Today we want to share something about our Barcelona & The Sea walking tour, a calm trip from the origins of Barcelona to today’s skyline at the beach
The intense conversation between Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea has been always about how the quest for order; this concept of order is confronted by the obstinate reality of urban chaos, which is precisely what makes it all so interesting!
As a fortified city and a retreat for Roman legionaries, it was called Barcino. Later, when “Santa Maria!” was the oath on every soldier’s and sailor’s lips, medieval Barcelona was a city ruled by the shipowners and merchants of Mare Nostrum. Over the years, it has also explored its modernist, worker, industrial and Olympic facets, and even as a forum of cultures, but through it all, Barcelona has always been one with the sea, the Mediterranean.
We will walk along narrow streets, parks, beaches and breakwaters, where we will tell the story of how the city center seems to distance itself from the sea as we move into the present.
All the while we’ll visit the Roman defensive walls and the Temple of Augustus, Santa María del Mar church, Moll de la Fusta wharf by Manuel de Solà-Morales, Barceloneta Market by Josep Miàs, Casa de la Marina apartment building by Jose Antonio Coderch, Somorrostro beach in Barceloneta and, finally, the Barcelona skyline.
We will talk about defensive walls and extensions, ports and beaches, the cultured members of high society, as well as some of the low lives that made a living along the port. We’ll try to decide if Aristotle was right when he said that anyone living outside the city had to be either a god or a beast.
And remember, walking tour led by practicing architects, most of whom are professors of architecture as well as architecture critics. This variety of top professionals provides a wide spectrum of knowledge on a huge range of topics that only Barcelona Architecture Walks can provide.
