Diocesan Museum of Barcelona
This incrediblely solid and heavy door belongs to the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona (next to the Cathedral).
This new museum’s doors were designed and made by the Catalan artist Josep Plandiura. The striking visual work done by Plandiura came under harsh criticism because of the contrast that existed between his abstract work and the gothic architecture of the Cathedral of Barcelona.
The door was made using weathering steel, best-known by the trademark Cor-Ten steel, a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rust-like appearance if exposed to the weather for several years.
The door, with organic and labyrinth form, measures 3.5 meters high by 2.6 wide.
This is my entry for Norm’s Thursday Doors Challenge.
Thanks Norm for hosting this challenge!!
Diocesan Museum of Barcelona
Güell Palace
Thursday Doors Challenge
The Palau Güell (Güell Palace) is a mansion designed by the architect Antoni Gaudí for the industrial tycoon Eusebi Güell, and built between 1886 and 1888. It is situated in the Carrer Nou de la Rambla, in the El Raval neighbourhood of the city of Barcelona in Catalonia. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Works of Antoni Gaudí” since 1984.
The home is centered on a main room for entertaining high society guests. Guests entered the home in horse-drawn carriages through the front iron gates, which featured a parabolic arch and intricate patterns of forged iron-work resembling seaweed and in some parts a horsewhip. Animals could be taken down a ramp and kept in the livery stable in the basement where the servants resided, while the guests went up the stairs to the receiving room. The ornate walls and ceilings of the receiving room disguised small viewing windows high on the walls where the owners of the home could view their guests from the upper floor and get a ‘sneak peek’ before greeting them, in case they needed to adjust their attire accordingly.
The main party room has a high ceiling with small holes near the top where lanterns were hung at night from the outside to give the appearance of a starlit sky.
It was used in Antonioni‘s film The Passenger as a backdrop for the first meeting between Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider.
In 2004, visits by the public were completely suspended due to renovations; some of the stone used in the original construction was weak and has cracked over the years causing structural problems within the building. As of 1 February 2008, Palau Güell was partially reopened to the public, with access to limited parts of the building only. It is currently completely open with all restoration work completed in April 2011.
More info: WIkipedia
This is my entry for Norm’s Thursday Doors Challenge. Thanks Norm for hosting this challenge.
Güell Palace
Thames under bridge
A contribution to the Leanne Cole Photography MM 2-12: Monochrome Madness 2-12.
Thames is best known for flowing through London, but the river also flows alongside other towns and cities, like Oxford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames, and Windsor. This foto is taken in London. Some day I’d like to flow all the river.
The River’s Tale (prehistoric)
TWENTY bridges from Tower to Kew –
Wanted to know what the River knew,
Twenty Bridges or twenty-two,
For they were young, and the Thames was old
And this is the tale that River told…
If you want the whole tale, read it at The Kipling Society
The 4 Cats
Here is my entry for Norm’s Thursday Doors Challenge. Thanks Norm for hosting this challenge.
This is one of the six doors found in the bar restaurant The Four Cats (cat, Els Quatre Gats) in the street Carrer de Montsió, 3 (Barcelona)
Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), often written Els 4 Gats, was a café in Barcelona (Catalonia) which opened on 12 June 1897. It also operated as a hostel, a cabaret, a pub and a restaurant. Active until 1903, Els Quatre Gats became one of the main centers of Modernisme in Barcelona. The artist Ramon Casas i Carbó largely financed this bar on the ground floor of Casa Martí (1896), a building by the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch in Carrer Montsió near the center of Barcelona. Els Quatre Gats was reconstructed in 1978.
Pablo Picasso visited this pub–restaurant often in his early art career.
The 4 Cats
“Four Cats” is a colloquial Catalan expression for “only a few people” and the name of Els Quatre Gats is derived from this saying. The four founders of the café—Pere Romeu, Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas, and Miguel Utrillo—also chose this name as a tribute to Le Chat Noir, “The Black Cat,” a celebrated Parisian café whose creator, Rodolphe Salis, had recently died. They modeled Els Quatre Gats largely after the Parisian café.
More info in Wikipedia.
The 4 Cats
The 4 Cats. Entrance:
The 4 Cats. Entrance
Broken
This is my contribution this week to the Weekly Photo Challenge. My personal interpretation on the topic of this week.
