1,000 Places to See Before You Die

by Patricia Schultz

  A Saint’s Birthplace Conveys a Vivid Sense of the Past

  ÁVILA

  Castilla y León, Spain

  The nearly perfect 11th-century walls of Ávila are a protected national treasure. Ten feet thick and 40 feet high, they took more than 2,000 workers 10 years to build. They wend a mile and a half around this much-photographed hilltop town and include 90 semicircular guard towers, 9 narrow arched gates, and more than 2,300 embattlements, which still look astonishingly new. A walkway along the top allows you to envision an approaching army of Moors—or get a good view of the storks that nest in the town’s bell towers. Even the city’s rugged 12th-century cathedral was built into the walls to serve partly as a military fortress.

  Ávila has long been central to Spain’s religious history as the hometown of St. Teresa, born here in 1515. A frail, witty Carmelite nun from a family of Jewish descent, she was a key figure of the Spanish Counterreformation, who became the first female Doctor of the Church and the female patron saint of Spain. The treasured souvenirs called yemas de Santa Teresa, the candied egg yolks named in her honor, are sold all over town.

  A stay at the Hotel Palacio de los Velada, next to the bishop’s palace and cathedral, puts you in the spiritual and geographic heart of Ávila. The modernized Renaissance palace exudes contemporary opulence. You can lounge with a drink in the glamorous, glass-covered cloister courtyard unless it’s been taken over by a local wedding party—who will probably invite you to join in.

  Reputedly built by Moorish prisoners, the walls of Ávila become the world’s largest illuminated monument at night.

  WHERE: 68 miles/110 km northwest of Madrid. VISITOR INFO: www.avilaturismo.com. HOTEL PALACIO DE LOS VELADA: Tel 34/920-215100; www.veladahoteles.com. Cost: from $100 (off-peak), $200 (peak). BEST TIMES: Mar–Oct for nicest weather; Oct 15 for feast day of St. Teresa, which also launches a weeklong festival of flamenco.

  An Architectural Wonder and a Shelter for Knights

  LEÓN

  Castilla y León, Spain

  Begun in 1205, the walls of León’s Gothic cathedral are more glass than stone: One hundred and twenty-five stained-glass windows, three giant rose windows, and 57 oculi fill the lofty interior with bejeweled shafts of light. In the cathedral-building mania of the Middle Ages, European cities strove to outdo one another with the highest steeples and biggest rose windows. Because the kingdom of León was leading the battle against Islam in Spain, artisans from across Europe made León’s cathedral the boldest in Christendom, creating a building that amazes even modern-day architects with its illusion of weightlessness and profusion of light. Some windows soar as high as 110 feet, and altogether they cover more than 18,000 square feet. Some of Spain’s most important sacred art can be found in the adjacent Cathedral Museum.

  Designated the capital of Christian Spain in 914, León is now a charming provincial city that retains the aura of its regal past. Eleven kings, 14 queens, and many nobles are buried in the Royal Pantheon, located in the convent of the beautiful Romanesque church Colegiata de San Isidro where fanciful 12th-century ceiling frescoes look down on their sepulchres.

  The Parador San Marcos deserves a prize for its sumptuous entrance in the plateresque style (so-called because of its resemblance to lacy plate work in silver, or plata,) and the elaborate, coffered ceiling of the entry hall. A landmark of Spanish Renaissance architecture, it has become Spain’s largest parador since the addition of a modern annex. Its original wing was completed in 1549, upon the orders of King Ferdinand, as the mother house of the Order of Santiago and a hospice for visiting pilgrims. Thirty of the 250 rooms are housed in the historic wing, as is the celebrated restaurant with views of the Río Bernesga.

  León is also one of two departure points for a special weeklong train excursion across historic northern Spain on El Transcantábrico Classico. Stops include Bilbao (see p. 252), Santillana del Mar (see p. 254), a coach excursion through the Picos de Europa (see p. 255), Oviedo, the north coast of Galicia, and ends in Santiago de Compostela (see p. 265). A new Transcantábrico luxury train with additional creature comforts (el Gran Lujo) introduced in 2011 travels between Santiago and San Sebastían (see p. 253).

  The best time to admire the stained-glass windows of León’s cathedral is on a sunny afternoon.

