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Jan 17th – The festivity “Els Tres Tombs”

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800px-Tres_Tombs_a_Sant_Antoni_-_2011_-_14On Saint Anthony Abat, January 17th, we celebrate “Els 3 Tombs” (the 3 turns). Saint Anthony Abat is the patron Saint of the animals, but those with round feet. It’s a Catholic tradition. Those animals are blessed the nearest Sunday to that date and they make them turn around the villages 3 times. In the past they used to do that around Saint Anthony Church or around his image. At that time, more draft animals came to that festivity because they were the coach engines. Still today, old coaches attend the celebration but people come with their pets too: dogs, cats…

This and next Sunday you can see that tradition in a lot of villages and in the Saint Anthony district of Barcelona.

What is celebrated in Catalonia on September 11th?

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In the Succetion Spanish War the Aragon Crown bet on Charles of Austria in order to recover the politic power Aragon had had before joining Castilla. On the other hand the Bourbon saw the opportunity to enlarge his hegemony in Europe if they would occupy the Spanish Throne. This would affect the European stability and different countries took part in the Thirty years’ War. In the end England abandoned the conflict, leaving the Aragon Crown alone in front of the franc-Castilian army.

The opposition was hard and in 1713 the franc-Castilian army sieged of Barcelona city. The city with an army of 5000 soldiers didn’t surround, it maintained the siege 13 months, until on September 11 of 1714 when the franc-Castilian army crossed the city walls with 40000 soldiers. At that point the city decided to offer resistance street by street. Many of them died. And even the enemy chronicle speaks about the braveness of the citizens. Finally Barcelona felt and one year later Mallorca and Menorca did.

The punishment was great and the Institutions of the Crown, the Nation, the Laws, the Catalan language… were abolished or forbidden by the Decree of Nueva Planta. All power would be centralised from Madrid.

At beginning of the XX century, Catalonia adopted this September 11 as its National Day. It’s celebrated the braveness thought which they fought and Institutions are recalled which Catalonia and the Aragon Crown had possessed until then.

Visiting Montserrat

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When a group decides to visit Montserrat and asks me to go up from Barcelona, visit the Sanctuary and return in five hours and sometimes in four, I think: it’s a shame to spend so much time on that trip and then visit the place so quickly (the sanctuary of Montserrat is an hour driving time away from Barcelona).

Montserrat is not only worth for its spirituality which is connected with the Catalan people and history, but for the mountain itself.

Once, a traveller told me: “here you can breathe peace”. It’s true! For example, some neighbors of Calella (a little town near Barcelona) meet here tree days every year to reinforce their relationship. Others, when they get married, decide to spend some peaceful days in the mountain before going on honeymoon to the other part of the world.

In my opinion the visit to Montserrat is not only to visit the Madonna’s room and to listen to the Choir School (video). People should live the mountain. You can reach the sanctuary by road. I’m not going to ask you to reach it walking as a lot of pilgrims do, but it’s more attractive to go up by cable car or by rack railway which makes us be more in contact with the mountain.

When I arrive there, I can’t help eating a portion of “Mel i Mató” (a peculiar cheese and honey). My mam started this familiar tradition and we do it every time we go up to the mountain. Cheese and honey are elaborated by the local farmers, who go up every day to sell their products.

After the breakfast, there are different options: I always recommend going up to the highest point of the mountain with the Sant Joan Funicular railway. From there, there are different kinds of paths for every kind of legs: from those which take 20 minutes and are flat, until those which lead you to visit the hermitages of the mountain. Sant Jeroni hermitage is the farthest. Only for the views over Catalonia it’s worth going up there. I’m always impressed with the fraternity of the people when they meet in mountain: maybe they don’t know each other but they always greet saying “Bon dia!” (Good Morning).

Coming back, now that we have been part of the mountain, maybe we would appreciate in a different way the songs of the Choir School. We can go to visit the Black Madonna of Montserrat, see Saint Ignatius of Loyola sword or the Votive Offering Room. If you have any prayer to the Madonna leave a candle to her. Guided by a tour guide we have known a little bit better Catalonia, their traditions and their history. Now, what can be better than to know the Catalan cuisine eating “Mongetes amb Botifarra” (beans with an artisan sausage) in a restaurant of the place?

