Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Field trip/catalan culture experience post
Today, my class went on a field trip to el born. this was only my second time in el born so it was very interesting to learn about it and its history.
when we first entered el born we learned about why the road were so close together and why the buildings all started with large ground floor windows, and went up to a tiny roof top window. We learned that all of the buildings in a certain part of el born were factories, the ground floor windows were a showcase for the products,and the ground floor windows were the floors on which the business owners lived. as you look up towards to the top of the building, each floors windows get progressivly smaller. this is because as the windows get smaller, the cost of living goes down and most likely this area was occupied by serfs or low paid workers. We also learned that all of the buildings we saw that had a plaster over them, had been re surfaced. the original surface of these buildings were all stone, which allowed the facades to breath and keep the temperatures of the buildings at bearable conditions. Many times in these gilds, young children came to work and learn here, they were apprentices hoping to break into the field once they had passed a certain test.
as we weaved our way through the small side streets, we came across a really cool old gild which still had its symbol on the outside. it is so interesting to finally know the history about the old parts of town, before everything was expanded and made so modern. We entered a few larger areas whose street signs had differet words llana which means wool, and various other materials for the gilds to use. these were areas of " stock markets" where people would come together to meet with the local wool distributors, etc and find out the prices that materials were going for that month. this way, they finally knew if the stores were ripping them off or not. This was an olden day economic system, that was actually quite useful and forward thinking.
we then made our way to the beautiful church santa maria del mar. we went inside and it was definately not what i had expected. i am used to seeing these huge churches so highyl adorned, but this was a more simple one. it was still beautiful in its own right though. it had beautiful arches and stained glass windows, and still had stones in the floors from the original church go-ers that gave money, or had there family buried there. Many people came to this church, in the upper middle class to get married here. it juxtaposed the other main cathedral of barcelona , where the nobility would marry. It was placed in a very unexpected place, and made me love el born ever more!
OUr trip ended at the old stock market building, it remained in use until just a few years ago which is crazy and shows how well made these 14th century structures were! It was a beautiful building filled with so much history, i will have to go back and take a second look one time
here you can see how the size of the windows get smaller as you go up!
a cool bus i saw in El born, such a funky part of the city
the entrance to santa maria
the inside of santa maria ! so beautoful
a stone inscription on the floor of santa maria
the old stock market building!
when we first entered el born we learned about why the road were so close together and why the buildings all started with large ground floor windows, and went up to a tiny roof top window. We learned that all of the buildings in a certain part of el born were factories, the ground floor windows were a showcase for the products,and the ground floor windows were the floors on which the business owners lived. as you look up towards to the top of the building, each floors windows get progressivly smaller. this is because as the windows get smaller, the cost of living goes down and most likely this area was occupied by serfs or low paid workers. We also learned that all of the buildings we saw that had a plaster over them, had been re surfaced. the original surface of these buildings were all stone, which allowed the facades to breath and keep the temperatures of the buildings at bearable conditions. Many times in these gilds, young children came to work and learn here, they were apprentices hoping to break into the field once they had passed a certain test.
as we weaved our way through the small side streets, we came across a really cool old gild which still had its symbol on the outside. it is so interesting to finally know the history about the old parts of town, before everything was expanded and made so modern. We entered a few larger areas whose street signs had differet words llana which means wool, and various other materials for the gilds to use. these were areas of " stock markets" where people would come together to meet with the local wool distributors, etc and find out the prices that materials were going for that month. this way, they finally knew if the stores were ripping them off or not. This was an olden day economic system, that was actually quite useful and forward thinking.
we then made our way to the beautiful church santa maria del mar. we went inside and it was definately not what i had expected. i am used to seeing these huge churches so highyl adorned, but this was a more simple one. it was still beautiful in its own right though. it had beautiful arches and stained glass windows, and still had stones in the floors from the original church go-ers that gave money, or had there family buried there. Many people came to this church, in the upper middle class to get married here. it juxtaposed the other main cathedral of barcelona , where the nobility would marry. It was placed in a very unexpected place, and made me love el born ever more!
OUr trip ended at the old stock market building, it remained in use until just a few years ago which is crazy and shows how well made these 14th century structures were! It was a beautiful building filled with so much history, i will have to go back and take a second look one time
here you can see how the size of the windows get smaller as you go up!
a cool bus i saw in El born, such a funky part of the city
the entrance to santa maria
the inside of santa maria ! so beautoful
a stone inscription on the floor of santa maria
the old stock market building!
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