  WHERE: 200 miles/320 km north of Madrid. CATEDRAL DE LEÓN: Tel 34/987-875770; www.catedraldeleon.org. PARADOR SAN MARCOS: Tel 34/987-237300; www.parador.es; in the U.S., Marketing Ahead, 800-223-1356; www.marketingahead.com. Cost: $175 (new wing), $290 (historic wing); dinner $55. EL TRANSCANTÁBRICO: Tel 34/902-555902; www.eltranscantabricoclasico.com. Cost: 8 days from $3,385. When: May–Oct. HOW: U.S.-based Palace Tours arranges train travel. Tel 800-724-5120; www.spaintraintours.com. BEST TIMES: Apr–Oct for nice weather; late Jun for Fiesta de San Juan, featuring concerts, bullfights, and fireworks.

  Spain’s Most Beautiful Square

  SALAMANCA’S PLAZA MAYOR

  Salamanca, Castilla y León, Spain

  Visitors to Spain’s leading city of wit and wisdom—wit in the architectural adornments, wisdom in one of Europe’s oldest universities—inevitably gravitate to the heart of the town, the lovely 18th-century Baroque Plaza Mayor (Main Square), often called the most beautiful in all of Spain. The ancient city’s other attractions are within walking distance of the plaza, but linger awhile to take in the spirit of Salamanca. What was once Spain’s most important university was founded here in 1218 by Alfonso IX, and you can still visit the buildings of the original school. (Join students searching for the tiny good-luck frog among the elaborate carvings on the entryway’s façade.) As one of Europe’s oldest universities, Salamanca was considered an equal to Oxford, Bologna, and Paris. Today, its 30,000 students keep the city young and fuel its stimulating arts scene. They fill the café tables that pour out from the plaza’s shaded arcades, where roving groups of tunas (caped student minstrels in Renaissance garb) often serenade visitors and salamantinos in the late afternoon. A few blocks south, the “new” 16th-century cathedral, with its extraordinary carved façades, shares a wall with its older Romanesque sibling. Both are important sites, especially for their main altars. So is the Hotel Rector, formerly the private mansion of a family that now lives upstairs, leaving 14 faultlessly decorated rooms for in-the-know travelers.

  WHERE: 127 miles/204 km northwest of Madrid. HOTEL RECTOR: Tel 34/923-218482; www.hotelrector.com. Cost: $220. BEST TIMES: Mar–Jun and Sep–Nov for nicest weather; mid-Sep for Feria de Salamanca.

  Ancient Heartbeat of a Modern City

  CIUTAT VELLA

  Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

  While the fantasy excesses of modernista architecture (see next page) define the stately grid of Barcelona’s L’Eixample neighborhood, the Ciutat Vella (Old City) is filled with the atmospheric twisting alleys of the Barri Gótic (Gothic Quarter). Bounded on the west by the carnival-like promenade of La Rambla, the Barri Gótic is dominated by the Cathedral of Barcelona (begun in 1298, completed circa 1450), whose plaza becomes especially festive on Sunday afternoons when it swells with people performing the Catalan circle dance known as the sardana. You can watch the action from many of the rooms at the nearby Hotel Colón, a graciously old-fashioned lodging that was a favorite choice of Joan Miró. A few blocks away, the Neri Hotel and Restaurant delivers contemporary style with neo-Gothic flourishes in the seclusion of an 18th-century palace.

  Five medieval town houses east of the cathedral are linked together as the Museu Picasso, which houses 3,800 of his works and is second only to the Picasso Museum in Paris (see p. 114). Many are early examples, including boyhood sketchbooks, showing how a talented youth from Málaga evolved into a master artist during his years in cosmopolitan Barcelona (1895–1904).

  He spent part of that transition hanging out at Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), a Barri Gótic bar-restaurant that was designed by Modernist architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1897 and has catered to bohemia ever since.

  The streets around Els Q
uatre Gats northwest of the cathedral are especially good for evening tapas hopping. But even in Barcelona, little can compete with the long tree-lined avenue called La Rambla—“the very spirit of the city,” wrote Federico García Lorca. Amid the sensory overload created by this swath of florists, buskers, caricaturists, and café waiters inviting you in, there appears the Mercat de la Boqueria, the city’s temple of fresh food. The Boqueria market is a gastronome’s idea of heaven, with more than 300 stalls purveying everything from wild mushrooms to squirming eels. Just inside the entrance on the right, the always packed Bar Pintxo is a perfect spot to grab some tapas or a sandwich to curb your appetite before shopping. La Rambla isn’t all street theater; at its midpoint stands the Gran Teatre del Liceu, one of the world’s grandest opera houses, rebuilt in 1994 after a devastating fire.

  Bisbe Irurita Street in the Barri Gótic was an ancient Roman thoroughfare.

