21. Damascus: Azem Palace Still Standing

For the past three-and-a-half years, Syria has been ripped apart by the centrifugal forces of war. Two hundred thousand people have been killed; cities like Aleppo and Homs have been reduced to rubble; and with at least four heavily armed factions fighting for control of parts of the country, there's no telling what Syria will look like at the end of the war - or even if a single country called Syria will emerge intact. Hopes grow dimmer and slimmer by the day.
 
In the midst of all this, the Azem Palace, built for the Ottoman governor of Damascus (Assad Pacha al-Azem) in 1750, as well as much of the rest of the old city centre, stand relatively unscathed. In historical terms, the Palace is still a youngster. Damascus has been continuously inhabited since about 6000 BC. The monumental wall surrounding the Grand Mosque was built during the Roman occupation, and the mosque itself was started within 75 years of the Prophet Mohammed's death:



Damascus' Grand (Ummayad) Mosque

The Azem Palace doesn't look like anything a westerner would recognize as a palace. There are no fancy gates, turrets, long driveways or red carpets out front:

The Main Building of the Azem Palace

Instead, it's main feature is a series of rectangular black and white striped buildings, the black being basalt and the white, limestone. The buildings are placed around a courtyard dotted with fountains and orange trees.

The compound is divided into Haremlek (private family areas) and Selamlek (visitor quarters). The WOWchitecture begins inside the opulent rooms with their gorgeously painted wooden ceilings and every manner of chandelier descending from them:

  The rooms house numerous cabinets with valuable antiques:

 

 

 

 

With the Ottoman Empire being one of the casualties of the First World War, the Palace was converted into the Museum of Arts and Popular Tradition. There are many dioramas throughout the rooms showing what everyday life in the Palace was like. Since Heather was quite taken by them, we have far more photos than I'm going to show here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wouldn't have minded arranging similar accommodations for ourselves, but not being royalty, that wasn't going to happen. Still, I have to say that considering the Ottoman mansion/hotel we did stay in, we didn't do too badly:

 

 

 

 And, after a while, I did start to develop a certain feel for the place.

 



 

 

 

20. Barcelona: 8 Wildly Colourful Buildings not by Gaudi

The city of Barcelona is choc-a-block with the wild, colourful and fantasy-filled forms that sprung from the furtive mind of Antoni Gaudi. He may have been a genius - and my all-time favourite architect - but let's not give the eclectic Catalan all the credit for Barcelona's polychromatic cityscape. It took the efforts of many other bold, visionary, risk-taking, and often unrecognized architects to complete the task.

 One of those was Gaudi contemporary and fellow Catalan Joseph Puig i Cadafalch, who in 1889 began renovating a house for chocolate Baron Antoni Amatller. Casa Amatller, with its step-up roof covered in ceramic tiles looks like it just waltzed out of 17th-century Amsterdam:

 To see it, you won't even have to stray from the Gaudi route - it's right next door to Gaudi's masterpiece, Casa Battlo:

 Amattler didn't just reinvigorate Barcelona's chocolate industry. He also rewrote the rules of the the marketing industry. He hired some of the best-known artists of the day, notably Alphonse Mucha, to design posters marketing his chocolates:

 Another Catalan architect and contemporary of Gaudi's, Lluis Domenich i Montaner, designed so many wildly colourful buildings in Barcelona it's hard to even say which is his best. Many will put up a strong argument for the Hospital de Sant Pau, started in 1901 and built in stages until it became the largest Art Nouveau complex in the world: 

Other Montaner lovers will argue for his Palau de la Musica Catalunya, built at the height of the Art Nouveau movement 1905-08. The concert hall features dayglow-coloured tiles on the outside:

(Photo via The Nicest Pictures)

 
But is much more sophisticated - though no less colourful - on the inside:

(Photo via Jiuguang Wang)

 A few years later, in 1912, Architect Josep Graner i Prat came along and built an apartment building officially called Casa Fajol (Buckwheat House). For six stories it's about as plain-Jane as buildings come. Then, bursting out of the roof, is a multi-coloured butterfly as wide as the building itself:

Not surprisingly, the apartment is now commonly referred to as Casa Papallona, or Butterfly House.

 Some of you will recall that a couple of posts ago (No.18), I showcased what I called "The Craziest Building in Valencia, Spain." It was certainly the most colourful. The architect, Juan Francisco Guardiola, had created only one other building in a similar mode, Casa Xina (China House) which he built in 1929 for his brother in Barcelona.
 
When Heather and I were in the Catalan capital a few weeks ago, we were determined to track down and photograph the building no matter how long it took to research its whereabouts and travel across the city. As it turned out, it took exactly six minutes - one to Google its location, and five to walk the one block from the apartment we had rented weeks before we even knew where the Casa was located. A very convenient coincidence. It was hard to miss:

Barcelona's love affair with colour didn't end with the death of these great architects - creative minds who stretched Art Nouveau to its extreme limits and then went a little bit further. Today, however, it's largely being carried out by international architects like Japanese Pritzker prize winner Toyo Ito. Ito's amorphous red hotel tower and it's adjacent office tower with a wavy red torso in the middle (known as the Toyo Ito Towers) make for an unusual coupling on the Barcelona skyline:

(Photo via Wurfel)

But then, "unusual" is what Barcelona architecture has always been about.

