Barcelona Cathedral

Our apartment in Barcelona was in the Gothic Quarter, literally about 200m walk to the cathedral. We quickly got used to sleeping through the bells ringing every hour throughout the night, and to be honest I now kind of miss hearing the bells at night.

Like many churches, visits were free and you could walk in anytime for a moment of quiet contemplation, or of course to take photos. The cathedral has wonderful cloisters, with several side-chapels around the edges. It is a classic example of gothic architecture, complete with gargoyles, crypts and long dark columns. I suspect that Anne Rice’s vampires could have fun here.

Barcelona Cathedral

The facade is also quite amazing. There is so much detail in the sharp and intricate edges of the building. You could sit outside one of the many cafe’s outside the cathedral, drink a sangria, admire the facade and listen to traditional Catalan music.

 While we were there, it was the Barcelona Festival, and one of the many festival stages was directly in front of the cathedral. At night they lit up the cathedral in different colours. The stage was used for traditional dancing, local music and concerts (the other stages had rock and folk music).

Finally, something that you have to see from inside is the stained glass windows. From the outside they are just windows, but fulled with coloured lights as the sun shines inside and lights them up.

You can view the gallery below.

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *