Spent a few days in the beautiful city of Barcelona attending the IWF Cornerstone Conference. The event was hosted at the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB), located in the new business and technology district north of the port, away from the more touristy areas of the city.
I’d not been to this area of the city before. Both my hotel and the convention center were near the water and close to a walking path. My first morning in the city I was out early and experienced a magnificent sunrise.
The waterfront was a popular place for locals and business people to walk, bike, run, exercise and enjoy the beach. Walkers frequently jumped on the available exercise equipment for impromptu workouts.
The IWF Conference provided a wonderful opportunity to think, learn, network and experience a bit of the city. My Behind the Scenes session took me to the Gothic Quarter, nestled in Barcelona’s Cuitat Vella or Old City. Despite having been to Barcelona twice before, I had not explored this area. We toured the Santa Eulalia Cathedral of Barcelona with its Gothic spires and breathtaking stained glass windows constructed in the 14th century.
The cathedral was named after one of the patron saints of Barcelona, St. Eulalia, a young virgin who was martyred during Roman times. Legend had it that the Romans put her in a barrel with protruding knives and rolled her down the street. Her body is buried in the cathedral crypt.
The choir stalls in the church’s interior are topped by imposing Gothic spires. Each stall retains the coat-of-arms of the knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Barcelona was selected by Charles, the future Holy Roman Emperor, as the site of the chapter of his order in the early 1500’s.
We crossed the Plaza de Sant Jaume to Barcelona’s City Hall. Also built in the 14th century, it houses the chamber where elected representatives of the City of Barcelona meet as well as those who govern the state of Catalonia. The plaza has an important history – in Roman times, this was the site of the Forum, the meeting stage for political debate.
As IWF conference attendees, we were given a VIP tour of city hall. We started in the Great Hall, where Barcelona’s first form of city government, Council of the One Hundred, met from 1373 until it was dissolved in 1714, This is the same chamber where Barcelona’s city council meets today.
We also visited the Hall of Chronicles, decorated with murals by Josep Maria Sert. Painted in the early 1920’s, people in these murals appear to change perspective depending on the angle one looks from.
The hall’s staircase and lobby are filled with sculptures from a variety of artists; many tour city hall just to see paintings, murals and sculptures.
On the final day of the conference, we had a few hours between end of afternoon session and dinner. It was a clear sunny day, ideal for a walk along the beach. Multitudes of boats, their white sails bobbing in the wind, dotted the horizon.
A final architectural gem we visited as part of the conference was the Maritime Museum. The concluding dinner was hosted in the museum’s banquet hall. We entered the building, originally built as a military installation and shipyard in the early 1200’s, from a beautifully lit courtyard. The Gothic interior with its high arches and stone pillars, made for an elegant (but acoustically challenging) dinner setting.
The next morning, I was up at daybreak for a flight to London. As my plane lifted off, I caught a last glimpse of this beautiful port city bathed in sunlight.
