Gaudí’s Bellesguard Tower

Catalana Occidente buys Gaudí’s Bellesguard Tower

The Grupo Catalana Occidente has reached an agreement to acquire the modernist Bellesguard tower to the Guilera family, current owners of the property. After months of rumors of sale of this emblematic Barcelona building built by Antoni Gaudí, the insurer and the family have confirmed the transaction in a statement on Friday.

The operation, the group has emphasized, responds to the vocation of contributing value to society and has exceptional character. The company will invest in the conservation and restoration of Torre Bellesguard, maintaining the lines of action of the Guilera family, which rehabilitated it from its own pocket and opened it to the public five years ago. However, the distance from the center and the amount of Gaudí works that can be visited today have reduced the success of the influx initially planned.

The farm will keep the tourist visits and events that it hosts, as well as its use of heritage space. Being a property listed as a Cultural Asset of National Interest (BCIN), public administrations have the right of pre-emption and retraction on the operation, although they would have declined the preferential purchase option, which must be made at the same price agreed upon by the two private parties.
For the family it has been key that the buyer of the property is a business group with “special sensitivity” towards art and culture, given the relevance of the Bellesguard Tower within the work of Gaudí. The sale and purchase would reach 33 million euros.

The Guilera family bought the Bellesguard Tower in 1944 and have been its owners for more than 70 years. Initially it was used as a hospital, since Luis Guilera was a renowned doctor and pioneer in the study of cancer. In 1974 the tower became the habitual residence of the family. The deterioration of the great cross that crowns the tower forced a first rehabilitation action and in 2011 the Guilera took the decision to initiate an integral action in order to safeguard this heritage and open it to visits, undertaking the necessary steps and investments to put in March the tourist activity.

Contact us if you come to Spain

Barcelona Car Service Airport

Car Service Barcelona

Car Service Barcelona to Cruise Port

Chauffeur Barcelona airport

Car Service Madrid

Alain Robert in Barcelona again

The French ‘Spiderman’ re-scales the Agbar Tower

alain-robert-in-barcelona-again

Alain Robert has done it again. This Frenchman, nicknamed ‘Spiderman‘ and known for climbing emblematic buildings such as the Khalifa Tower, climbed this Friday on the glass façade of one of the tallest skyscrapers in Barcelona: the Agbar Tower.

Without even wearing a harness, the 54-year-old urban climber has climbed and descended the office building, famous for its nighttime lighting. For almost an hour of feat, policemen and some curious who have approached the place have watched the movements of the French ‘spiderman’, who has carried out his mission with a bit of chalk in his hands and climbing shoes in his feet.

On his arrival to the land, the specialist has been arrested by several Mossos d’Esquadra (catalan police) because, apparently, he was not authorized to climb the building.

This is not the first time I have climbed the Torre Agbar. A decade ago, in August of 2006, it returned to face the 140 meters of height of the imposing building. That day he completed his journey in about three quarters of an hour. It was not authorized by what the company Aigües de Barcelona (Agbar) filed a lawsuit. According to the owner of the building, Agbar, Robert explained that his action was “in favor of peace in Lebanon.”

Throughout his reckless urban climber career, Robert has conquered more than 100 structures around the world, including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Burj Khalifa complex in Dubai, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Sydney Opera House; Always without a security team.

Please visit our websites:

Barcelona Car Service Airport

Car Service Barcelona

Car Service Barcelona to Cruise Port

Chauffeur Barcelona airport

Car Service Madrid

Roman wall of Barcelona

Barcelona removes barriers and allows access to its wall

roman-wall-of-barcelona

The Roman wall of Barcelona or rather, what has survived of those protective walls of the colony Iulia Augusta Paterna Barcino Faventia after nearly two millennia of constant urban intervention on them is from a more visible days ago … and until you can touch. This week, most of the locals -and thousands tourists pass even in this early summer autumn it seems Via Laietana- perhaps have not noticed that something has changed in the face of this motley sector Ciutat Vella. The City Council has completed a new phase of a process of recovery and enhancement of the Roman heritage of the city designed and initiated in the mandate of the Mayor Xavier Trias, when the then Councillor for Culture, Jaume Ciurana, insisted that Barcino deserved a plan rescue, hover above the ground in which it was buried and often forgotten.

