Casa Mila | Anotherdayinparadise2's Blog

I’m joining in the Līgo Weekly 220w Challenge – words to bring the world together, the theme of which is ‘Spain.’ Click here to read all about it, and see how you too can enter this exciting challenge.

Hola hermoso España!

Spain is a country renowned for its architectural excellence, which is an exotic mix of early Moorish influences and surreal modernism.

In Barcelona, the astounding imagination and genius of Antoni Gaudi, is everywhere. The Casa Mila, better known as La Pedrera, has an undulating stone facade and wrought iron decoration on the balconies and windows.

One of the sculptures on the roof.

A huge mirror cleverly reflects another part of the roof.

The Casa Batllo, is nicknamed ‘The House of Bones’ because of its bone-like pillars, and skull-like balconies.

The giant Basilica, La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s most important work, was started in 1882,

and is still under construction.

The stately Royal Palace in Madrid, is the largest in Europe.

The Alhambra Palace in Granada is really stunning.

The detail is exquisite.

The Mezquita, in Cordoba, begun in 600 AD, is regarded as one of the most accomplished monuments of Islamic architecture. The vast hypostyle hall, is absolutely breathtaking.

There are 856 columns of jasper, onyx, marble and granite.

The richly gilded decoration of the cathedral in its centre, is dazzling.

To see more entries, just click on this link.

Marianne at East of Malaga blog, has a new challenge for October. She has some magnificent windows to show us, and I told her that I already used my best window pics for the “Thursday Windows challenge” last week.

Whilst we were out walking along our beach front today, I looked up at one of the overly tall apartment blocks ‘gracing the skyline’, and blocking out the sun from the beach, and my immediate thought was, “Oh, how I’d hate to have to clean all those windows. I didn’t think, “Wow, what a beautiful building.” This building goes by the lovely name of, “The Pearls,” but to my eye, it doesn’t look very pearl-like.

Isn’t it strange that when I was in Barcelona, and looking up at the windows of Gaudi’s ‘Casa Mila’, I didn’t even think about cleaning them. I was just so awestruck by the beauty and ingenuity of their design. This apartment block was commissioned by Pedro Milà i Camps, a rich businessman. On the outside, the undulating balconies look like a series of waves, and the building was soon dubbed ‘La Pedrera’, meaning ‘the quarry’, because locals thought the facade resembled cliff-like rocks and caves.

The Casa Batlló has the most unusual windows I’ve ever seen. From the outside, this building looks like it ‘s been made out of skulls (the balconies) and bones, (the supporting pillars). The building was designed by Gaudi, as an upmarket home for Josep Batlló, a wealthy aristocrat. He and his family, lived in the lower two floors, whilst the upper floors were rented out as apartments.

When I look at old churches, cathedrals, and other historical buildings such as Gaudi’s apartment blocks, I can’t help thinking that architects of today have far less creativity and eye for beauty, than had those of a bygone era. What’s your opinion?

For more contributions to the CBBH challenge, just click here.

Now I would like to introduce you to two other blogs which I really enjoy:

Phil Lanoue Photography has a very entertaining blog, containing the most breathtaking photos of wild life in the swamps of Florida.

Ron Mayhew at the fotograffer blog, also has some of the most amazing wildlife photos you could ever wish to see.