The Room With The View: Six Months In Montserrat

Barcelona's "La Boqueria" (15th June 2011)

Spain has many covered town markets and is well known for its abundant produce of fruits, vegetables and meats. The famous "Mercat de la Boqueria" ("Boqueria Market"), along the central La Rambla street, is a typical example of a Spanish-style Grand Bazaar, although without the spices and neither so old nor so vast, but still full of pyramids of fruit and vegetables and rows and rows of Spanish hams and chorizos and fuet.

The first stall which greets you once inside the market: not many stalls can boast such large quantities of so many exotic fruits in a European town!

Although the surrounding area is known for being a bit rough at night, during the daytime this place is bustling with tourists and early bird shoppers. Shopping for fruit and fish in the early hours is still typical in many parts of Spain, when women gather quickly to buy the best of everything. Most stalls will be still be open at around 7 pm, and one can simply wonder down the aisles looking at all the typical Spanish and Catalan products or looking for something more exotic.

Sugared fruit is a very popular food in Spain, and about a third of the stalls at the Boqueria are lined with entire trays of these products.

Another famous covered market in BCN is the "Born" mercat. Although it is currently being restored and turned into a museum, this market is one of the most important examples of iron buildings in Spain, and along with "La Boqueria" and most other Spanish covered markets, it is part of a rich history of Spain's architectural and economic history and heritage. Most urban areas, from a small fishing village in Galicia to Madrid, Spain's capital, will have at least one of these, standing as a testament to the importance of trade in Spain since a long time ago.

Until the late mid 20th Century, most people in Spain were either directly or indirectly linked to this trade, either by being the people cultivating the land or the people selling and transporting them to and from the markets. Markets became a meeting place for the people, and a few still remain as such today, although some invarioably have been overtaken by a strong tourist presence.

Picasso: a hidden jewel (15th June 2011)

Hidden in two converted town palaces in the busy Montcada street is one of Barcelona's hidden jewels: the Picasso Museum.

For only €6 I was able to visit this Mecca of Modernist art. This impressive collection of the arttist's paintings was the first Picasso Museum to be opened, during the artist's life, in the late 19th Century. It houses a huge array of piece which span the artist's early years, from around 1890 to around 1917. You can see the earliest paintings, which are heavily influenced by old Catalan painters in style and subject, as well as the more particular style which Picasso developed throughout his "Blue era" and some cubist influence emerging in later portraits. This museum is a true testament to the artist's development in style throughout these few years from simply another artist into a fully fledged Modernist master.

This development becomes very obvious as you walk through the different halls, starting with very early paintings and ending with very Modernist ones. The museum ends with an extensive collection of interpretation devoted entirely to various years of studying of Velazquez's "Las Meninas", one of the world's greatest artistic jewels, permanently housed in Madrid's Prado Museum. These 50 or so paintings and sketches were part of an in-depth analysis of this famed painting, and is perhaps one of the most obvious examples in the museum of Picasso's emerging cubist style.

Perhaps what I found most impressive was the harmony between the two converted palaces and their modern inhabitants. The wooden ceilings, imposing courtyards and tall arched windows are in sharp contrast to the diverse collection of modern art, pottery and even sculpture hidden within these stone walls. It is a perfect showcase of cultural and artistic heritage, through which beautiful buildings are preserved for all to see.

Like most other major sites in Barcelona, this should definitely be a must-see for any visitor, whether a fanatic of art, a student of architecture, or simply an amateur (or proffessional) photographer in search of the lesser known face of the Modernist capital of Europe. and for an entrance fee of €6, this is definitely a good deal for such a packed experience!

The Room With The View (last days at Montserrat)

It's sad to think that in the next couple of days I will be leaving Montserrat... It's not just been a Gap Student job in a school: I have travelled, known many people, and visited an infinite number of places, and got to know the Catalan culture very well.

Here I have gathered a few of the photos I have taken over the last few months which I think summarize exactly what Montserrat is all about: I will be uploading quite a few, so I will divide them over a few posts: