Church and State

Today we visited the Catedral de Palma and the Palau de l'Almudaina, the cathedral and the palace, right next door to each other on the waterfront of Palma.

The palace on the left and cathedral on the right.

The cathedral is just amazing, such an interesting mix of gothic and modern. It is one of the highest gothic cathedrals, with the nave ceiling even higher the Notre Dame of Paris. The famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi did a great work on it in the early 20th century, and in particular opened up the space inside a great deal. 

Gorgeous stained glass up and down the walls. I really do love a gothic cathedral!

I love the colored lights hitting the organ pipes.

The kids liked playing in the colored lights coming in from the stained glass.

In awe.

Gaudi was a modernist, and though he exercised a lot of restraint in the Palma cathedral, he still left his mark. There is this huge canopy over the altar that looks a modernist mobile. It is actually made of cardboard! It was a model that was supposed to later be replaced with a metal one, and for some reason was never finished. It was so crazy cool; I absolutely adored it.

The picture just doesn't do it justice!

Another cool mobile-looking thing.

My number one favorite in the cathedral, though, was a contemporary installation in one of the chapels in the cathedral created by an artist named Miquel Barcelo in the early 2000s. It represents the miracle of the loaves and fishes, with Christ in the center. You can see fish and various sea creatures on the left, fruit and food on the right, and a small Christ in the center.

The "fishes" wall

The "loaves" wall

Christ depiction. You can just barely see the wounds in his hands, feet, and side.

After the cathedral we went to lunch (tapas, finally!!) and then played on a playground right next to the cathedral.

I thought this big guy was going to bite Quintana

Orange trees!

So many sailboats out on the water today!

And then to the palace! Photos were not allowed inside, so I don't have much to show. The architecture was lovely. It was built by the Moors when they controlled Mallorca, and Gothic architecture was added later under the Catalan kings.

The courtyard was gorgeous, with this amazing view of the cathedral.

These lion sculpture date back to the Moorish reign, something like the 10th century!

Sneaked a photo, then Q started yelling "You take a picture Mommy?"

View of the city from the balcony.

Then gelato (which was confusingly all in Italian), then home! Long day, but full of beauty and fun.