Barcelona–Orfeo Catala  or  Palau de la Musica Catalana. Marie and I visited this alone separate from the tour group.  The choral theater was not on our tour agenda and after seeing pictures of it related to the “modernista” architecture of Gaudi, I decided I had to see it.   You actually have to hunt a bit to locate this music theater because it’s nestled among many equally tall buildings downtown.  Rows and rows of glass columns line the balconies.


Columns have colorful mosaics and miniature floral sculptures.




Front entrance to the Palau de la Musica Catalana.  This was built in the early 1900’s at the height of the “modernista” architecture boom.  The plan was to create a performance theater specifically for the numerous choral and musical groups of Barcelona.  Community groups banded together to raise funds for its construction.



Busts to famous composers, such as Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and Mozart are perched along the upper balconies.