Catedral de Sant Pere

Today, I went in search of the Cathedral that I had heard about. After winding my way through streets, I found it and it was amazing. It is called the Catedral de Sant Pere de Vic, in otherwords, the Catedral de Vic. Construction started on it in 1230 but the structure wasn't completed until 1600. In 1851, an earthquake was cause for renovations in the beginning of the 20th centure by Antoni Gaudi.

A side view of the Cathedral.

From the front. And this is only the upper half. I couldn't get back far enough to get the whole frong because there was another building there.

Once inside, it was breathtaking. I think I took about 140 pictures! This is a picture from the front altars centerpiece. It was a design of Gaudi's in the renovation. It sits in the main room with murals painted all over the walls. Off to the sides are little rooms. I have pictures of all of them but I will probably just post a few of them for your sake :) Some didn't turn out all that great because the lighting wasn't very good.

One of the side rooms.
Pews of the main Cathedral.

The pillars in the main Cathedral. The ceilings were so high!

Another picture of the pillars. This picture shows the height of the ceilings better.

Confession...

Picture from another side room.

On most of the exhibits, there are plaques that explain what, or who, is being depicted. I haven't quite figured out if there are actual bodies in some of the tombs or not. Here's an example of what I mean.

And this is his tomb (I think).

Here is a picture of the walls with murals on them. The architecture and design of this building in incredible. For the time period in which it was built, I find the architecture amazing. You can't see it great, but just about the mural, there are names that encircle the building. You can see Marcus and Thomas here (just below the window)

I paid 2 Euros to go see more of the Cathedral and found a room downstairs. I'm not sure what it was used for. I would love to be able to understand the brochures and pamphlets that I picked up. It would probably make a lot more sense to me in what I was seeing. My plan is to make a Spanish or Catalan friend who can translate everything for me :) We'll see if that happens or not.

This is the centerpiece that was hanging in the room downstairs.

After the underground room, I went on a mission to discover the courtyard (I actually didn't go on a mission. I knew the word "where" in Spanish and pointed to a picture and someone showed me the way). It led me to the courtyard but between the two spots, there were a few other rooms. One of them had these artifacts and clothing in them. It was really cool to see. It would have been even neater to understand who wore them and what time era.

Then after that room, I found my way to the courtyard. It was simple and all that was in the middle was this monument of a man (I don't know his name). It stood about 20 feet high though and was surrounded by patches of grass and trees.

The courtyard was enclosed like this all the way around. This is a picture looking onto the other side. The statue of the man was in the center.

Stained glass window.

Another statue of the man. This shows how big it was.

This is what the halls all the way around looked like.

A full view of the hall. I loved the ceilings.


And so that mostly concludes my trip to the Catedral de Sant Pere. There are lots more pictures but seeing as this blog took me about 1.5 hours to put together, I think this shall do for now.

In other news, I went and met my new landlord today! What a cute old man. He loved the fact that I was from Canada. His wife loves Canada so they went on a holiday there four years ago. He loved it! I'm glad we have something in common! Anyway, I can move in on Tuesday. I'm really excited about that.

Not sure if I mentioned it before but I start my Spanish and Catalan language intensive courses on Monday. That should be fun, considering how well I did in Spanish last term! Hopefully I will improve when I'm surrounded by it all day. The other Erasmus students (European exchange students) have assured me that my Spanish will drastically improve so that gives me some hope. After eight mornings and afternoons of that, the international office is taking us on a day trip to Barcelona on Friday.

I'm also looking forward to a friend visiting me from Finland on Thursday. On Saturday, we are going to see a futbol (soccer) match! That should be exciting. I have never seen a European futball match. I hear they can be pretty wild though! I know that futbol is more popular here than hockey is in Canada so I can't wait to experience that first hand!

Before I went to the Cathedral this morning, I stopped by Placa Mayor where they hold a market every Tuesday and Saturday morning. I expected it to be similar to a farmers' market back home and it kind of was and kind of wasn't. There was produce and local hand made crafts there, yes, but there was also clothes that you would find in stores. I was completely taken aback at how many vendors sold socks and underwear and bras. They were hanging on ropes and fluttering in the wind like flags. Quite funny. And the people! This market must attract all of Vic! It was packed! And I saw the biggest bread there I've ever seen before! This picture doesn't do it justice but I'm telling you, it was HUGE!

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well at home.

Until next time...

Adeau