More on Parc Guell

The gatehouse is out of a fairy tale; the house opposite is a like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel - and has an enormous turret on top. A sweeping balcony further up the hill gives a wonderful view of the city, and is decorated with mosaics in every colour. And of course the edge is wave-like. Further up the hill again is a kind of walk made from stone pillars. But being designed by Gaudi, they’re made from stones of all shapes sitting on each other, and seemingly barely holding together.
The other house that was completed is slightly more ‘normal’ but only slightly. There is a long stone corridor with more of Gaudi’s leaning columns - and built onto these are all sorts of statues, some very defined, some only just creeping out of the rock. Across from there is the area beneath the balcony (when I say balcony, I’m talking about something that’s at least half an acre), in which the usual round columns you’d see in most places appear - but they’re everywhere. And between them, on the ceiling, are large plates of mosaics, not set into the ceiling but hanging from it.
The man must have had a wonderful sense of humour as well as design. Though how he persuaded some people to take up his ideas is something I’d like to know! Maybe the Spaniards are more open to quirkiness than other people.

Museum of History and Art

Friday was a big day, in terms of walking anyway. We were going to be meeting our host and hostess and their daughter for an evening meal and to catch up with a free jazz concert, but during the day we’d planned to go the Museum of History and Art, which we’d tried to get into on Monday, but it was closed.
This is an amazing building, quite apart from the exhibits. When you go in on the ground level, you think the building will just go upwards from there. In fact there are four lower levels going deep into the ground, and the new foundations are mixed with the old walls of much earlier buildings - and you can actually touch these wall, which date back to who knows when. (Someone will; I don’t.)
On level -2 or thereabouts is the recreation of an actual Roman mosaic floor - almost complete. And on the walls down there are the pieces that have been found of some murals from Roman times. Down in this area are items from thousands of years ago, long before Christ, little items that probably were of no great significance in their day but which take on great significance because of their age and the fact that they’ve survived.
As you work your way up the building you progressively come closer to your own times, although there’s a sudden lurch from the mediaeval period to the 19th century. And what’s there from the 19th century is mostly military material: guns, portraits of famous soldiers and battles.
And then another leap forward into the 20th century, which is where most of the art is. One painter, Joseph Kutter is very well-represented; he’s a Luxembourg painter who uses colours somewhat akin to Chagall but his subject matter and style is different. I liked his paintings, especially his portraits (including two or three autoportraits, as they’re known.
Of course there’s plenty of other art, but more in the area of sculpted works from the Romans and from churches - huge lumps of stone sometimes with carvings intact, sometimes not. Or metalwork and the like from all eras. It’s a great place, though its focus is a little diffuse…!

Joseph Kutter is considered one of Luxembourg's most important painters. He lived from 1894 to 1941 and was greatly influenced by the Impressionists.