That day, after the lessons at school were over, students Paulina Burzdikaite and Laura Jaciunskaite from the form 8a, also Zilvinas Sinkevicius from the form 9a, English teacher Lilija Mikalauskaite – Dziumajeva and art teacher Ingrida Vaitkiene started their journey to Spain where they participated in the fourth meeting of the project.

The topic of the meeting was “Modernism or Art Nouveau”, so before going to the meeting we had several intergrated English – Art lessons about Art Nouveau, also about Art Nouveau in Lithuania and last but not least, we’ve got to know about famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi and his creations. We also prepared a small presentation on Art Nouveau in Lithuania…

The flight from the international Vilnius airport lasted 3 hours and a half. When we landed at Barcelona airport it was already growing dark, we were welcomed by pleasant warmth and were fascinated by the large palm – trees growing at the territory of the airport… It took us one more hour to reach our destination – the town of Artes, where families of the host students met us by the school… And teachers had to travel for half an hour more to Manresa, where they stayed at the hotel…

Hello, Spain! Hello, Catalonia!

Art Nouveau (Lithuania)

This day was free for us from the project activities as due to the flights schedule we came one day earlier than our project partners. So, students Paulina, Laura and Zilvinas spent this day with their host families, they went the beach and watched the football match. And teachers Lilija and Ingrida were exploring the old centre of Manresa this day….

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In the morning we all met at the Institut Miquel Bosch i Hover in Artes. We’ve learned that the school is called after the name of one of the outstanding local teachers and about 400 of 12 – 18 – year – old students are attending it. We were welcomed by the school headmaster, students and teachers. In the school hall we saw the stands with the souvenirs and posters with the photos from the previous meetings in Lithuania, Italy and Portugal, the school hall was decorated with the flags representing some of the countries participating in the project… We had a walk around the school and listened and watched to the concert prepared by Spanish students, we all were fascinated by traditional Catalan dances performed by the students… Later, students, participants of the meeting, got acquainted with each other and were distributed into small multi – national groups and received the tasks which they had to fulfill till the end of the meeting… Then we all listened and watched to the presentations made during the last project meeting in Portugal, Paulina and Laura presented “Navigation Tools”. We had lunch at school canteen, it was paella, an internationally – known Spanish dish. Later we had a walk around the town of Artes. We’ve learned that Artes is a small town having around 5000 of inhabitants who are proud of the ancient history of the town. Together with the guide we visited the ancient Church, the construction of which was started in 500 AD, now they have the exposition of the local history museum there… Also while walking around the town, the guide paid our attention to the old city walls built in the 12 – 13th centuries…

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This day was spent in Barcelona. The first place which we visited was La Sagrada Familia, an outstanding, innovatory church which is still being built according to Antoni Gaudi models. Today the construction of this church – a Barcelona landmark and an artistic and spiritual symbol of Catalonia – is going on thanks to the support of the faithful, friends and visitors from every corner of the globe… The church is a combination of Modernism elements and a unique version of the Gothic style – seen primarily in its height, use of rose windows and arches, triple portals, and architectural sculpture… Even though the Sagrada Familia is far from finished, the remarkable church is well worth a visit. You can visit a crypt where Gaudi is buried as well as the transept and central nave with its giant, tree – like pillars and spectacular vaulting. A museum narrates the history of the church and tells the story of its great architect…

The other interesting place which we visited that day was Casa Mila or La Pedrera as it is often called, probably Gaudi’s second most popular building in Barcelona. Casa Mila or La Pedrera (meaning “The Quarry”) covers an area of more than 100 square meters and includes two large circular patios, so that almost every part of the house gets its share of sunshine. The façade is an impressive, varied and harmonious mass of undulating stone without straight lines where also the forged iron is present in the shapes of balconies imitating vegetal forms… Maybe one of the most interesting places of the whole complex is the rooftop: here you can find a large ensemble of surrealistic chimneys all looking different like warriors standing there alone or in small groups, dominating the rooftop…

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In the morning the guest – students attended different lessons at school and after that we all travelled to the place called Sant Benet Monastery.  Here in a very well – equipped educational centre students had some activities, e.g. they were learning how to make hot chocolate according to the old recipe. And teachers visited Monastery of  Sant Benet de Bages. It is a former Benedictine monastery founded about 950. The most splendid age of Sant Benet de Bages was in the 14^th century.

