New great mosque for Barcelona in historic building on Tibidabo

Trebots @ Monday June 2nd 2008 09:58

Three South Asian-British professionals (down from four last time, one having fallen to feminine wiles in the intervening biennium) emerge blinking from the forest at the end of this walk. My God, says one looking down, is that a mosque? And then remembers seeing a photo of it during his physics degree:
Barcelona main mosque
The idea seems perfectly reasonable:

  • the remaining activities of the Observatori Fabra would be better performed in the mountains or on a cheaper site;
  • the observatory would accommodate Barcelona’s rapidly growing Muslim population’s theological necessities in a symbolically visible location;
  • reflecting social priorities as a whole, it would still however be dominated by the superbly ridiculous Catholic basilica at the summit of Tibidabo, the vapid municipal fun-fair just below, Norman Foster’s glorious telly tower, and all those trees that don’t get hugged nearly enough;
  • its distance from town combined with rising fuel prices might suggest to some of the faithful that the cost of investing in salvation may outweigh any benefits.

RSS: post comments, blog comments, blog posts

You can leave a response. Pinging is currently closed due to spam generated by Jared Croslow's Deep Link Engine. (Temporary fix: turn off trackbacks with MySQL: UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status="closed"; )

Guided walking tours

FollowTheBaldie.com provides guided walking tours of Barcelona and various other cities in the Western Mediterranean, as well as country walks and hikes in the Barcelona region.

Google Reader

I share other stuff over here.

Pordiosería

If you're feeling generous, check out my Amazon wishlists for Deutschland, France , and the UK, or use PayPal to

My 5% bookstore - new stuff



Spanish history

Modern Spanish fiction

Spanish classics

On this day

Barcelona

  • September 9 1423 Llega viniendo de Nápoles con treinta y dos galeras el rey D. Alfonso IV de Barcelona.
  • September 9 1783 Principian á construirse los hornos de municion, conocidos con el nombre de Pastim.
  • September 9 1843 (Sábado). ContinĂşan las contestaciones entre el Capitan General y Ayuntamiento, las cuales versan en gran parte sobre el haber hostilizado el barrio de Gracia los Centralistas á pesar de no haber sido molestados desde aquel punto. Hoy ha entrado, á eso de la una y media de la ta...

Josep Pla, Palafrugell (1918-9)

  • 9 de setembre de 1918 Passat el dia a Girona –sense tenir-hi prĂ cticament res a fer. El viatge, en tren, anar i tornar, val: 3,60 ptes. Tothom ho troba car. No ho sĂ© pas: em falta un terme de comparaciĂł. No he guanyat fins ara, en la meva vida, ni un cèntim. Els diners tenen una importĂ ncia indescriptible. És clarĂ­ssim. [...]
  • Nothing doing.

Back to top