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However, it’s the gateway that’s the most famous element. An extraordinary
winged dragon made of twisted iron snarls at the passers-by, its razor-toothed
jaws spread wide in a fearsome roar. Backing up to pose for a photograph
suddenly doesn’t seem like such a good idea. During the week you can’t go any
further than the gate, but it’s well worth coinciding with the
guided visits
(Mon, Fri, Sat & Sun at 10.15am & 12.15pm in English, plus 11.15am &
1.15pm in Spanish/Catalan €5;
T
933 177 652,
W
www.rutadelmodernisme
.com), especially to see inside Gaudí’s innovative stables, now used as a library
by the university’s historical architecture department.
Monestir de Pedralbes
At the end of Avinguda Pedralbes, the Gothic
Monestir de Pedralbes
(Tues–Sat 10am–2pm, June–Sept 10am–5pm, Sun & holidays 10am–3pm;
combined ticket with City History Museum €6, free first Sun of the month;
T
932 563 434,
W
www.museuhistoria.bcn.cat) is reached up a cobbled street
that passes through a small archway set back from the road. Founded in 1326
for the nuns of the Order of St Clare, this is, in effect, an entire monastic village
preserved on the outskirts of the city, within medieval walls and gateways that
completely shut out the noise and clamour of the twenty-first century. It’s a
twenty-minute walk from
o
Palau Reial, or ten minutes from FGC Reina
Elisenda (frequent trains from Plaça de Catalunya). Alternatively, you can go
directly by bus from the city centre (30min): the 22 from Plaça de Catalunya
and Passeig de Gràcia stops outside, while the 64 from Ronda Sant Antoni and
c/Aribau ends its run at the monastery.
The monastery
It took the medieval craftsmen a little over a year to prepare Pedralbes (from the
Latin
petras albas
, “white stones”) for its first community of nuns.The speed of
the initial construction and the subsequent uninterrupted habitation by the
Order helps explain the extreme architectural harmony. After 600 years of
isolation the monastery was sequestered by the Generalitat during the CivilWar
and it later opened as a museum in 1983 – a new adjacent convent was built as
part of the deal, where the Clare nuns still reside.The ensemble now forms part
of the City History Museum.
The
cloisters
in particular are the finest in the city, built on three levels and
adorned by the slenderest of columns, with the only sound the tinkling water
from the fountain. Rooms opening off the cloisters give a clear impression of
convent life, from the chapter house and austere refectory to a fully equipped
kitchen and infirmary.Alcoves and day cells display restored frescoes, religious
artefacts, furniture and utensils, while in the nuns’ former dormitory – now
given a black marble floor and soaring oak-beamed ceiling – is a selection of
the rarer
treasures
.Whilst the nuns themselves eschewed personal trappings,
the monastery acquired valuable art and other possessions over the centuries
– including pieces of Gothic furniture claimed to be part of the founding
queen’s endowment. There are paintings by Flemish artists, an impressive
series of so-called “factitious” altarpieces of the sixteenth century (made up
of sections of different style and provenance) and some outstanding illumi-
nated choir books.
THE NORTHERN SUBURBS
|
Monestir de Pedralbes