Creative designs in modern architecture are far from rare, but you might think that to see the best ones, you have to travel long distances. For example: the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, the glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre in Paris, the Pearl of the Orient across the river from the Bund in Shanghai, or the new cathedral in Los Angeles. Well, there is a place where a significant number of these structures can be found all within one country: Spain.
In the following page you will find a selection of the most demanded tours in Spain of our clients. These are only examples to give you ideas and imagination.
Of course you can change the destinations, times, contents, etc. Please do not hesitate to send us your personal require. We would be happy to prepare a taylor made proposal. Try our trip planner.
Madrid
Since when has flying into an airport been an exciting experience (especially in the last few years)? Since the spring of 2006, at Barajas Airport in Madrid. Why? They have a brand new terminal fashioned by the latest architectural techniques… The new airport is wonderful, but Madrid has a lot more to offer, of course: the Prado Museum, the Royal Palace, the Plaza Mayor; day trips to Segovia, Toledo, Aranjuez, etc. And, if you’re interested in modern art, a visit to the Reina Sofía, one of the best museums of modern art in the world, is de rigueur. It is located a stone’s throw from the great Prado Museum and across the street from the Atocha Train Station. The building itself boasts several modern architectural features, with its two outside glass towers housing the elevators and the new addition designed by world-renowned architect Jean Nouvel.
But the main purpose for the visit is the art on the inside. The Reina Sofía houses a large display of works by various contemporary artists plus a very fine collection of the three giants of modern art: one room is dedicated to Salvador Dalí, two rooms to Joan Miró and three to Pablo Picasso, including Guernica, the famous Spanish Civil War painting. This painting is large (over 25 feet long by 11 feet high) and occupies one room all by itself. At any given time there are dozens of people scrutinizing, analyzing and admiring it. Afficionados of modern art shouldn’t miss this experience. The collection is a veritable treasure trove.
Basque Country
North of Madrid on the Bay of Biscay, straddling the Nervion River, lies Bilbao. This industrial urban center of around a million people has traditionally been one of the main economic engines of Spain: steel mills, shipbuilding yards, large banks, etc. Bilbao is located in Vizcaya, one of the seven Basque regions whose people are known for their industriousness and spirit of adventure. Case in point: the Guggenheim Museum, a modern and contemporary art museum.
The interest of this museum lies in it contents, of course, but even more so in the architectural style of the building itself. Designed by Pritzker-Prize laureate Frank Gehry, it opened in 1997. (Gehry also designed the new Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in the same style.) This architectural style is difficult to describe. A good analogy might be something like the layers of an onion or the petals of a rose (or wood shavings, perhaps) spread apart and then twisted in various directions. Except that the surface of the building is not onion skin or silky rose petals, but titanium sheets combined with limestone and glass. The overall look is also reminiscent of the hull of a ship floating on the waters of the Nervion River.
Catalonia
After crossing the ancient kingdoms of Navarra and Aragon, you reach Catalonia on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. Like the Basques, the Catalans have their own culture and language, and like the Basques, they are an extremely creative and enterprising people.
The most stunning manifestation of their resourcefulness, as it relates to art and architecture, is the “Modernista” movement, which was in full swing at the turn of the 20th century. (This movement was the Catalan version of the French “Art Nouveau” movement that was in vogue at about the same time.) Some of the most notable features of the modernist style of architecture include elaborate patterns of brick and limestone decorated with intricate ironwork, colorful ceramics and glowing stained glass. And, to make things more interesting, flat, straight and angular forms are replaced by soft, artistic and curvilinear shapes. A chimney pot, for example, is no longer a square or cylindrical smoke stack. Instead, it can take on the appearance of a dragon or the helmeted head of a futuristic creature peering over the city roofs.
