Home · Journal
The articles
Each one a single question, answered in full
- 01
Casa BatllóWhat is trencadís, and how is it made?
How Gaudí's trencadís mosaic was made, why it colors Casa Batlló's façade, and where else to find it.
- 02
Casa BatllóWhy is Casa Batlló called the House of Bones?
Why locals call Casa Batlló the House of Bones, and what the skeletal façade and dragon roof mean for visitors.
- 03
Park GüellWhy did the Park Güell housing estate fail?
How Eusebi Güell's planned hillside suburb failed to attract buyers and became Barcelona's best-known public park.
- 04
Park GüellWho was Josep Maria Jujol, and what did he make at Park Güell?
Who Josep Maria Jujol was, and why his curving mosaic bench defines the terrace at Park Güell.
- 05
The Sagrada FamíliaWhy is the Sagrada Família not a cathedral?
Why Barcelona's most famous church is a basilica, not the city's cathedral, and what that distinction means for visitors.
- 06
The Sagrada FamíliaWho was Josep Maria Subirachs, and why are his figures so angular?
How the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs translated Gaudí's own 1917 drawings into the hard-edged Passion façade.
- 07
The Sagrada FamíliaWhat is the magic square on the Passion façade?
How a five-hundred-year-old number grid ended up on the Passion façade, and why its sum was changed to thirty-three.
- 08
The Sagrada FamíliaWhy does the Sagrada Família have three façades?
How the Nativity, Passion and Glory façades came to frame the Sagrada Família across more than a century of work.
- 09
Park GüellHow did Gaudí design with hanging chains?
Antoni Gaudí worked out the curves of his vaults by hanging weighted strings and chains and turning the result upside down. How the method worked, where it was first used and where to see it in Barcelona.
- 10
Getting HereHow do you get from Barcelona airport to the center?
Barcelona-El Prat Airport lies about fifteen kilometers southwest of the center and has a metro, a commuter train, express buses and taxis. What each one is, which terminal it serves and how to choose.
- 11
The Gothic QuarterIs the Gothic Quarter really Gothic?
Much of Barcelona's Gothic Quarter was restored or newly built in neo-Gothic style between the 1880s and the 1960s. What is medieval, what is Roman underneath, and how to tell them apart on a walk.
- 12
The Sagrada FamíliaIs the Sagrada Família finished?
The central Tower of Jesus Christ reached its full height in 2026, but the Sagrada Família is not complete. What has been built, what has not, and why a basilica begun in 1882 is still a building site.
- 13
Casa BatllóWhat is the Block of Discord?
The Illa de la Discòrdia is a block on the Passeig de Gràcia where three Modernista masterpieces, by Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch and Gaudí, stand side by side. How the rivalry began and what each house shows.
- 14
Where to StayWhy does the Eixample have chamfered corners?
Barcelona's Eixample is a grid of square blocks with the corners cut off. The reasons are sunlight, ventilation, visibility and carriages, and the engineer who planned it was never paid for the work.
Next on the list
Written one at a time