MONTSERRAT

A SACRED PLACE

“But would you estimate the full majesty of this place and all its fragrance, wait till the setting sun traces out upon the ocean the vast shadow of the mountain; till the evening breezes drive the clouds with increased rapidity across the rocks: then commence your solitary course.”

— J. Hinton - 1807

Mountains and caves often attract spiritual energies - the one with a masculine energy: reaching to the sky, the other a feminine energy: going deep into the earth. Various religions have equated the sky with a god, and portrayed the earth as a goddess - our mother.

Thus, a mountain may be seen as the meeting of the two points, the touching of the heavens and the earth.

And if a mountain may be a meeting of heaven and sky, and if the earth may be called our mother, then a home within a cave may be called a womb. 

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A SMALL HISTORY OF THE WONDERS OF THE MOUNTAIN OF MONTSERRAT

It is no wonder, then, that people have been drawn to live in and to visit the caves on the mountains of Montserrat, since time immemorial. First there existed a temple to Venus, then a hermitage, with the hermits living in the scattered caves far up in the mountains. Later, an abbey was founded, and monks began to practice on the mountain. A figure of the Virgin Mary was carved and was heralded as a relic of St Luke, drawing pilgrims and kings. Stories were told of the mountain, myths created. In the nineteenth century, Wagner's Parsifal - an opera in three parts - named the mysterious 'Montsalvat' mountain as the hiding place of the Holy Grail. Subsequently, a belief was created that Montserrat is that very mountain, and a cult was formed, and Wagner became immensely popular in nearby Barcelona. Even later still, one could find new age enthusiasts on the mountain, searching for the sacred feminine, and believing that the spot is, in fact, the heart chakra of the earth. 

But who, upon visiting the mountain, could fault these people. When I made my visit, I felt as if the mountain itself were alive, and I was reminded of the scene in 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' - of the humming noise, the pure vibration, and the entrancing feeling the rock emits. While the statue of the Virgin might be a 9th century fake, as the most recent scientific analyses show, there is always that grain of truth in the matter. Besides, I do believe that years of focused thought - or devotion - can accumulate until a space or a concept becomes a virtual well of energy, filled from the ages. 

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MY OWN FORAYS ON THE MOUNTAIN

Finding myself slightly tipsy from the wine at lunch, I wandered the silent paths of Montserrat.

It was winter, and once I passed the large cross on the hill, I was alone. 

The wind whistled through the cracks of this high-up place.

Something (probably the wine) encouraged me enough to sing to myself - The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music.

The further I went, the less alone I began to feel. It was an odd feeling, like something was there with me, watching me. 

Up up up, on the wind swept paths, I happened upon some of the older hermitage buildings - now closed. The wind had acquired a force previously unknown to me, and was trying to hurl my off the dizzying heights.

And then I reached the caves. On the peak of St Jerome, a series of small, interlinking caverns exists, where hermits once carved out their existence. The view of Catalonia below was spectacular, the sun was setting, and I felt both chilled and slightly exhilarated. 

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A Spot of Serendipity

Up on the peak of St Jerome, I noticed the time and realised I had to make it back to catch the last funicular of the day, in order to then catch my flight back home to France. A mountain goat could not have made it back down faster than I did.

What ensued was one of the weirdest scenarios I have ever encountered: a chance meeting with two young pilgrims: Matthew and Spencer, who then helped me to jump the barriers of the Barcelona metro, catch a train, run back to my hostel, grab my bags, hurriedly hug my new friends goodbye, and rush rush rush to get that flight back home. 

BARCELONIAN ARCHITECTURE

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ANTONI GAUDÍ

AND ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE

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AN ARCHITECTURE WITH A PHILOSOPHY

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PICTURE THIS...

It is the late 1800's, and Ildefons Cerdà is planning the new city of Barcelona. But unlike Baron Haussmann, who had to first demolish the city of Paris in order to create his wide avenues, Cerdà has nothing to demolish, instead he is working with an open plain: a blank slate.

Now imagine that, to the North of the city, and a train ride of only a few hours, is Paris and her Grand Expositions; an influence surely felt in Barcelona. There, Art Nouveau is a burgeoning movement, pushing forward modern ideas, abandoning the straight line for the curved one.