19. The Most Fantastic Doorway in Paris

One thing about the French is that they certainly enjoy their share of the avant-garde. In fact, I'd say Paris was at the leading edge of avant-garde were it not for the fact that avant-garde already means "leading edge". Or something like that.

One building, 29 Avenue Rappe, is even certified avant-garde. Designed by the great Art Nouveau architect Jules Lavirotte and built by an all-star cast of France's best ceramicists, door makers and framers, the apartment was given an award for the best facade in Paris in 1901:

While folks line up for the Eiffel Tower, a five-minute walk away you can have 29 Avenue Rapp all to yourself - just you and this unique showcase of French decorative arts. It may not give you an unparalleled view of Paris, but what you'll see will certainly be unlike anything else in the city of light.

Like the flamboyant doorway that puts the WOW in the WOWchitecture: 

While I stood in front of it, a friendly middle-aged Parisian man sauntered over to make sure I understood the truly masculine nature of the building. It was hard to miss. I had already spotted the testes carved out of the top of the magnificent doors. But my friend also pointed out the phallus descending from them, as well as the lizard-shaped door handle:

Still, the ceramic door-surround had some distinctly feminine touches to it. Like the head of a woman, said to be Lavirotte's wife, at the crest of the arch, adorned with the head and fur of some poor fox. Or the delicate, nude and rather young-looking images of Adam and Eve, a little higher up. And, indeed, the flowerpots decorating most of the windows:

Then again, the stone blocks making up most of the building gave a rugged masculine feel to them, as did the arches and oxen heads that appeared to support the wrought-iron balconies:



Lavirotte was by no means a one-hit wonder, nor were all of his buildings whimsical. His beautiful 3 Avenue Rapp, just down the block, contains many classical Art Nouveau elements: a wonderfully colourful round turret; sinewy, green wrought iron; ceramic figures, coloured bricks; and beautiful balconies. Not to mention a six-storey high tromp l'oeil trellis that appears to be three-dimensional:

Still, if you like your Paris icons to be tall and famous, check out the Lavirotte-designed Parkette, Rapp Square, and look through his black wrought-iron gate:

You'll feel the visit was worth it. As for me, I'll take the little-known gem called 29 Avenue Rapp over that other hyper-extended phallic symbol any day of the week. And while you're at Lavirotte's exuberant building, don't forget to drop into the patisserie across the street. If the buildings haven't yet made you go "WOW", their tarte au citron surely will.

18. The Craziest Building in Valencia, Spain.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered, quite by accident, what I consider to be Valencia's most unusual, yet least known architectural structure. It's not mentioned in any Valencia guidebooks or tourist websites. Its location is rather out of the way - down a small road between the bullring (boooooo) and train station. There are no signs nearby pointing the way, or plaques out front indicating that it's a sight of historical/cultural interest.

But once you've found it - assuming you do - I think you'll agree it's a most peculiar building:

 

I did a bit of digging and found that surprisingly little is known about the building. It was constructed in the early 1930s and is known as Casa Judia (or The Jewish Home). The name was given (nobody seems to know by whom) because of the blue Star of David that sits just under the curved lintel: 

I have to admit that I love everything about this entry way: the wooden doors surrounded by ornamental doodads, the green wrought iron protecting the glass (and which may symbolize the Tree of Life), the Dali-esque crenelated watch below the rounded lintel, and the antique-striped colours, which at this portion of the building remain relatively mute.
 

But the Star of David does not necessarily mean a direct link to Judaism. If it did, then the following building would likely be the largest synagogue in Europe:
 

It's not. It's Valencia's Catholic Cathedral.
 

And this building would possibly be the Jewish social centre:
 

Again, it's not. It's the Palace of Expositions.

The fact is, the hexagram is a symbol of many ancient peoples. It's just that King David - who may have been the world's first and best brander and marketer - added the star to his shield, and ever since it has been associated most commonly with the Jewish people.
 

Meanwhile, back at the Casa Judia, as your eyes wander up the middle and top portion of the tower, you notice that it becomes progressively more wild and colourful: 

  

With the piece de resistance being the penthouse suite:

Fortunately, for the architecture lovers amongst you, there seems to be a bit more known about the architect. His name was Juan Francisco Guardiola Martinez, and he was Swedish (one presumes on his mother's side of the family. It will not surprise you to learn that he was a leading disciple of the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

He built the Casa for a man named Joseph Salom, who was presumed to be Jewish. But to add a little mystery to the building, if you look again at the second picture from the top, you'll see that the initials inside the Star of David appear to be JB and not JS.
 

Guardiola's other work of great gaudy architecture, which preceded Casa Judia, is up the coast in Barcelona, where it's known as Casa Mora, Casa Chino, and by another few names:
 

While I was trying to unravel the mystery of Casa Judia, I saw Guardiola's style variously described as Deco, Nouveau, neo-Egyptian and various other things. I disagree with each of these assessments. I simply see it as the iconoclastic style of an architect with a unique vision and a singular way of expressing it.

The world needs more people like that!

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