Building Art
Barcelona doesn’t do “cookie cutter.” Much of the architecture
is wildly creative and even ordinary buildings – ones you’ll never see
on postcards – are covered with all kinds of ornament.
Gaudi’s work is just the beginning. Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia and such are rightly
famous, but a walk in the Eixample is richly rewarding just for the variety of colors, textures,
doors and windows, balconies and sculptural flourishes you find in the facades. Only in
Barcelona could La Manzana de Discordia (the block of discord, on Passeig de Gracia)
exist – symbolic of the whole city’s juxtaposition of clashing styles. The amazing thing is,
like “eclectic” furniture in a house, somehow it all works. Credit Barcelona with constructing
buildings – one of the newest is the Torre Agbar – that defy convention and controversy.
