Customized tours in Barcelona are best enjoyed in small groups (4-8 people) to get a key to understanding the city and its inhabitants. Its temperate climate, even in the sunny winter months, makes Barcelona a perfect city to see by walking. Enjoy Maribel´s guidance and her passion for art will help you to discover the art and the architecture of this beautiful and dynamic mediterranean city while strolling through its hidden corners.

Barcelona has a historical and artistic heritage that dates from the Romans to the Romanesque wall paintings to it´s Gothic Quarter. Barcelona´s intense development for art and design shows its rich heritage of the Modernist movement. In 1859, civil engineer Idelfons Cerdà devised an extension of the city called the Eixample, a quarter filled with Modernism buildings by three important Catalan architects, Lluis Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and the genius of Antoni Gaudí Cornet. Barcelona was the home of two leading artists of the XXth century, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. Barcelona hosts today Spain´s greatest living artist Antoni Tapiès.

And nowadays Barcelona boats internationally known artists, architects and designers such as Ricardo Bofill, Oscar Tusquets, Mariscal, Antoni Miró or Custo. Most of the new elements in the cityscape are the work of the many creators living and working in town. Barcelona parks and squares have become one of the most extensive outdoor sculpture galleries with large commissioned pieces by Chillida, Beverly Peppers or Joan Miró. Maribel as an artist and a designer herself can be the best introduction with their work. Discover Barcelona´s local design in fashion, jewels, furniture and crafts.

Make your stay worthwhile while enjoying the traditional Catalan cuisine, the finest tapas and wine tasting of selected Catalan wines and cava.

 

SERVICES: GUIDED ART AND ARCHITECTURE TOURS IN BARCELONA

The Gothic Quarter
The old city is the heart of Barcelona. It is one of the best preserved Gothic Quarters of Europe. It is cramped with narrow streets, palaces, squares and churches, markets, shops, bars and restaurants.

1- The Gothic Quarter and La Ribera Quarter: In the old Roman Forum at la Plaça Sant Jaume stands the palace of La Generalitat and the Town Hall. Near by the Gothic Cathedral of La Seu, Plaça del Rei were Columbus was received by the Catholic Kings and the Roman temple of Augustus. La Ribera Quarter, once an ancient guilt quarter is now an arty and trendy fashion place, like Custo´s shop, and where many crafts artists have their workshops. At the heart of it the Picasso Museum holds the most extensive collection of Picasso´s formative years as an artist and the famous "Las Meninas" series among other very interesting works of the Blue and Pink periods.

2- Gothic quarter, Las Ramblas and El Raval quarter: In the old Roman Forum at the Plaça Sant Jaume stands the palace of La Generalitat and the Town Hall. Near by the Gothic Cathedral of La Seu, Plaça del Rei and El Call, the old Jewish Quarter surrounded by antiques shops. Las Ramblas boulevard is the theater of life day and night with its colorful flower stands, La Boqueria market, it is Barcelona´s most famous promenade. West from Las Ramblas El Raval Quarter with the Museum of Contemporary Art MACBA by Richard Meier and the old Hospital of La Caritat renewed into the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona CCCB, a quarter bulging with artists workshops, bars and vintage clothe shops and music.

3- Antoni Gaudí´s architecture: "Gaudí was the greatest architect and the greatest cultural figure of any kind that Catalunya has produced since the Middle Ages. His work dominates Barcelona as Bernini does Rome" Robert Huges.
Casa Batlló, Casa Milá with Espai Gaudí a comprehensive look to understand his work as an architect, a great roof which is the first sculpture environment in modern art. Park Güell a colorful wonderland of Hänsel and Gretel with Gaudí ´s home. The Temple of La Sagrada Familia covering all periods of the architect, an emblem of Barcelona.

4- Montjuic: The hill overlooking the harbor and the city. It´s biggest monuments were built for the 1929 International Exhibition in Barcelona, like the Magic Fountain, the Mies Van der Rohe Pavilion or the Museu Nacional d´Art de Catalunya MNAC with an extensive collection of art works from the very unique Romanesque wall paintings, Gothic, XIXth century Modernism and XXth century paintings and sculptures.
Besides de 1992 Olympic Ring with works by Alfonso Milá and Federico Correa, Arata Isozaki, Santiago Calatrava and Ricardo Bofill.
The Miró Foundation designed by Josep Lluis Sert holds a permanent collection of works by Joan Miró, XXth century most universal Catalan artist whose innovative and unique language of signs and symbols sprang from Surrealism, is a legacy to the city of Barcelona.