Redeveloping the street Tapineria, between Avenue of the Cathedral and the Plaza del Angel, has eliminated the low walls separating the pedestrian walkway on the walls of a wall that, with this new development and interventions carried out in recent years it remains unrecognizable in many fragments, but those that remain or have been recovered looks a bit more which was begun in the late third century and was modified and rebuilt, with multiple inlaid with noble buildings and modest homes, since then until today.

The elimination of low walls and replacement with lower platforms at different levels, connected by a system of stairs and ramps, not only approximate the wall -solving the elevation difference between this and the street, but has also created an interesting space walk, rest and meet in an area of Ciutat Vella very deficient in this regard.

The works have now completed-in fact, the recovery of a passageway that was already used in the third century have given continuity to the reform of Ramon Berenguer Square, already in the previous term began to experience urban transformation and applications (with the decision to remove the parking of tourist coaches Via Laietana). The disappearance of the stretch of road that jutted on the sidewalk and the new distribution of landscaped flowerbeds and trees have served at this point to also revalue the wall-in one of its sections imposing- giving it a better view from every corner of the square. In this double action on an area of about 4,000 m2-la Ramon Berenguer Square and the street Tapineria- they have invested 1.6 million euros. Now it would not hurt that, to enhance the whole, the Barcelona City Council signaled with some informative elements this space with so much history and take extreme vigilance in anticipation of incivility, a disease that afflicts many cultural heritage sites and historical value the city has been recovering.

The draft recovery of the wall drawn by the previous municipal government raised prolong this archaeological ride newly opened toward the sea from the Plaza del Angel to the square of the Traginers, tracing the wall down the street Sotstinent Navarro (formerly called street Roman walls). A few years ago the demolition of two buildings uncovered a fragment of the defensive walls. Currently they are doing sanitation work in Sotstinent Navarro and archaeological excavations on the wall next to the school Àngel Baixeras claims used as schoolyard empty lot.

Although intramural Barcino still might hold new findings, research at this time of the Roman past of Barcelona it is more localized in the works carried out in the Sagrera. The large intermodal station that may someday see the eyes of the locals, no news. Instead, the vestiges of ancient times still coming to the surface as they move the excavations. Earlier this month the work of installing a new network of services casal future of neighborhood building known as Tower Sagrera (street Berenguer de Palou) have uncovered a Roman necropolis of the Republican era (first century BC) of the which until now he had no knowledge. In that space found at least three tombs or burial pits, although the Barcelona Archaeology Service does not rule out that there may be some more. The first of the graves excavated -a 1.70 meters below the current level of the street, under the direction of archeologist Eva Orri, it corresponds to that of a teenager.

The necropolis may be related to the Roman town of Pont del Treball Digne, set just 200 meters, from which it is known that it was already occupied in the first century B.C

Please visit our websites:

Barcelona Car Service Airport

Car Service Barcelona

Car Service Barcelona to Cruise Port

Chauffeur Barcelona airport

Car Service Madrid

Eating watching the skyline of Barcelona

From the new restaurant Marea Alta, on top of the tower Colon, you will be seen throughout the city

Marea Alta Restaurant Barcelona

Barcelona will have from April with one of the most romantic restaurants in the city, especially for those who come to the scene in time to have a drink on the terrace before sitting at the table, in the evening time, as the sun it is hidden in the asphalt. Marea Alta is the name finally chosen for the new facility which will put on the 24th floor of the tower Colon and aims to gain a foothold in the guides of the restaurants with the best views in major cities worldwide.

