Irina Swain Omeka MetsExport Plugin The software used to generate this document is called Omeka MetsExport, which operates as a plugin for Omeka. Documentation can be found at http://github/MetsExport/ Casa Llotja de Mar Casa Llotja de Mar The Casa Llotja de Mar is located in Barcelona, Spain. Graziella Dominado, Benjamin Fraser Camille Kresz 02/06/2017 English, Spanish Document, Still Image, Sound Casa Llotja de Mar The beauty of Barcelona bewitches me, its network of streets morphing into a network of veins, meticulous and flawless, pumping culture rich with history mixed with urbanization back into the heart of the city. It grows, flourishes, and breathes life, all the while never losing sight of the past that roots it. Filling the spaces of Cerdà’s checkerboard blueprint for Barcelona’s Eixample, we find the Casa Llotja de Mar, a prime portrayal of Catalan Gothic with its eagerness, in the words of Hughes, to “show you its bones” (Choay 1969: 26; Hall 1997: 135). Comparable to many Barcelonan places, the Llotja has an enrapturing history of its own. Fast-forwarding through its past role as a meeting place for negotiating trading deals, and its shutdown and conversion into a barracks for troops during the Bourbon conquest of Barcelona, neoclassic architect Soler created plans for a new Llotja in 1764. After its completion in 1804, half of the top floor housed the Escola de Bellas Artes, the main art school in Barcelona. While Pablo Picasso’s father taught at the school as a professor, Pablo himself studied there as a student, in addition to Joan Miró and other lesser known—but still impressive—architects, artists, and the like (Hughes 2004: 47-52). Above all the ornate facets found in the Llotja, I find my eye drawn to the “bones” Hughes refers to, evident in the columns and open space seen in the main hall. Its bareness and lack of exorbitance provide it with a raw, organic beauty that only places of the past can capture and urbanization can overtake if excessively done. With names like Picasso walking through the stairways of the building, one can’t help but wonder what other life filled its skeleton.  Item changed by user 26 at 2017-02-06 17:33:03.Created manually by user