When we made our first trip to the mountains back in 2012, we saw some of the churches. The church at Taull (pictured) was our favorite. Some of those frescoes are in the museum. I had ambivalent feelings about seeing the churches without the frescoes but, after looking at them in the museum, it appears they were barely saved in time.
The frescoes are painted in an almost byzantine style. They are very interesting and must have made an impression on the parishioners in their day. In 1100 C.E., Catalunya was just moving out of the Dark Ages and a brief period of Moorish occupation.
There is a great deal of graphically sadistic imagery involving the persecution of various saints. It took me a while to figure out the picture of St. Sebastian. It looks like he got caught in a storm of dinner rolls and the figures to his left were bringing loaves of bread. After reading the little card, however, it appears he is being stoned. I guess you had to be there.
Fortunately, your modern Catholics don't go for this sort of thing. The museum does an excellent job displaying the frescoes and have built elaborate wooden frames for them. Please check out the photo. The museum is located on top of Montjuic and is surrounded by beautiful gardens and fountains. You can walk down long stairways to the Plaça de Espanya and catch the metro to anywhere in the city.
We went out to dinner at a fancy tapas place called Lata-Bern@. The food was excellent and we spent the night in a little hotel in Gracia. Susan had to catch a plane to Paris early the next morning. We were up before dawn and got her on a bus to the airport in Plaça Catalunya. She and her friend, Laura, spent three days seeing the sights in Paris.