Many architects participated in this flurry of unbridled creativity: Josep Puig i Cadafalch (Codorniu winery in Sant Sadurni d’Anoia), Lluis Doménech i Montaner (Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau and Palau de la Música in Barcelona) and the great Antoni Gaudí, just to name a few. Gaudí was the most prolific of the group, and Barcelona abounds with examples of his work: private residences (Casa Milá and Casa Batlló), public parks (Park Güell) and churches (La Sagrada Familia and the Crypt at Colonia Güell in Santa Coloma de Cervelló).
One could say that Sagrada Familia is to Barcelona what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. This unfinished cathedral, which harmoniously blends Gothic, neo-classical, naturalistic and futuristic styles (and maybe a few more I haven’t heard of) is breathtaking. But, what impresses me the most about Gaudí’s work is his engineering genius. Similar to the Barajas airport terminal, where the columns rise in oblique directions to meet the roof, so do the pillars of La Sagrada Familia and the Crypt at Colonia Güell. But there is an enormous difference here in Barcelona. The Barajas engineers used computers to do their load calculations. Gaudí couldn’t do that a hundred years ago. All he had to work with were bricks, mortar, pencil and paper and… his monumental mind.
Catalonia is paradise for modern art lovers. We’ve all heard these famous names: Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso. Both Miró and Dalí are native sons of Catalonia and Picasso spent some of his early years there. (He had his first exhibition in Barcelona in 1900.)
You can enjoy Miró’s work at the Foundation Joan Miró in Parc de Montjuïc. The permanent collection displays paintings, sculptures and a few tapestries by the artist, including the “Solar Bird” and the model for “The Sun, the Moon and a Star,” a 40-foot sculpture on public display in Chicago.
You can find Dalí’s work in Barcelona, but to really immerse yourself in his art and life you need to take a day trip to the city where he was born, Figueres, and the tiny fishing village he used as his refuge, Port Lligat. Figueres has his museum (actually called a “theater-museum”), of course, with a plethora of his surrealist creations: drawings, paintings, object compositions and even fine jewelry.
In Port Lligat, the cluster of fishermen’s houses he linked together into a small living and working compound brings you into his extravagant world. His bedroom may not be as ornate as the Sun King’s but he tried, in his own way. Around his fanciful lap pool you can still hear the sounds of wild and decadent parties just a few decades ago. Spending a day with Dalí makes your head spin. It’s almost inebriating.
Back to Barcelona with the grand master, Picasso. Málaga (his birthplace), New York, Paris and Antibes may have fine displays of his work, but Barcelona has some of his early works that illustrate his enormous talent as a “traditional” artist and his transition into the “modern” Picasso we all know. The museum also has an entire room dedicated to his studies of “las Meninas” by Velázquez. You can linger on or sit down and meditate to give yourself time to absorb it all… So much art in one single room… So much creative inspiration!
Valencia
Not to be overlooked, a little farther south on the Mediterranean coast, in Valencia, is Santiago Calatrava’s “City of Arts and Sciences“. This ultra-modern complex includes a museum, a planetarium, a promenade and a recently finished performing arts center, plus the Oceanografic, a futuristic marine park created by another Spanish architect, Felix Candela – all within easy walking distance from one another.
The museum’s outer structure is reminiscent of a giant whale or some prehistoric mastodon’s skeleton resting on its side. Next to it, sitting in the middle of a man-made pond, is the planetarium with its glass dome glowing in the sun and mirroring in the perfectly still turquoise water. On the other side of the bridge, you can hardly miss the voluminous shape of the performing arts center.
Words are hard to come by for an accurate description of this building. At first, depending on your vantage point, it looks like a gargantuan egg performing a balancing act on its side. Then, as you walk around and stand back a few paces, images of a warrior’s helmet come to mind – Etruscan perhaps. Some people have even commented that it looks like the head of some kind of insect. Well, I will leave these various images to your own imagination. But, one thing is for certain. This building is absolutely spectacular. And, with all these “out-of-this-world” creations all gathered in one place, you might wonder whether you were on a science fiction movie set or just arrived on some distant intergalactic planet.