The crumbling ancient structure attracted the interest of the intellectuals who organized visits to it in the late 19^th century. The architect Puig i Cadafalch and the painter Ramon Casas encouraged the mother of Casas to buy the property at the beginning of the 20^th century. It was restored and belonged to the Casas family as their summer residence. While visiting Sant Benet Monastery we had a fascinating multi – media tour through the adjacent villa of the Modernist artist Ramon Casas which gave an intimate glimpse into the daily life of the family who lived in the opulent villa during their summer holidays in the early 1900’s….

Later that day we visited Manresa located in the geographical centre of Catalonia and crossed by the river Cardener. It is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are arranged around the basilica of Santa Maria de la Seo. Also in the town there are lots of Art Nouveau buildings, some of which were shown and described to us by the Spanish students…

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In the morning students started preparing presentations of the tasks they received the first day of the meeting and have already fulfilled. Then we visited the Town Hall of Artes and had a meeting with a mayor and some officials. Small figures of Maria and Victor, the patrons of Artes, were presented by the mayor to each Comenius team. Then we returned back to school where students continued working on their presentations meanwhile the teachers had a meeting discussing the results of the present meeting and speaking about the tasks for the future meeting in the Czech Republic… Later we listened to the students’ discoveries and presentations about modernism, Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, the houses in the Passeing de Gracia, modernism buildings in Manresa, Mont Sant Benet… Spanish students also presented their part of the touristic vocabulary: the main phrases in Catalan – Spanish – English…

After lunch that day we headed for the Forn de la Calc art centre located in the mountains where we learned to do modern ceramics and danced traditional Catalan dances…

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This day we travelled to the mountains of Montserrat (the word “montserrat” translates to “jagged mountain”). The sights of the mountains were fascinating and breathtaking, especially for us who have come from the country having no mountains at all…

Montserrat is a mountain top monastery. Situated atop an unusual rock, it is very popular among Catalans, and Catholic pilgrims come from far and wide to see the Black Madonna, Catalonia’s favourite saint, located in the basilica of the monastery.

First we had a hike in the nature park Montserrat enjoying the grand views of the mountains and rocks spreading in front of our eyes… Even from above we could experience a view far into the landscape of Catalonia…  Later we paid a visit to the Boys’ Choir school called L’Escolania and learned about their studies at this school and their daily routine. Today there are 52 boys aged 9 – 14 in the Boys’ Choir at Montserrat. They are also educated in the other areas of academia whilst they are schooled at Montserrat. Not only do they perform in Montserrat, they have also given concerts in several countries around the world. They still believe that their most important task is singing daily in Montserrat Monastery’s basilica. At 1 p. m. we listened to the angel voices of L’Escolania performing in the Montserrat basilica…

In the evening we all, host families, students and teachers, gathered at Can Vila where we had a farewell party. We had typical Catalan meal, we were singing karaoke and dancing… The evening passed by incredibly quickly and it was hard to part…

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In the morning we headed for Barcelona once again. This time we visited Parc Guell, a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of El Carmel. It is the best and most famous example of Art Nouveau landscape – architecture designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi and built in the years 1900 to 1914. The focal point of the park is the main terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the form of the sea serpent adorned with multi – coloured tiles. From the terrace you get a wonderful view of the park and Barcelona city. At the entrance to the park you can see a dragon fountain. This dragon is adorned in beautiful coloured tiling and there is something rather hypnotic and magical about it… Park Guell also has a small house in which Gaudi lived at one stage. The house has now been converted into a museum and contains interesting furniture also designed by Gaudi…

In the afternoon we went for tapas to the tapas restaurant. Tapas are dishes of food that can act as appetizers or they can be eaten as an incredibly varied meal. Tapas we had tried were really great…

Later that day we had some free time and spent it as we wished: some of us went to the beach, the others went to Las Ramblas street for the souvenirs and the others went sightseeing and discovering new places in Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter)…

In the evening of this day we said good – bye to our project partners and together with Portuguese Comenius team moved to the airport. We had to leave home late that evening…

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Our plane landed at 3 a.m. at Vilnius airport. The temperature of the air was only +8C… It seemed quite cool after a hot day spent in Barcelona…

Good – bye, Spain! Good – bye, sunny Catalonia! Hello, Czech Republic!