  HOTEL COLÓN: Tel 34/933-011404; www.hotelcolon.es. Cost: from $105 (off-peak), from $165 (peak). NERI HOTEL: Tel 34/933-040655; www.hotelneri.com. Cost: from $260 (off-peak), from $400 (peak). MUSEU PICASSO: Tel 34/932-563000; www.museupicasso.bcn.es. ELS QUATRE GATS: Tel 34/933-024140; www.4gats.com. Cost: lunch $35. MERCAT DE LA BOQUERIA: Tel 34/933-182584. BAR PINTXO: Tel 34/933-171731; www.boqueria.info. Cost: pintxo “meal” $18. GRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU: Tel 34/934-859913; www.liceubarcelona.com. BEST TIMES: Thurs for Mercat Gótic de Antiguitats flea market on Plaça Nova; Christmas season for Fira de Santa Llúcia.

  A Visionary Architect Defines Barcelona

  GAUDÍ AND LA SAGRADA FAMILIA

  Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

  Rising to the heavens with eight candle-wax spires, the enormous Sagrada Familia church remains a masterpiece in the making. Eccentric genius and Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí was run over and killed by a tram before he could complete his strangest, most controversial creation. It is finally slated for completion in 2026 to mark the centenary of his death. Gaudí, a national hero, is buried in the church’s crypt, but his spirit persists throughout the city. The most famous proponent of modernisme (the Catalan Art Nouveau style of 1890 to 1920), Gaudí put Barcelona on the architectural map with a design approach that was rooted in a playful Catalan sensibility later expressed by Picasso, Miró, and Dalí. His flowing, organic forms remain landmarks, especially the Casa Milà apartment block (often called “the rock pile,” or La Pedrera), where the chimneys are shaped like surrealistic warriors. It is one of seven secular buildings by Gaudí. His designs for Parc Güell delight with tile-encrusted benches and undulating ramparts. Inside the park, his home, the Casa-Museu Gaudí, contains a small exhibit about his work and life.

  To see Modernist buildings built by other masters, stroll through the neighborhood of L’Eixample; be sure to pass by the fairy-tale mansion called Casa de les Punxes (House of Spikes), designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1905. Try to attend a concert in the Palau de la Música Catalana, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Almost sedate on the outside, the interior is a hallucinogenic riot of stained glass, ceramic sculpture, and stone carvings capped by a grand stained-glass dome. Top off the modernisme experience by staying either at Hotel Casa Fuster, a landmark hotel that has retained features of the original 1908 urban palace designed by Domènech i Montaner, or at the Mandarin Oriental Barcelona, which opened in 2010 in a mid-20th-century structure with great views of Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, a marvel of sinuous curves and colorful glass and ceramic details.

  It’s called “House of Bones” for its skeletal quality, but Gaudí actually drew inspiration for Casa Batlló from marine life.

  LA SAGRADA FAMILIA: www.sagradafamilia.org. CASA-MUSEU GAUDÍ: Tel 34/932-93811; www.casamuseugaudi.org. PALAU DE LA MÚSICA CATALANA: Tel 34/932-957200; www.palaumusica.org. HOW: The city has published a pamphlet for a self-guided walking tour of 115 Modernist landmarks, the “Ruta del Modernisme de Barcelona.” Tel 34/933-177652; www.rutadelmodernisme.com. HOTEL CASA FUSTER: Tel 34/932-553000; www.hotelcasafuster.com. Cost: from $250 (off-peak), from $460 (peak). MANDARIN ORIENTAL BARCELONA: Tel 34/931-518888; in the U.S., 800-526-6566; www.mandarinoriental.com. Cost: from $460 (off-peak), from $725 (peak).

  Gardens and Culture on Barcelona’s Green Crown

  PARC DE MONTJUÏC

  Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

  Modern barceloneses take their ease where ancient Romans once held their ceremonies—in a park high atop the gentle hill of Montjuïc that rises behind the city. The most exciting way to get there is to soar from the port on the aerial tram, the Transbordador Aeri. You’ll arrive amid the cactus gardens, where some species stand more than 20 feet tall. Walk on toward the sleek Fundació Joan Miró and the landscape shifts to rolling greenery and formal gardens. Several hundred paintings and sculptures by the 20th-century Catalan surrealist are arrayed throughout minimalist galleries, perfectly illuminated by indirect skylights; the views of Barcelona from the sculpture-dotted roof deck are unsurpassed. Nearby is the 1929 replica of a Greek theater, Teatre Grec de Montjuïc, which hosts concerts and dance performances all year but comes into its own as the main stage of the summertime Festival Grec.

