Nativity Façade Detail in Sagrada Familia

This is a detail of the Nativity Façade by Gaudi. An explosion of imagination, the artist at his most. 

I like those wingless angels blowing the trumpets. Did you know that Gaudi firmly believed that angels had no wings and so it goes that no angel in the basilica is represented as such?

Composed by Portal of Hope, Portal of Charity and Portal of Faith and with Joseph, Jesus and Mary as the center in each of them, Nativity façade  is my opinion much more attractive to the eye.

Catalan Modernisme: Múrria Grocer’s Shop in Barcelona

This is a small shop called Queviures Múrria (Cat.) or Colmado Múrria (Sp.) and located in the Eixample quarter, at carrer Roger de Llúria 85. The shop was opened in 1898 and it was called "La Puríssima" but it was a coffee roasters’.It is another example of Catalan Modernisme, one of the many scattered all around Barcelona. There are beautiful signs on the exterior like the one at very corner which has been preserved, advertising famous Spanish brands such as Anis del Mono, a strong anisette liquor still on sale. This grocery store is one of those in which we can still find the savoir faire of family traditions and the excellency of good products so elegantly exhibited that you can't help stopping to look compulsively at the shop window like the three men in the picture.

Stonecutter at Súria's Medieval Market

I felt like black and white today so I selected this stonecutter in the Medieval Fair at Súria near Barcelona (see the original color image here). True craftsmen disguised for the occasion showed you the secrets of old medieval trades. There was the basket weaver, the coal burner, the potter, the weaver, the glassblower and a long list of other crafts represented. Stonecutters or stonecarvers were highly appreciated and well paid at the time and their history is linked to the masons lodges of the middle ages. Learn the basics of stone carving art. An amusing reading to learn about medieval crafts, especially stonemasonry is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I couldn't help thinking of Tom Builder when I saw this man.