The dining experience, direct Enrique Valentí, will focus on fish, especially grilled. Luxury, intend, will be in the product quality on the success of cooking and the view of 360 degrees in a room of 360 square meters, part of a total area of almost a thousand meters from the bar on the 23rd floor, that Marea Baja, restaurant and kitchens will be called. The average bill will be around 50 euros for those who feel to lunch or dinner and will be less if you opt for a snack at the bar, whose finger-food offer is still emerging.

The new facility, which has an investment of about four million euros from various Catalan businessmen, occupy three floors of hexagonal structure found at the top of the tower Colon in Drassanes, an area that crowns a building that is not lost to Barcelona. Built in 1971, with 110 meters high, it was the first to beat the barrier of hundred meters past the Banc de Sabadell, built in 1969, with 83 meters. The building continues to host numerous offices and has as many supporters as detractors. The first praise the slight curvature of the upper part of its structure, it was innovative in the time; the second point with skepticism its higher floors offer the best views of the city, because they are the only ones can´t divide the tower, which was built with the aesthetics of the seventies.

One of the elevators, a concierge, lead to the upper floors, where the new facility will be located in what was the headquarters of the shipping company Ibarra, spread over three floors. Diners can travel on floors 23, where the bar, 280 square meters, with terrace will be and the 24, which will house the restaurant. The kitchens, with a spectacular view, be installed on the 25th floor The interior will accommodate the hexagonal glass structure overlooking the city (from distance you can see the Maresme area) and the tables will be distributed glued to the windows. In addition, several telescopes will be installed on the terrace to admire the details of the city from above.

Enrique Valenti, who once launched the Dove House and Chez Coco restaurants and continues to lead the successful proposal Bar Bas, on Rambla Catalunya, will head the new restaurant will be dedicated to fish, starring product. “We have sought inspiration as emblematic houses and admired as Elkano and Kaia, Getaria, grills and we want the grill is fundamental. There will be grilled and smoked. But in frying fish, stews and marinades, as well as light appetizers, not subtract prominence to the main course. What is not is a fish restaurant with Asian cuisine. ” Valenti is forming a team that will make up about forty people and for the time already has important signing, that of Julia Duque, who served under Fermi Puig at the Drolma disappeared and who also worked at his side at Chez Coco. The bar area is open not only to customers of the restaurant, but those who want to have a drink or taste the pecking proposal and, above all, enjoy the views.

Barcelona has restaurants located in the highest, and the Torre de Alta Mar, the  Dos Cielos, the Torres brothers (in the area of 22 @) or Casa Martinez in Montjuïc. The central location of the new restaurant in the Drassanes tower, making it the best vantage point to see the whole city.

Courtesy

Barcelona Car Service Airport

Car Service Barcelona to Cruise Port

Car Service Barcelona

Chauffeur Barcelona airport

Car Service Madrid

Spectacular “castell” with the skyline of Shanghai

The castellers of Vilafranca up a tower of 8 awith “folre” during his Asian tour

Castellers in Shanghai

The Vilafranca Castellers have built a castle in one of the most emblematic of the city of Shanghai locations.
The colla of Vilafranca has raised a tower 8 with folre with the Asian city skyline. It is his first appearance since being made castelleres an Asian tour.

The other day also raised a castell during his visit to Shanghai Jiaotong University to participate in an act of Barcelona Catalonia Cultural Week, held from 1 to 8 November in Shanghai to mark the tenth anniversary of the Casal Català and the fifteenth of the twinning of the cities of Shanghai and Barcelona. The event was attended Xiquets of Hangzhou.

The Castellers Vilafranca continue his Asian tour with more planned actions.

