Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
UNDER THE ARCH AND INTO THE SHADOWS
Oneearlysummermorningin1945,10-year-oldDanielSempereandhisfatherwalkunder
the arch of c/de l'Arc del Teatre, “entering a vault of blue haze … until the glimmer of the
Ramblas faded behind us”. And behind a large, carved wooden door, Daniel is shown for
the first time the “Cemetery of Forgotten Books”, where he picks out an obscure book that
will change his life. So begins the mega-successful novel
Shadow of the Wind
, by Car-
los Ruiz Zafón (2002), a gripping mystery set in postwar Barcelona that uses the city's old
town in particular to atmospheric effect. With copy in hand you can trace Daniel's early
progress, from the street where he lives (c/de Santa Anna) to the house of the beautiful,
blind Clara Barceló on Plaça Reial, as well as a score of other easily identifiable locations
across the city, from the cathedral to Tibidabo - always keeping a wary eye out for a pur-
suing stranger with “a mask of black scarred skin, consumed by fire”.
Arts Santa Mònica
Ramblas 7 • Tues-Fri 11am-9pm, Sat 3-8pm • Free • 935 671 110,
artssantamonica.cat
• Drassanes
The Augustinian
convent of Santa Mònica
dates originally from 1636, making it the oldest
building on the Ramblas. It was remodelled in the 1980s as a contemporary
arts centre
, and
hosts regularly changing exhibitions in its grand, echoing galleries - it's an unusual gallery
space dedicated to “artistic creation, science, thought and communication” so there's usually
something worth seeing, from an offbeat art installation to a show of archive photographs.
Outside the centre, on the Ramblas, pavement artists, caricaturists and palm readers set up
stalls, augmented on weekend afternoons by a
street market
selling jewellery, beads, bags
and ornaments.
Museu de Cera
Ramblas 4-6, entrance on Ptge. de Banca • July-Sept daily 10am-10pm; Oct-June Mon-Fri 10am-1.30pm &
4-7.30pm,Sat&Sun11am-2pm&4.30-8.30pm•€15• 933172649,
museocerabcn.com
• Drassanes
Final stop at the bottom of the Ramblas is the city's wax museum, the
Museu de Cera
, in
an impressive nineteenth-century bank building. You'd have to be hard-hearted indeed not to
derive some pleasure from the ever more ludicrous series of tableaux presented in the build-
ing's cavernous salons and gloomy corridors, depicting recitals, meetings and parlour gath-
erings attended by an anachronistic - not to say perverse - collection of personalities, film
characters, public figures, heroes, villains, artists and musicians. Thus Yasser Arafat lectures
Churchill,HitlerandBillClinton,whileaconcertbyCatalancellistPauCasalsnumbersPrin-
cess Diana and Mother Teresa among the audience, before the museum culminates in cheesy