  Catalans view their region as a distinct country, and the park’s Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) would do any nation proud. Housed in the imposing Palau Nacional (National Palace), the museum is home to the world’s finest treasure trove of Romanesque and Gothic paintings, sculpture, and metalwork. The masterful altarpieces, frescoes, and polychrome icons, mostly salvaged from Catalan churches and monasteries, are displayed as they were originally installed in country churches. They chronicle the evolution of Romanesque style from its crude beginnings to its zenith between the 11th and 13th centuries. A highlight is the Pantocrator from the main apse of the Iglesia de San Clemente de Taüll, dating from 1123. Built for the 1929 World’s Fair and reopened in 1995 after a major renovation, the Renaissance-Baroque-style Palau Nacional is often called the Prado of Romanesque art. At the foot of the steps to the palace, enjoy the spectacle of the Font (fountain) Màgica, where great shoots of water are floodlit at night and choreographed to popular music.

  Fundació Joan Miró holds over 14,000 of the artist’s works, including Lovers Playing with Almond Blossom (above).

  FUNDACIÓ JOAN MIRÓ: Tel 34/934-439470; www.fundaciomiro-bcn.com. TEATRE GREC DE MONTJUÏC: Tel 34/934-132400. MNAC: Tel 34/936-220360; www.mnac.es. BEST TIME: late Jul for Festival Grec.

  Surreal Art and Cuisine on the Wild Coast

  COSTA BRAVA

  Catalonia, Spain

  Cadaqués, the northernmost resort on the Catalan coast, reachable only by sea or a precipitous switchback road, is often called the world’s most painted village. Picasso, Utrillo, Miró, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and filmmaker Luis Buñuel all took inspiration from its simplicity, but Salvador Dalí, who had a studio (now a museum) in adjoining Portlligat for many decades, is the most enduring presence.

  A quiet point in the swirling world of the madcap coast, the whitewashed village wraps around a rocky harbor at the eastern tip of the Empordà peninsula. Little has changed since Dalí played chess with Marcel Duchamp at Bar Meliton in the 1920s. The indolent pace continues as bars and cafés fill after siesta and stay open till dawn. The lack of sandy beaches sends the hedonists elsewhere, making Cadaqués a town of artists and fishermen. Outdoor portside restaurants serve simple dinners of grilled sardines and dorado, and no-frills hangouts like Casa Anita (one of Dalí’s favorites) serve locally caught seafood to a new generation of artists.

  Art and sublime food also collude in Dalí’s nearby hometown of Figueres. Late in life, he transformed a 19th-century theater (where his first exhibition was shown in 1919) into an installation work, the Teatre-Museu Dalí. From the plastic store mannequins to the pile of rubber tires out front, the entire display is as phantasmagoric as any of the artist’s “landscapes.” Dalí called it “a gigantic surrealist object in which everything is coherent, nothing is beyond my understanding.” His private art collection resides here—an
d he is buried beneath the central dome.

  At the Restaurant Empordà (in a hotel of the same name), long acclaimed for its Catalan game and seafood specialties, patrons come less for the Dalí sketches than for the artistry of chef Jaume Subirós. Indeed, chefs are the new artists of the Costa Brava, inspired in part by local son and chef extraordinaire Ferran Adriá’s wildly experimental cuisine at El Bulli outside the town of Roses. Closed for transformation, El Bulli is scheduled to re-open as a think tank for creative cuisine and gastronomy in 2014, and Adriá plans to serve a limited number of diners.

  In the meantime, travelers in search of culinary genius drive farther south along the coast—pausing for the medieval marvels of San Feliu de Guixols and the castle-topped headlands of Tossa del Mar. South of Blanes and close to Barcelona, Carme Ruscalleda marries Catalan traditions with Adriá-like inspiration at a neighboring gastro-destination, the Restaurante Sant Pau, in Sant Pol de Mar.

  WHERE: 107 miles/172 km north of Barcelona. VISITOR INFO: www.costabrava.org. PORTLLIGAT CASA-MUSEU SALVADOR DALÍ: Tel 34/972-251015; www.salvador-dali.org. CASA ANITA: Tel 34/972-258471. Cost: dinner $45. TEATRE-MUSEU DALÍ: Tel 34/972-677505; www.salvador-dali.org. EMPORDÀ: Tel 34/972-500562; www.hotelemporda.com. Cost: from $90; prix fixe dinner $90. RESTAURANTE SANT PAU: Tel 34/937-600662; www.ruscalleda.com. Cost: prix fixe dinner $190.