It was an audioguided tour, and it was weird. Unlike the modernisme houses we had already been through, there is nothing special about the inside (well, some of the ceilings, I suppose), but there is on the outside.
So, we ended up wasting 20 minutes of our lives watching some poorly done rip-off of the Princess Bride, moving from room to room as a "movie" told of the legend of St. George (Sant Jordi), the Princess, and the Dragon.
It was hokey, a waste of time, and dreadfully out of touch with today's world. It struck me as pretty sexist and tone-deaf for our time, and if I felt that way, think what a young woman would think. I mean, (better sit down for this) I'm not the most woke person around, and I was annoyed. But at least it was cloying.
When she was in Barcelona, Maddy scoffed at the legend of St. Jordi and the dragon. She tried to rely on "facts" and "science," cynically noting that there was no such thing as "dragons." She claimed it was all "myth!" So, Sunday, I did quip to Carol that this "movie" would have convinced Maddy about the St. Jordi and the dragon story!
Then we shuffled into a few rooms that were modestly interesting, mostly because we could step out on to one of the balconies with beautiful grill work. Casa Punxes was designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. He was perhaps the third most influential Modernisme architect behind the great Gaudi and the impressive Domenech. Cadafalch never designed a building that is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but he did design El Quattro Gats, which is a very cool building for a restaurant.
He also designed Casa Amatller, which we had visited earlier in the week. Cadafalch definitely had a bigger budget for Amatller than for Punxes.
Cadafalch is a definite Renaissance man -- along with being a top Modernisme architect, he was a strong Catalan patriot, an elected official (city council, Spanish Parliament, and was the President of Catalan for seven years, and Catalan historian. Franco banned him from doing architecture.
The tour redeemed itself to an extent when we took the elevator up to the rooftop. The "castle" look of the rooftop is what makes the building visually stunning, so getting to wander into the tops of the castle towers was pretty cool.
The tour went from terrible to very good. I would not recommend going, unless you are in Barcelona for a month OR are a huge modernisme geek and have been to
One of the six pointed towers.
You guessed, another of the
six pointed towers giving it
a castle look.
Initial of Angela Terradas Brutau, one of the three
sisters the house was built for -- it was actually
three conjoined townhomes.
Beautiful work.
Admire the forge detail.
The main tower.
The famed Neuschwanstein castle
in Bavaria is said to be the
inspiration for Punxes.
Sant Jordi and the dragon. The myth
also served as a rallying cry for
Catalan pride in the late 1800s/early
1900s.
Sundial.
One of the facades,
with the main tower.
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