A weekend walk in Barcelona29, Parc de la Ciutadella3

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The Parc de la Ciutadella is Barcelona's most central park. The park includes a zoo, a lake, a large fountain and several museums. The Catalan Parliament is seated in a building at the center of the park.The thirty hectare (74 acre) large park forms a green oasis close to the always crowded historic center of Barcelona. The park is laid out nicely with wide promenades, colorful flowerbeds and many palm trees. There's much to see here: fountains and sculptures decorate the park while several interesting buildings will catch the eye of architecture buffs.There's plenty to do as well; the park's small lake is a popular spot, there are several museums in the park and the zoo is always a popular attraction.

At the northern corner of the park is the Cascada, a triumphal arch with waterfall and fountain built for the 1888 Universal exhibition. The Baroque construction was designed by Josep Fontsère - who was responsible for the conversion of the citadel site into a park - and took six years to complete.

The oldest building in the park is the Catalan Parliament Building, once part of the original Citadel.

In 1951 Ciutadella Park was declared a historic monument and is considered an open air museum

The Arc de Triomf was built for the

Exposición Universal de

Barcelona (1888), as its main

access gate by architect Josep

Vilaseca i Casanovas.

The arch is built in reddish

brickwork in the Neo-Mudéjar

style.

The arch is located between Passeig de Lluís Companys and Passeig de Sant Joan, at the end of a wide promenade connecting with the Park of the Ciutadella.

The frieze overlooking the Passeig de Sant Joan depicts Barcelona welcoming the nations (by Josep Reynés) and the frieze facing the park shows the city presenting medals to the exhibition participants, entitled Recompense, a work from Josep Llimona's the earliest period. There are reliefs on one side symbolising agriculture and industry, and commerce and art on the other. At the top of the arch the shields of the 49 Spanish provinces are presided over by the coat of arms of the city of Barcelona.

In 1841 the city's authorities decided to destroy the fortress, which was hated by Barcelona's citizens. Yet two years later, in 1843, under the regime of Maria Cristina, the citadel was restored. In 1848, after Maria Cristina's abdication and as the citadel lost its use, General Espartero razed most of the buildings within the fortress as well as its walls by bombarding it from the nearby mountain fortress Montjuic, which helped him gain political popularity. By 1869, as the political climate liberalised enough to permit it, General Prim decided to turn over what was left of the fortress to the cityMonument al General Prim

Monument a Bonaventura Carles Aribau(1798-1862), the author of the poem in Catalan "the homeland“ (known as "Ode to the motherland“)by Manel Fuxà 1884

Monument AlsVoluntaris Catalans, Josep Clarà

The patron saint of animals, St. Francis of AssisiBy Pere Jou 1956

The bust of the writer Emili Vilanova a work from Pere

CarbonellVíctor Balaguer Catalan Spanish politician and author

Monument dedicated to the Barcelona residents who died in the Nazi death camps, 1987 (André Fauteux, Canadian artist born 1946)

Monument dedicated to Walt Disney on the occasion of his death, inaugurated 9 november 1969. Work by Nuria Tortras

Fountain Vase with children and flowers, 1882

By Josep Reynés.

This fountain designed by Josep Reynés dates back to 1882. The Font Gerro amb Nens (Vase with children and flowers) is one of the finest in the park.

Josep Reynés i Gurguí  (1850-1926)

Vase with children and flowers

Despite being a

youthful work, it is considered to be one of his best sculptural pieces, reflecting his delicate sensibility

and revealing some light but characteristic aspects of modernism

(Catalan Art Nouveau).

Josep Reynés (1850-1926) was a Catalan sculptor that was trained in Barcelona and at Carpeaux’s studio in Paris. He was greatly influenced by the French school. We saw one of his works when we featured the reliefs at Arc de Triomf: the multi-figure relief frieze "Barcelona rep les nacions" (Barcelona Welcomes the Nations), on the front of the Arc de Triomf (1887)

Agapit Vallmitjana Barbany-Cazador de leones (1884) Lion hunter

Deessa (Josep Dunyach)

La Nit (The Night) Vicenç Navarro

La Dama del Parasol,

by Joan Roig i Solé, 1884

Josep Llimona - Desconsol

Desolation is a 1907 sculpture by Josep Llimona in the collection of the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona. A replica, much bigger in size than the original, is the centerpiece of the pond situated in front of Parliament of Catalonia at the Ciutadella park

Considered one of the finest sculptors of Catalan Modernism sculpture, Llimona joined the Symbolism movement during the first few years of the twentieth century after a phase in which he had adopted an idealism deeply rooted in his solid religious convictions. Llimona contributed to the founding of the Artistic Circle of Sant Lluc, the intention of which was to preserve art from the excesses of contemporary artists. Female nudes were prohibited in the Circle's initial statutes, but later the prohibition was lifted; Llimona did not depict the female nude until then.

It was then that he sculpted Desolation, a work he exhibited for the first time in 1907 and which demonstrates the artist's ability to communicate feelings that reflect a deep humanity through a naked female figure.Desolation, a paradigm of Modernisme sculpture, magisterially represents the formal traits of Symbolism as adopted by the more outstanding Catalan sculptors of the day.

These traits include undulating lines and softened contours, features that derive from The Danaide by Auguste Rodin.

Desolation is a nude version of a figure produced for a burial vault in the Montjuic Cemetery

The sculpture can be found at The National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC). The work obtained a gold medal in the V Exposition of Fine Arts of Barcelona in the year 1907. That same year, a photograph of the work was published in the catalog of the International Exhibit of Art in Barcelona. In 1909, Desolation was purchased by Barcelona's Major Domènec Sanllehy who donated or gifted the statue to The Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona. The statue was later moved to the Modern Art gallery of The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Catalonia.

The sculpture´s measurements are 67 cm x 76 cm x 67 cm (26.4 in x 29.9 in x 31.5 in).The sculpture belongs to a group of works created specifically for new pantheons built during the early 1900s.

Artists created sculptures of angels or Virtues that included consoling women overcome by the weight of their grief and allegorical figures reflecting sublime thoughts and feelings relating to death such as despair, grief, or resignation. In short, they modeled desolate, meditative, and mysterious women with no regard to their beauty. Desolation represents a mysterious, delicate woman hiding her face in an attitude of despair and is one of the paradigmatic works of the Catalan Modernist movement.

One of the principal points of reference for the Catalan modernist artists was the French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

Only the gesture of the hands, slightly touching, give life to the sculpture

In addition to the original, Josep Llimona produced replicas utilizing diverse materials. The bronze replica is somewhat bigger in size than the original. It was presented at an art exhibition that commemorated the work of Josep Llimona at the Parés Salon in 1934. The stone replica is a variation of the original, in which the female figure is clothed. The sculpture is the same size as the original and it is part of a funerary monument dedicated to Mercedes Casas de Vilanova. The stone variant of Desolation can be found at the Southeast Cemetery in Barcelona.

In 1917 Josep Llimona produced a second marble replica, much bigger in size than the original, it measures 78.8 cm x 68.8 cm (31.0 in x 27.1 in.) The sculpture was damaged over time and was replaced by a plaster replica produced in 1984. The sculpture is the centerpiece of a pond situated in front of Parliament of Catalonia at the Ciutadella park

Text and pictures: InternetCopyrights of the photos belong to each photographer

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda

Sound: Victoria de los Angeles - Mariagneta - Catalan song