Barcelona, Spain Oct 23

We (George, Ann and I) arrived at the hotel a few minutes before midnight on Oct 22 and met Beth who had gotten in a few minutes earlier (from tel Aviv). George had been wondering if our passport would be taken by Spain or the new  Catalonia Government. It was the former. 

The hotel in Barcelona was only about 10 minutes from the airport (although our driver took 25 minutes to get to it because a few wrong turns). 

On the 23th we met the tour. At one of our first stops in Barcelona we saw some pro Catalonia independence graffiti.

This stop was Park Guell. It has numerous pieces designed by Antoni Gaudi of late 19th and early 20th century fame (but typically built by someone else since he was busy on the famous Church).  The second image is George in front of a Gaudi version of an aqueduct (I am not a fan of Gaudi but I can appreciate the 'vision').  Eusebi Guell bought the land and hired Gaudi in about 1900 to create an estate for several dozen wealthy people who wanted to live on a hillside. It didn't work out that way so it is now a park.

The third image is of many of our tour group (note the hats - the group is Shai Bar Ilan) looking at a Gaudi designed house. 

It was to be part of a neighborhood but ended up being owned by the lawyer representing this development enterprise according to our local guide (or it may have been the tour manager).  

The fourth image is Beth (aka Tamar), in front of what is one of the "gingerbread" inspired houses in the park - designed by Gaudi in cooperation with various assistants and built by an assistant. 

The fifth image is another view of this house. 

This time it has George and Ann and it shows a closer view of Gaudi's version of a Queen Ann tower.

This building, while not occupied by a resident or used as an office, at least has a clean rest rooms.

 The sixth and seventh image are from the internet (from the shutterstock.com website) .

The sixth is of a building, called the hypostyle, that was, in the overall design, to serve as a market and/or public meeting place

The seventh is of part of a very long public bench on a plaza. The bench is probably the longest public bench in the world that is also painted in mosaic art (the local guide said it was the longest public bench in the world but this turned out not to be quite true).  The bench was added to the plaza between 1910 and 1914 and is not a Gaudi design.


The eighth image is of a building in downtown Barcelona that was actually built by Gaudi and is occupied today by stores, offices and resident. The little figures at the top are said (by some) to be the inspiration for some characters and other things in George Lucas's films. You can actually walk on the roof of this building and see them (we didn't have time for that).

The ninth image shows George walking into the Roman walled part of Barcelona. 



The tenth image shows some Picasso designed (one of his students executed the work) artwork on what was, at the time of our trip an art studio. 

The eleventh image (from a Haaretz website) shows the "Great" Synagogue of Barcelona which has a foundation from the 2nd century but walls from the 6th or 7th century (image from tripadvisor.com) and was expanded to about its current size and shape in the late 13th century under James I (he was King of Aragon during the disputation of 1263** - according to some records the synagogue was actually expanded a few years after that event by his order although this chronology has been challenged).   Shlomo Ben Aderet, or the Rashba probably presided at this synagogue and probably Nachmonides did also (per various opinions). There is also the opinion that the synagogue in the image was what was added in 1267 and that the previously existing synagogue is next door (what is now a restaurant). Another opinion is that the 1267 improvement was a higher ceiling and that the next door area is what was the women's section.

The great synagogue probably seats about 30 (it is small to prevent churches from being jealous but also perhaps because the community didn't need a bigger one). We davened mincha (did the afternoon prayers) in this synagogue. Our tour group included enough for a minyan (prayer quorum). The functional end of the Jewish community in Barcelona was 1391 with a pogrom* (one of dozens that year throughout Spain) and a 'convert, die or leave' order (James II of Aragon then modified the order but the massacre had done its work). 
 

The most famous building in Barcelona is of course the Gaudi cathedral, which is still under construction a hundred years after it was started. Eventually there are to be 12 of those towers (image from pinterest.com)

* a pogrom is a non government organized massacre targeting one ethnic group which has some government or ecclesiastic encouragement. 

** the disputation of 1263 was a debate between Pablo Christiana, a convert from Judaism to Christianity and Moses ben Nachman who was required by the King to participate. The main issue was the interpretation of various passages in the Talmud which Pablo contended supported Christian theology although there were other issues. Subsequent to the debate, Moses left Spain.