After eating, visiting the museum of Montserrat can be a good option. It includes pictures from the Gothic stile until Contemporary Art.

Fake Tour Guides

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Yesterday I was in front of the Cathedral of Barcelona with a group. When I finished my explanation two girls approached me and asked me about the “Castellers” (a human tower which is a Catalan tradition). They had gone there because the previous day a supposed tour guide told them that it was possible to see the Castellers every Sunday at 7 pm in front of the Cathedral. I told them that it is possible to see the “Sardana“ on Sunday morning but not the Castellers unless it were an special festivity.

I recommended them to choose the next time an official tour guide with the accreditation of the Generalitat (the local government). I have recently seen that there are foreign people who come here to spend some time or their holidays and they decide to work in the meantime as tour guides. They offer their services through the Internet. Some companies contract their services because they are much cheaper than the official guides.

It’s a shame that after deciding to contract a guided tour you only receive a lot of misinformation. In order to be an official tour guide we have to pass a hard exam to prove that we have the right knowledge and the qualification to transmit it.

If you spend a lot of money to travel, please don’t waste it with illegal professionals.

Here you have a picture of the official accreditation and here you can check the list of the official tour guides of Catalonia.

Enjoy your holidays!!!

Monument to Francesc Macià – Catalonia Square

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Walking around by Catalonia Square, at Barcelona downtown, you have stopped in front of this monument. I like it very much! It’s dedicated to the President of the Generalitat de Catalonia (the Catalane Government) called Francesc Macià 1859-1933.

Catalane people loved him; they called him L’AVI, the Grandfather in catalane language. When he died a big procession of citizens assisted to his funeral.

On April 14th 1931 he proclaimed “the Catalane Republic inside the Iberian Federation of Republics”

This is not the unique monument that we have dedicated to him in Barcelona and Catalonia, but I like this one in special, because the sculptor Josep Maria Subirach (the same one who did the sculptures of the dead façade of the Sagrada Familia), designed a stair with the steps upside down. One way to represent the statement of Macia when he said How difficult is every step that a politic has to do in his career.

 

“Caga Tió” and the Epiphany’s day in Catalonia

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In a lot of countries, different Christmas characters bring presents to children and adults. In Catalonia we have two of them.

On December 24th we do the “Caga Tió”. The Tió is a log which appears in the living room’s homes before Christmas. Children feed it with pieces of fruit every day, but on the 24th afternoon, after singing Christmas carol as part of the crib, they hit with a stick and at the same time they sing a song asking that character to defecate cookies, neules and torrons (Christmas suits) and some little presents.

On the other hand, the biggest day is the Epiphany’s day, on January 6th. We commemorate when the Tree Wise Men (the Magic Kings) went to see Christ to worship and present him with gold, incense and myrrh. Previously, children write the “Carta als Reis” (a letter to the Magic Kings asking them to fulfill their wish) and they bring their letters to the Royal Page (his assistance).

Besides, in those days children gather to build the Nativity lanterns with which they go out to the street to have the “Crida als Reis” (they light the way for the Magic Kings and sing popular songs). On January 5th afternoon, all children and parents attend the Epiphany Parade (cavalcade) to see how the tree Wise Men accompanied by their pages and assistance, arrive to the city, walk around with majestic carriages and throw away candies (I leave you a video).

The Epiphany is a day to meet the loving people and we eat the “Tortell de Reis” (kings’ doughnut) in which two little figures are hidden: anyone who finds the king figure will have the right to keep the crow which is in the centre. Whoever finds the broad been will pay for the kings’ doughnut.

 

Shall you tell me same details about your Christmas?

 

Wealthy Barcelona

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According to the news, one out of four euros tourists spend in Barcelona; they do so in Passeig the Gràcia Avenue.