A little further to the West is England, and the equally influential Arts and Crafts movement, led by the prominent figures of John Ruskin and William Morris. Ruskin and Morris are currently calling for a revival of the handicrafts, in reaction to that pesky Industrial Revolution which seems to be degrading both production methods and societal values with its infernal factories. As you read the manifestos of Ruskin, you read of medieval values, of guild-like societies filled with skilled artisans, and of objects that can be both beautiful and truly functional. 

In fact, all the West seems to be aglow with change, what with the Jugendstil movement in Germany, and Wagner's writings on Total Art; the rise of Liberty Style in Italy; and even the new Glasgow Style in Scotland. 

However, to the East and South of Barcelona, picture the shores of the architectural orient; picture the Moorish monuments of Spain, the intricate artifacts of the Mudéjar and Nazarí arts, and the sprawl of the Alhambra. Picture, also, the remnants of a Gothic past, so riddled with trifles between the East and West, that at the very crux of it a new style was born.

And smack-bang in the very middle of this picture is Barcelona. It is 1888 - the year of the first Barcelona World Fair. The city is in midst of a nationalist resurgence - a 'Renaixença' or rebirth of Catalan culture. It is also in the midst of an artistic revolution: Modernisme. While Lluís Domènech i Montaner is trekking through Catalonia in search of a national heritage, recording it in his sketches of Gothic buildings; others are busy planning a modern and cosmopolitan city. The result is the Modernista architectural movement - an intriguing combination of foreign and nationalist movements, of old and new styles. 

The times, they are a-changin'. 

This was the environment in which Antoni Gaudí began his career. Gaudí himself felt each of these influences keenly, and the results may be seen in many of his works: we may glimpse the curved lines so beloved by Art Nouveau, and the prominence of handicrafts as set out by Ruskin and Morris - as, from the ironworks to the stained glass, to the very furniture inside his buildings, Gaudí considered each detail to be important. In his works we may also see the intersecting influences of Nationalism, Orientalism, and the Gothic Revival, so popular at the time.

Thus, in the beginning, Gaudí's works were a dynamic culmination of Barcelona's past and present. 

But then his works began to transcend that Modernista feeling, and Gaudí formed his own style, reminiscent of nature in all her various forms...

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BACK TO THE ORIGINS

“Originality consists in returning to the origin.”

— Antoni Gaudí

So much of Gaudís later works are inspired by nature. By studying the forms of nature - the hyperbolic paraboloid, the hyperboloid, the helicoid and the cone - Gaudi discovered how to translate the language of the earth into architecture. Inspired by tree trunks and human bones, he resolved to make his buildings more stable than those of the Gothic era, which required buttresses to keep them standing. Similarly, his studies on light aided his creation of uniformly lit spaces.

Light achieves maximum harmony at an inclination of 45 degrees, since it resides on objects in a way that is neither horizontal nor vertical. This can be considered medium light, and it offers the most perfect vision of objects and their exquisite nuances. It is the Mediterranean light.
- Antoni Gaudí

Using his discoveries on light, Gaudí could imitate the light of stars and the dappled light that falls through a canopy of leaves. He pushed the envelope even further, creating organic shapes and forms within his buildings - hallways that twisted and turned; façades that appeared like dripping sand or dragons bones; crops of wild mushrooms masquerading as columns and capitals; representations of natural habitats - stone building blocks, sea creatures and sprouting plant kingdoms. The result is a portfolio of buildings that look as if they germinated from a seed in the ground, and were then cultivated by Gaudís green fingers.

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...TWO GORGEOUS EXAMPLES...
Of MODERNISTA ARCHITECTURE

1. CASA AMATLLER

Built in a creative neo-medieval style, this building combines historical elements with new building technologies, a perfect example of the Modernista attitudes contemporary to its time.

2. PALAU DE LA MÚSICA CATALANA

Called the most Wagnerian building in Barcelona, the façade follows the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement - showcasing all manner of handicrafts such as stonework, stained glass and mosaic tiling.

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SAGRADA FAMILIA

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WHERE ART, NATURE AND RELIGION COMBINE

“Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator.”

