Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ARCHITECTURE
GRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU
tour 20/80min €5.50/11.50; guided tour 10am, short tour 11.30am, noon, 12.30pm & 1pm; Liceu)
If you can't catch a night at the opera, you can still have a look around one of Europe's
greatest opera houses, known to locals as the Liceu. Smaller than Milan's La Scala but big-
ger than Venice's La Fenice, it can seat up to 2300 people in its grand horseshoe auditorium.
Built in 1847, the Liceu launched such Catalan stars as Josep (aka José) Carreras and
Montserrat Caballé. Fire virtually destroyed it in 1994, but city authorities were quick to get
it back into operation. Carefully reconstructing the 19th-century auditorium and installing
the latest in theatre technology, technicians finalised its restoration in October 1999. You
can take a 20-minute guided tour around the main public areas of the theatre or join a longer
guided tour.
On the 80-minute tour you are taken to the grand foyer, with its thick pillars and sumptu-
ous chandeliers, and then up the marble staircase to the Saló dels Miralls (Hall of Mirrors).
These both survived the 1994 fire and the latter was traditionally where theatregoers
mingled during intermission. With mirrors, ceiling frescoes, fluted columns and high-and-
mighty phrases in praise of the arts, it all exudes a typically neobaroque richness worthy of
its 19th-century patrons. You are then led up to the 4th-floor stalls to admire the theatre it-
self.
The tour also takes in a collection of Modernista art, El Cercle del Liceu, which contains
works by Ramon Casas. It is possible to book special tours, one that is similar to the guided
tour described but including a half-hour music recital on the Saló dels Miralls, and another
tour that penetrates the inner workings of the stage and backstage work areas.
VIEWPOINT
MIRADOR DE COLOM
93 302 52 24; Plaça del Portal de la Pau; lift adult/child €4.50/3;
8.30am-8pm; Drassanes)
High above the swirl of traffic on the roundabout below, Columbus keeps permanent watch,
pointing vaguely out to the Mediterranean. Built for the Universal Exhibition in 1888, the
monument allows you to zip up 60m in the lift for bird's-eye views back up La Rambla and
across the ports of Barcelona.
It was in Barcelona that Columbus allegedly gave the delighted Catholic monarchs a re-
port of his first discoveries in the Americas after his voyage in 1492. In the 19th century, it
was popularly believed here that Columbus was one of Barcelona's most illustrious sons.
Some historians still make that claim.
