On the train from Girona to Barcelona to go to MNAC on Saturday I saw a disconcerting juxtaposition of residential and commercial, apartment blocks on a hill behind a brewery. On the return trip I had camera at the ready and managed to grab an image deserving of some Photoshopping.
In lieu of having a tilt-shift lens, I blurred the background while sharpening the foreground and added vibrance to the colors. A small version of the result is here though if you click the image you can view at 1680 pixels by 746 pixels.
The result captures my initial horror at what I saw. Not to mention that these apartment blocks have a commanding view of the largest autoroute interchange in the BCN area. And if you examine it closely, the buildings’ balconies don’t afford a vista, only a mirror of one’s fellow inmates.
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Or minus Pisos i plus Seny. Fewer apartments and more sense. Something that has been happening in many places, real estate speculation, can quietly go to its just demise. Speaking of the previous post, there are numerous empty lots waiting for buildings, numerous shells waitings for claddings and internals, numerous unfinished apartments waiting to be approved for rental and on and on within a 10 block radius. Maybe the “Xalet” Tarrus isn’t in imminent danger. One can hope.
This image sums it up overlooking the plaça de teatre de Salt (sens t).
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We had been noticing a lot and the house on it, ‘Xalet Tarrus’ near where we live for some time. Here is a view of it last summer from Google Maps StreetView (yes, they have been to Girona too).
Recently the trees have been pollarded and vines cut back. A modernist masterpiece from 1935 by Josep Claret i Rubira though it’s future is in jeopardy, some entity having lost a law suit to protect it last year. One can but hope that the ‘downturn’ in the “market” allows it to live.
If you are conversant with google Maps and StreetView, see it here or for more images
There is more to the story. I stopped in to wish Bones Festas to a real estate broker I know and he told me that the Ajuntament saved it and bought it for north of a million euros.
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We were out on a blustery Sunday afternoon on a quest to see more of the work of Catalan architect Rafael Masó. I’ll write more about him in future but this day was to see the facade/street wall of a cemetery up the Onyar about a ¼ mile outside of Girona. The facade is in the final stages of renovation having originally been built 1917-19.
The wall is quite plain with a frieze banding of gold wave-embossed tile while the only sculptural decorations are a variety of snakes
along with the obligatory hand of god and this odd couple at the base of the wall.
Gallery of images
Tags: Girona · Masó · Photography
Not only did I get some cough medicine at a pharmacy with large Braille letters embossed on the box but I also shared some wine with friends from a bottle with Braille on the back label. Of course I could not read either of them.
Tags: Culture
From all around Catalunya (including three towns in France) came les Amics des Gegantes. It seems that many towns have their own gegantes (Giant ‘puppet’ people) which are used in their local festas and the Amics visit each other. It was visiting day in Girona for the end of the Sant Narcis festival which began last Thursday, the 22nd. There is a lot more to be said about the whole affair but today was Giants day.
Pictured are the gegantes from Figueres, home of the Salvador Dali Museum. The central figure is a comic representation of the Tramuntana, the winds which can blow from the north for long periods and are said to drive people crazy. You know the fellow on the left.
I should have a slideshow up soon.
Tags: Festa · gegantes · Girona
Finally got this blog working at the same time as Girona Mac went live. Things to do on both but they could be the key to being here though judging from the photo and life experience. finding the right key for the right keyhole is a life-long quest.
Taken here not too far west of the city while on a lovely day trip to get water at a fuente and see the sights.
Tags: church · keyhole