— Antoni Gaudí

Sagrada Familia - Gaudís unfinished magnum opus, and an insight into the mind of its creator. This church is the epitome of Gaudí - his devout Catholicism, his obsession with nature, his technical skill, and his previous artistic influences. The outside structure is like a sandcastle, topped with spiral seashells. For the interior, he conceived of not a church, but a forest in which to worship the creator of this earth. The pillars are vast palm trunks, the roof: their spreading leaves. Each trunk has an slight inclination and a double-turn helicoidal shape, as in the branches and trunks of real trees. Remarkably, this fractal structure he envisioned actually allows the immense space to be divided into smaller, self-supported modules - eliminating the need for buttresses. The effect, combined with the light from the coloured windows and starry roof, is one of an ethereal quality.  Unlike any other temple I have ever seen, this was almost more suited to the realms of wood elves than to the cities of men.

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“The architect of the future will build imitating nature, for it is the most rational, long-lasting and economical of all methods.”

— Antoni Gaudí

Still, all evidence suggests Gaudí
was most enamoured of the information
he could summon with a naked eye
attuned to fine degrees of variation:
the subtle patterns in a reptile's skin
reborn as phosphorescent mosaic scales
in the outsized lizard fountain at the entrance
to the quirky, razzle dazzle Park Güell
while others are still reeling from the blue-
white to pearl to sea to sky to cobalt-
light-drenched arrow through the Casa Batlló
betraying every other earthly edifice
as, at best, a squandered opportunity, 
at worst, an airtight substantiation
of the irreversible insolvency
of our close-fisted imaginations.

Our sin here: the simple-minded reflex
to shut ourselves inside the rectilinear,
a contour wholly alien to nature
whose sole enclosed dwellings
- dovetailed hexagons for wasps and bees -
avail themselves of only obtuse angles.
But a curator friend will interrupt
my sketchy theories about nature
and point me to the rising trunks of trees:
clearly, nature's lavish with right angles,

...for example, that tentacled cathedral's
interior not forest but oasis:
those slim bare trunks are clearly palms -
crowned, in gold leaf, on the ceiling's vault
with fronds I take for disembodied wings
it is a house of God - by angels.

Extracts from 'Love Song to Antoni Gaudí'
- by Jacqueline Osherow

ZOE RITA BARCELONA

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Zoe and Rita decided to spend a weekend in Barcelona.

The two had met on a study exchange in France, and had become close, sharing an interest in fantasy novels and romantic notions.

Zoe was completing her bachelor's degree in European history, which had brought her to France in the first place. She was set in her ways, and had decided on her path for the next decade. Rita was studying law, but was unsure of her future in the subject, and would often talk of a life of travel. Yet, when it came to the subjects of art and of living well, both Zoe and Rita were of one mind. 

They met for breakfast at a hostel, where they planned the day's events and surreptitiously took a few small loaves of bread from the breakfast spread, hiding them in Rita's purse for their lunch. 

In the morning that followed, Zoe and Rita drank in the artistic treasures of the city, capturing photos of each other in Parc Güell. Inside the church of Sagrada Familia, they conversed deeply and in hushed tones about the beauty and splendor of the architecture. Both of them were in awe of the light streaming through the basilica's windows - which seemed to have an ethereal quality; and Rita, who could not suppress her exhilaration, held tightly onto Zoe's arm as she gazed upward. 

The evening was balmy, and the girls found themselves in a small square watching a Spanish guitar player from the stone steps of a church. Rita was smitten, and chatted with Zoe about the beauty of the player, while Zoe poured over the map, deciding on the next destination.

It turned out that a nearby hotel had a rooftop pool, and Zoe had no problem convincing Rita to sneak through the lobby into the elevator and up to the top floor, where they then admired the sunset. 

In the streets below them, the city was preparing for a warm night, and laughter and music could be heard from a distance. The next few hours for the girls were a whirlwind of dancing, drums, chocolates sampled from La Boqueria, and at nearly midnight the two settled down to dinner over wine. While walking home, they stopped by a fountain and reminisced about the day, the small streets and the balconies, the performers and about people at their hostel.

Their parting the next morning was sorrowful, as, with its charm and indescribably beauty, the city of Barcelona had brought the girls closer together.

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