Courtesy

Barcelona Car Service Airport

Car Service Barcelona to Cruise Port

Car Service Barcelona

Chauffeur Barcelona airport

Car Service Madrid

 

La Sagrada Familia began work on top of its central tower in 2016

The basilica place from 23th to 25th October, an open house with sold out tickets

Sagrada-Familia-Barcelona

The chief architect of the Sagrada Familia, Jordi Faulí, planned on Wednesday at the new Creuer Hall of Barcelonian basilica, of the temple designed by Antoni Gaudí, than will be completed in 2026.
In a press conference to show progress in the work of Gaudí, Faulí explained that in 2016 will begin the construction of the upper part of the central towers, namely, that of Jesus Christ, Mary and the four Evangelists.

However, the chief architect stressed that “these central towers begin to be visible only from the outside since 2017, and will end altogether in 2020, still lacking the pinnacles”.
The event was held at the Creuer Chamber of the Sagrada Familia, a new space that is at the basis of what will be the tower of Jesus Christ, so just above the main hall of the building, to be used for purposes explanatory in tourist visits.

Open Day

The Basilica of the Sagrada Familia held from 23 to 25 October open house and for those who have exhausted the 30,000 tickets made available to the citizens free to visit the temple. The planned open day will be organized in different slots between 16 and 20 hours, and the temple has created a video in which emphasizes that begins the work of its central towers.

Courtesy car service barcelona

Chauffeur Barcelona airport

Limousine service Spain

Barcelona Agbar Tower celebrates 10 years waiting to become hotel

The uniqueness of the building, visible from almost every geography, it became a place of sightseeing

AGBAR TOWER BCN

He emerged from the Plaza de les Glories ten years ago. A building, the third highest of the city that received all kinds of adjectives and left no one indifferent both its aesthetics and what it represented. The iconic architecture that companies and municipalities coveted at that time to show the power of an economic boom that now after the economic crisis has reneged. The building work of the French architect Jean Nouvel was officially opened to host the offices of Aigües de Barcelona ten years ago today and-if you leave- now aspires to be a luxury hotel.

The uniqueness of the building, visible from almost all the geography of the city, quickly became a place of pilgrimage for tourists. The Barcelona, ​​meanwhile, have devoted all kinds of adjectives: howitzer, geyser, suppository, dildo or cucumber, among others. However, major obstacles beyond its aesthetic singularity, always came by his controversial integration with what was then the knot Glóries now a place in transformation.

They rained criticism from a sector considered that the tower 142 meters high was an example of the architecture of solitude. So said the architect Manuel de Solà-Morales, who judged that the building represented an isolated, insolent and uncooperative architecture with its environment. But solitude did not last long and after one year proliferated other iconic buildings in their environment to give substance to the territorial limit of 22 @ and the Eixample. Chipperfield towers or Ferrater in the new Diagonal, Fermin Vazquez Els Encants, Dhub MBM or are some of them. Undoubtedly, the construction bothered to Nouvel, who always considered that the tower should shine alone, was the neighboring hotel Silken work of Juli Capella.

Future use that arises now for the tower must solve issues related to interior design, which is largely influenced by the 4,500 windows pierce the facade and the nucleus of vertical communications that travel up and down around the center of the building. Inconveniences have had much to do with the limited success to rent space inside.

Courtesy  Car Service Barcelona airport

Chauffeur Barcelona airport

Limousine service Spain

Torre Agbar becomes the Hyatt tower Barcelona

Grand Hyatt Tower hotel Barcelona

The Agbar Tower, one of the most iconic and well known city of Barcelona icons, will host the Grand Hyatt luxury hotel Barcelona in the coming months. The news has created great excitement, as the figures that revolve around the new openness are spectacular: is expected investment of 150 million euros, and a renovation of the building that will house almost five hundred rooms and about 1 5 visitors annually. The Hyatt Barcelona Torre wants to become one of the best hotels in Barcelona, as well as a new tourist hub for Barcelona.

Courtesy Avantgarde Limousine Barcelona

• Executive Car Service Barcelona Spain            Barcelona chauffeur service
• Limousine service Spain                                   Best city tour Barcelona