Passeig the Gràcia was the street chosen by wealthy people to live in since they broke down the city walls in the middle of XIX century. Thereafter, replacing Ramblas Avenue, it’d become the most elegant street in Barcelona. An example of this is Santa Eulàlia Boutique, which was already present at Pla de la Boqueria (Rambla Av.) since 1843, and in 1941 it decided to establish in Passeig the Gràcia Av. Now we find the greatest brands: Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Loewe, and Hermès… even Appel has found its place.

Besides, there are a lot of new luxury hotels in the city. And now, a Russian company wants to turn Port Vell (a marina just in front of Barcelona) into a new luxurious marina which would attack huge yachts and fortunes.

 

The city, with any doubt, is changing. Some people think it’s for good, others believe we are losing our essence.

 

Enric Sagnier: an unknown Architect in Barcelona

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Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia was an architect well related with wealthy people and clergy, and this let him to be the architect who built more buildings in Barcelona (over 300). Despite that, he also built out of Barcelona. He applied eclectic style (different styles together in the same building), neoclassical style, and some time he was closer to modernist style. He found the inspiration, such as Renaixença movement suggested, in the medieval architecture (Romanesque and Gothic), splendor time of the medieval Catalonia.

Going around Barcelona, it’s sure that you have seen lots of his works: the Expiatory Temple of Sacred Heart (Tibidabo basilica) for the Salesians of Don Bosco; the New Custom of Barcelona; the Justice Palace; the Caixa Pensions building in Via Laietana Avenue; the Pons houses in Catalonia square with Passeig de Gràcia Av., and in front the mythic and disappeared Hotel Colom (photo); the Manuel Arnús house, known as “el Pinar” and Arnús bank in Catalonia square with Rambla.

There are many more, but due to his relationship with the clergy and the conservative politicians he was despised by the Noucentista movement, and as a consequence remaining in darkness. At present, different private and public institutions offer exhibit to know him better.

Anís del Mono Factory

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The only existing factory of the anisette “Anís del Mono” is located in Badalona. It’s an 1870 modernist jewel and, you can not only visit it, but every year it produces more than 4 million of liters of that liquor well known throughout the World.

The factory was founded by José and Vicente Bosch brothers, when they joined and decided to re-locate here the distillation of different liquors which José produced since 1865 in another factory in the center of Badalona.The liquor which would get the fame was “Anisado Refinado Vicente Bosch” (the refined anisette Vicente Bosch) which is in fact the name of the product, but Badalona population knew it as “Anís del Mono” (The monkey’s anisette), due to Vicente Bosch used to have a monkey in the factory yard, animal quite exotic in that time. Such was that habit of calling the liquor with that name, that the monkey’s figure ended up on the bottle label, but with Darwin’s heat, because Darwin in 1859, with his masterwork “On the Origen of the Spices”, had ideas so strange like man come from the ape.

The catalane painter Ramon Casas was the artist of a lot of Modernist Posters at the moment, used by companies as advertising. Companies such as Anís del Mono (see picture); Codorniu; or Cacaolat.

Now, even though the factory belongs to Osborne Group, the liquor is produced in the same handicraft way and, besides, since this year “Aromes de Montserrat” (a liquor produced by the Benedictine monks of Montserrat) is produced also here.

To visit it

The roman soldier of the Sagrada Familia with 6 toes in each foot

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On the Birth facade of the Sagrada Família there is a sculpture which represents a Roman soldier in the “Massacre of the Innocents”.

Gaudí and Matamala sculptors’ team were choosing casual passers-by to use them as a models for the different sculptures. They took a picture with a set of mirrors of the chosen person. In that way, they got in the same picture every part of that person and so they made the corresponding sculpture.

The chosen person to represent the Roman soldier was one of the Sagrada Família workers. Everyone was astonishes when they took the picture and realised he had six toes in each foot. Matamala proposed to sculpt only five, but Gaudí said “No” and asked to represent him just as he was, in order to show how different was someone capable to kill innocent under two years old children, even if the soldiers followed king Herod’s orders. So here we have the Roman six toes soldier.

If you want to know the Sagrada Familia, I suggest you the the Gaudí Tour.