This is a photography taken in a paper factory in ruins.
Ruins
Dust and rubble settle at my feet,
A chaotic collapse
Inside myself that I could never
Have imagined,
The foundations are shaken,
The cracks began to show,
And piece by piece
It all spectacularly fell apart,
Nothing to hold on to,
Nothing to steady myself with
As it all crashed and burned,
Leaving me surrounded by the ruins
Of an Empire that took years to build
And seconds to destroy.
by LJ Chaplin
door
Here is my entry for Norm’s Thursday Doors Challenge. Thanks Norm for hosting this challenge.
Doors seen in a little town near Barcelona called Rupit. I’ve already post some things about this town. The first one has the owner’s family name up the door.
Interestingly, the painted wooden door has different thicknesses of paint, ranging from more to less as we approach the ground…
The second door is from the same town, but but more recently painted.
door
the bar
The B&W version:
the bar
Which one do you prefer??
Enveloped: by a huge photo
This building was enveloped during a work by a huge picture of some models. A big announcement in fashion covering its body…
This is my contribution this week to the Weekly Photo Challenge. I think it is another interpretation to the concept of this week “enveloped”.
I know I’m late, but is only a belated contribution to this interesting Norm’s Thursday Doors Challenge.
I always liked taking photos of doors that have caught my attention. A door is the face of a housing and, basically think reflects its owner’s face.
I hope you like my selection for this week’s doors. Thanks Norm for hosting this challenge. I hope to participate in the future. Thursday will be alert…
Door in Madrid
Agustín. Cosas de Arte (Things Art). Compra y Venta (Buy and Sell), found walking Madrid. Interesting tiling and door.
Details:
top door
Glazed tile
Glazed tile
Balcony
Rustic balcony of a rural house in the village of Rupit
Balcony detail
Rupit is a municipality in the comarca of Osona (Barcelona province) in Catalonia.
If traditional rainfed agriculture (cereals, legumes, potatoes, corn and fodder) and livestock (cattle and pigs) were the foundations of the economy, today tourism, attracted by the quaintness of the town, is the main source rich with a multitude of shops and restaurants that host numerous visitors and summer weekend.
Rupit. Catalonia
Louvre Pyramid
The Louvre Pyramid (Pyramide du Louvre) is a large glass and metal pyramid, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) in Paris. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum. Completed in 1989, it has become a landmark of the city of Paris.
Commissioned by the President of France François Mitterrand in 1984, it was designed by the architect I. M. Pei. The structure, which was constructed entirely with glass segments, reaches a height of 21.6 metres (about 71 feet); its square base has sides of 35 metres (115 ft). It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments.
The pyramid structure was engineered by Nicolet Chartrand Knoll Ltd. of Montreal (Pyramid structure / Design Consultant) and Rice Francis Ritchie (also known as RFR) of Paris (Pyramid Structure / Construction Phase).
The pyramid and the underground lobby beneath it were created because of a series of problems with the Louvre’s original main entrance, which could no longer handle the enormous number of visitors on an everyday basis. Visitors entering through the pyramid descend into the spacious lobby then re-ascend into the main Louvre buildings
Louvre Pyramid
The construction of the pyramid triggered a considerable amount of controversy because many people felt that the futuristic edifice looked quite out of place in front of the Louvre Museum with its classical architecture. Certain detractors ascribed a “Pharaonic complex” to Mitterrand. Others lauded the juxtaposition of contrasting architectural styles as a successful merger of the old and the new, the classical and the ultra-modern.
The main pyramid is actually the largest of several glass pyramids that were constructed near the museum, including the downward-pointing La Pyramide Inversée that functions as a skylight in an underground shopping complex in front of the museum. During the design phase, there was a proposal that the design include a spire on the pyramid to simplify window washing. This proposal was eliminated because of objections from I. M. Pei.
More in Wikipedia
Alphabet Address Store
Today I present a small curiosity with which I found myself walking down the street. I found this closed store with an internet address certainly curious.
Once home I decided to see if the domain really existed and… yes!, the address exists and belongs to a custom cans company.
Actually, the idea is original, but typing the entire alphabet takes time …
You can check it here: www.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.es
This funny story is the Fourth Post of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge.
bCL Photography 