ceramics by Lluís Brú, the impressive sculpture on the corner, which represents a group of people, is to pay tribute to the popular song and it is a work by Miquel Blay. Once you will enter, you will discover great arts like the ride of the walkiries and Beethoven sculptures by Pau Gargallo and Dídac Massana, relief works decorated with ceramics by Eusebi Arnau and Mario Maragliano, the beautiful big lamp by Rigalt i Granell...

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The central nave of Sagrada Familia (calle mallorca 401). The main nave has been finished in september 2010 by following the original design of Antoi Gaudí i Cornet based on a model sculpted at a scale of 1:10. Inaugurated one month later, I was amazed by its beauty when I visited it, the colors of the magnificent stained glass windows reflect prettily on its white wall when the sun crosses through them, its high vault is made of venetian mosaic tiles using the catalan vault technique consisting of the overlapping of several caps of bricks with mortar. The way from the glory façade to the apse represents the humanity (via humanitatis), from the nativity façade to the passion one, the Jesus Christ (via christi) and the cloister, the church (via ecclesiae). If you go near to the presbytery, raise your head and you will spot 4 nice colored capitals (blue, red, yellow and green) with pictures of the evangelist in each. To see Gaudi, you will have to go to the Passion façade, just above the main door, look to the statue on the left, it is him, a work by Josep Maria Subirachs i Sitjar.

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The fountain of the ciutadella park (passeig pujades 10). Officially named Cascada (Waterfall), the fountain is a beautiful masterpiece which a lot of great artisans worked on the project directed by Josep Fontserè. You will look undeniably towards the golden sculpture called Aurora Chariot by Rossend Nobas situated on the top but also the 4 griffins by Rafael Atché where water comes out from their mouth and the representation of the Venus birth by Venanci Vallmitjana. There are also small beautiful statues like Amphitrite by Josep Gamot, Neptune and Leda by Manel Fuxà, Danae by Joan Flotats and the fronton by Francesc Pagès i Serratosa. Even Gaudi intervened by designing the hydraulic and the artificial cave of Cascada.

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The park guell (calle olot 7). Do I have to say something about it ?? Declared in 1984 as World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the park, designed by Gaudi for the count Eusebi Güell, should be a high standing area where, normally, 60 houses should be built surrounded by a huge garden for sale but only 2 has been completed, one was the house of the architect and the other for Martí Trias i Domènech. Due to the first world war and after the death of the count, the heirs decided to sell it to the City Hall and by this way, it was changed in a public park. There are a lot of areas to discover like the hall of columns called hipostila, the wave room called washerwoman porch, the ceramic dragon at the entrance, the main square with its undulating ceramic bench… Moreover, there are 2 great views on the city, one situated on the east side from a small square and the other to the west side, from the top of the calvary, you will have a 360 degrees view.

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The fountain of the espanya square. This impressive big fountain was designed by Josep Maria Jujol and it was part of the project to built the espanya square by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Guillem Busquets but finalized by Antoni Darder. I’m really attracted by the beauty of its statues which are all paying tribute to the sea and done by Miquel Blay and the brothers Miquel and Llucià Oslé. The fountain is built above a pond of triangular form where, on each side, there are sculptures representing the 3 rivers flowing into the seas surrounding Spain, the Ebro river to the Mediterranean Sea, the Guadalquivir and the Tagus rivers to the Atlantic Ocean.

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The panoramic viewpoint of Tibidabo. Tibidabo is the highest peak of the Collserola Mountain which overlooks Barcelona. If you walk up the rambla de catalunya street, you will see it at the horizon, particularly during night time because you will spot an illuminated building, which is a church with a big statue of Jesus on its roof, on the top of the mountain. Like you can guess, once there, you will enjoy a splendid view on the city and on the sea, a beautiful way to witness a beautiful sunset.

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The magic fountain (plaza de carles buïgas). It is a fantastic and magic show full of colors, music and water but in the beginning, the show didn’t include any sound. The fountain is a work by Carles Buigas who built it for the 1929 Universal Exhibition on the area where was destroyed the original 4 columns of Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1928. In spite that the mechanism was handcrafted, he was able to create a game of water with 30 different combinations mixing with colors. During the spanish civil war, it was damaged and people could enjoy it again after that Carles repaired it in 1955. In the 1980’s, the music was integrated in the show and just before the 1992 Olympic Games, it was totally renovated and improved by keeping majority of the original mechanisms. Nowadays, there are 2600 liters of water flowing per second to create this wonderful show thanks to 3 concentric reservoirs, a recirculation system and the subsoil water from the Montjuic mountain. The show is running from thursday to saturday between 21h and 23h30 (summer time, may 1 to september 30) and friday to saturday between 19h and 21h (winter time, october 1 to april 30). Each 30 minutes starts a new session and each one is different than the others.

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But I will not end it here, now I will tell you 7 of the 7 wonders to know classified by category, a kind of “best of” without repeating those ones on this topic but keep in mind that the wonders described above are my top favorites so if you are interested, here you go.