Hello lovely couples! It’s been a while since the last time that I wrote, but now I’m back! January literally just flew away, and now we are approaching Valentines day! I hope many of you have been getting started with your planning and feel motivated. There is plenty of things that you can research even if you can’t go venue visiting as you normally wood.
I can’t wait to be able to go visiting some venues, and show you them. I usually make a blog post about each venue where I really get into the details of the place, but I also make videos that I post on my Instagram stories, so if you want to see those, I suggest you follow me over at Instagram here.
So, with that long intro, let’s jump right into todays post. Barcelona City venues! Barcelona is a city full of cultural sites and architecture, so it will of course be impossible to cover it all in just one post. So today I will be focusing on the city’s most famous architect. He designed La Sagrada Familia cathedral and Parc Güell – I’m talking about Antoni Gaudí the father of Catalan modernism. Besides these two places he also designed various other buildings throughout the city – and some of them have private rooms that you can rent for events and weddings! All these sites are within a medium-high price range, but if you have the budget these are nice alternatives for cultural loving couples.
Let’s have a look at a couple of them.
Casa Milá (also known as La Pedrera)
Casa Milá or La Pedrera is located on number 92 of Passeig de Gracia avenue in the heart of the Eixample district. It was built between 1906-1910 and was 1984 declared world heritage site by UNESCO. Next to fancy designer shops, you’ll find this building that stands out from the rest with it’s irregular, waved form.
You will most likely see crowds queueing outside, but in my humble opinion this place is best visited just before closing time, or visit during the specific evening walks that they offer.
The room in the picture is called “Sala 4 Gats”, and has windows to Passeig de Gracia. It is an intimate space of aprox 70m2 (aprox 753 square foot), and can cater for 70 guest seated on round tables, or 30 guests for one long table. Don’t you think the ceiling looks like whipped cream? Due to the light colors it is versatile and you can basically use any colors you like for the decor without it intruding the existing elements.
Casa Batlló
Another building by Gaudí is located just a 5 min walk away from Casa Milá, on Passeig de Gracia 43. This is one of the most spectacular façades that you’ll see in Barcelona. Everytime I pass by outside I can’t help myself thinking of what the people of Barcelona at the time when the building was constructed, must have thought when they saw it for the first time. They must have been totally mind blown! I can imagine there were both nice and not so nice things said about this art piece. Do you see the craniums on the balconies? Some people say that they are Venecian masks.. What do you think? Due to the shape of the roof, this building is also referred to as “The Dragon House”.
Desván is a versatile room just beneath the roof top and has tile floors and one of Gaudís most elegant and original solutions: the catenary arch. The whole space has a quite futuristic look and the room itself is suppose to mimic the thoracic cage of an animal (!). That is just so original, the imagination he had to be able to create this, just wow. A beautiful space. For seated dinner it can host up to 30 guests.
The dinner space is located on the 2nd floor with views over Passeig de Gracia, and has some really interesting modernist wooden windows and doors. The ceiling is also interesting and typical Gaudí style. This area used to be the living space of the original owner of the building. The owner was Josep Batlló, a wealthy man who owned several textile factories in Barcelona.
Torre Bellesguard
The building is located in the Sant Gervasi-Bonanova area. It offers beautiful views over the city, the name Bellesguard actually means “beautiful views” in Catalan. It’s a place with a lot of history and it was the residence of the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona Martín I The Human. He lived there with his wife Margarita de Prades until the year 1410. However, when the king died, he didn’t have any descendants since his only son had died years before. The castle was decaying and it ceased to be the property of the crown.
Centuries later in the beginning of the 1900s the family Figueras bought it and hired Gaudí to remodel it, which was done between 1900-1909. Today it’s open for visitors and offers guided tours. It is one the less known works of the architect, and is a much calmer place to visit than the other two places. It’s a perfect place for celebrations and offers a covered porch where you can have the dinner. It also has a quite spectacular red brick attic where you can have the ceremony or the dinner if you prefer to be inside.
That’s all for today, I hope to see you here again soon!