5- Modernista architecture, the Eixample, Sagrada Familia and Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau: In Catalunya Modernism is equivalent to Art Nouveau in France. The Eixample is Barcelona´s extension designed by the engineer Idelfons Cerdà in 1859 out of the medieval town which now constitutes its heart. The enormous need to expand the city between 1870 to 1910 helped the Modernisme movement. Around Paseo de Gracia are concentrated most of the most important examples of Modernist architecture with works by the genius of Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch that sought to fuse many elements -Catalan nationalism, Gothic and Moorish beauty and artisan´s crafts- with their imaginative designs of curved facades and bright interiors, colored mosaics, iron as lace balconies and stained glass.
In the district of the Temple of La Sagrada Familia, Gaudí´s unfinished masterpiece is also located the Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau by Lluís Domènech i Montaner a jewel of Modernism architecture.

6- Modernism and Gothic Quarter: From the Mansana de la Discòrdia in Paseo de Gracia down to Las Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter around the Gothic Cathedral of La Seu.

7- Public Parks and contemporary sculptures: For the 1992 Olympic Games the city of Barcelona did set a program of renewal of its Public Parks and added to them contemporary sculptures of international artists such as Calatrava, Chillida, Corberó, Elsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brian Hunt, Beverly Peppers, Joan Miró among others.

8- Tapas Tour: Catalunya is a rich region with game in the mountains, fruits and vegetables, rice in the mediterranean plains and fishing along its coast. It shows in an abundant and varied cuisine.
Each neighborhood in Barcelona has a produce market, the most famous La Boquería at Las Ramblas is an explosion of color, textures, smells and mediterranean and exotic products. The staple dish is "pà amb tomèquet" (country bread rubbed with fresh tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and salt) a Catalan tapa topped with anchovies, cured "jamón serrano" or "escalivada" made of roasted aubergine, peppers, onions. Rice dishes are very popular like the Valencian or sea food "Paella", "fideuà" made of tiny noodles cooked in a fish broth with fish and "allioli" a delicious garlic mayonnaise. "Gambas i pollastre" (prawns and chicken). Meat and fish are often served grilled or cooked in the oven. "Crema Catalana" is a very popular dessert.
Dozen of different tapas are offered in many bars in the Gothic Quarter, Las Ramblas and the harbor-side and beaches.
Barcelona´s restaurants offer a large range of varied cuisine from Catalan, Basque to international available to all budgets.

9- Shopping: The Old Town Quarters offer the chance to shop at crafts workshops and studios including jewellers, printers, tailors, textiles and ceramics as well as antique shops.
Paseo de Gracia and Diagonal boulevards offer the latest local and international fashion couture, to jewel and furniture design with creations in fashion of Armand Bassi, Antoni Miró, Roser Marcé, Adolfo Dominguez, Custo, in interior design Fernando Amat with its store Vinçon selling designs by Mariscal, Oscar Tusquests, Jorge Pensi or Juli Capella.

10-Contemporay art & crafts: Maribel as an artists and a designer herself can take you to visit other contemporary artist studios and crafts designers by appointment with them.

11-Out of town tours: Visit to the charming city of Girona with its Gothic, Jewish and Arab heritage.
Visit to the city of Tarragona with its important Roman and Gothic heritage at a beautiful Mediterranean site.

RATES: in Barcelona:   Weekdays Weekends & Evenings 4 hours 150 Euros 170 Euros 3 hours 130 Euros 150 Euros outside of Barcelona:   Weekdays Weekends & Evenings half day 170 Euros 200 Euros full day 300 Euros 400 Euros According to the current legislation all tourist services are taxed at a rate of 16% on the final invoice. Transportation can be provided upon your request. Meals, transportation and museum tickets are extra.

RESERVATION: Upon the confirmation of your reservation I need your credit card number. Payment in cash of the tour service in Barcelona