My dear Hive travelers and #worldmappin companions, don't let the title of this post mislead you or make you think that it is about some mountain massif and a temple hidden in the hills.
This is a story from my trip to Barcelona 🙂
Canva
You may be surprised now: "How in Barcelona, which lies on the Mediterranean Sea, the temple can be among the clouds, it is impossible for the clouds to be so low...?"
Well, have a little patience, and look at my story...
☁️ ☁️ ☁️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ☁️ ☁️ ☁️
I'm sitting in my seat next to the window in the plane and I'm watching the expanse of the sea while the captain of the plane speaks on the speaker "Landing in 3 minutes".
On the right side of the plane, I can see the whole of Barcelona as if in the palm of my hand. Waterfront, neighborhoods with regular, quadrangular shapes, long boulevards.
And a temple caught my attention.
It is not the Sagrada Familia, the church located in the center of the city.
This is a church whose top I see on a hill, on the opposite side of the city from the sea coast.
It is the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, located on the Tibidabo hill.
I've heard of that hill before, and besides the church on it, it's also known for its amusement park.
Getting rid of my seatbelt when the plane landed, I knew. I visit this place for sure.
Tibidabo can be reached from Barcelona in several ways.
By city bus, for which I could not find where the starting station is, but I saw a bus stop at the top of the hill, so I concluded that there is a line that transports residents of this part of the city.
By cable car from the foot, and this is probably the best way to get to Tibidabo, because the cable car ride offers a phenomenal view of the city.
Exiting the chairlift, you are immediately on the plateau in front of the temple and the entrance to the amusement park.
Or like me, you can come by car.
Not far from the plateau, which you reach by cable car, there is a large parking lot with several floors.
If you enter on the ground floor, you can, like me, climb the stairs to the highest floor, which is at the level of the entrance to the park, and I suggest that you take a car.
In addition to the fact that you will not have to go up the stairs of those few floors, your car will be in the light of day, safer than in the dark on the ground floors. I heard that organized groups break into cars in this garage, but I didn't see them, I was lucky.
Coming out onto the plateau, a temple of imposing size can be seen in front of us (that's why it's surprising how I saw it from the plane), as well as the entrance to the amusement park.
The Big Panorama, a replica of an airplane that drives you in a circle, a roller coaster and various amusement park attractions are certainly interesting for the younger population.
We were not interested in the amusement park and headed for the church.
The beautiful entrance portal of the church promised a beautiful interior.
All my expectations have been met.
Inside the church, the altar dominates, and the other altars dedicated to the Black Madona (I mentioned this representation in a previous post), the altar dedicated to Saint Joseph, Saint Anthony of Padua, as well as the altar with the sculpture of Saint Mary and the child, are not far behind in beauty.
In addition to the altar, there are figures on the pillars and walls, colorful stained-glass windows of bright colors have depicted in glass some of the kings, saints and details from the Bible.
But one thing really surprised me.
The ceiling of the church was very low considering the height of the building.
It should be investigated
🤔
I left the temple and looked again at the whole complex from a greater distance.
Only then did I notice, on the left and right, the stairs leading up the temple wall.
Let's go up 😀
After a minute of climbing, we emerge on a large plateau, and before us is the entrance to another temple.
Church on church.
Never seen before...
And the view from the plateau, magnificent.
The panorama of the whole of Barcelona, which lies in front of you as if in the palm of your hand, stretching to the left and right as far as your eyes can see and in front of you, plunging into the sea.
It was very cloudy that day and in the distance you couldn't make out where the sky ends and the sea begins , but since I know that Barcelona is a city on the sea, I was sure, the sea is there somewhere.
The interior of this "upper" church is not decorated like the one "below", but its location and the fact that it is on the roof of the lower church make it spectacular.
At an altitude of 512m, this is the highest point in Barcelona and for this reason it is not surprising why the church tower is located among the clouds.
The gray walls with stained glass windows are nice to look at, but I wasn't too interested to stay longer inside the church.
I decided to go out on the plateau and enjoy the view of Barcelona.
At the height of the upper plateau, there is also a TV tower that is also in the clouds, so we conclude that we are quite high.
At one point, the peace and silence was interrupted by the bell ringing, calling the people to mass.
We did not enter the church again.
We leaned on the fence and looked for interesting points in Barcelona that we were planning to visit.
When we found the Sagrada Familia, from this distance, we realized how big this city really is.
For this reason, in order to be able to visit what we set out to do, we headed to the car and left behind a beautiful church and a TV tower in the clouds.
Thank you for stopping by my post and I hope you enjoyed the photos and the story I shared with you
All photos are my property, taken with a mobile phone
