Field Trip 1- Roman Barcino

Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat

Field Trip - February 1, 2014

1. The Roman Monumental influence on architecture that we saw in the museum is reflected in Catalan Architecture in its engineering.  Many of the walls use the same material of stone or concrete and are very detailed.  When someone walks by, they can tell how much effort was put into building the structure.  Similarly, the streets are narrow with uneven flooring.   In addition, there are also many arches, a similar trait that is in both forms of architecture.   Inside the museum, we saw towers, sewer systems and wells.  Obviously, today is more modern than when these were built but we can see the ancient times where modern systems have come from.  The sewer systems like the ones today, all drain to a certain point and the wells were crucial for fresh drinking water.  Today, these similarities between the two influences still exist.

Walls

Arches

Columns

Well

Sewer System

2.  Roman religions originally started out being polytheistic.  They prayed to many different Gods who represented different things.  Their religious ways stemmed from the Greeks who were also polytheistic.  They prided themselves on keeping religious tradition and it was a typical part of their daily routine.  However as time went on, Rome slowly started to convert to monotheism and Christianity became the main religion of Rome.  The change from polytheism to monotheism has a cultural significance.  As Rome was changing powers within the country, the new leader implemented new religious ways.  This had to do with Rome getting an emperor and the emperor becoming the one person the people looked up to.  Pictured below are three pictures of ancient Roman artifacts that have to do with religion. 

3. Many Catalan buildings have a lot of influence from the Romans.  They use many of the same building techniques, ones that still effective as building techniques today.  An example of this is columns.  Columns are able to withstand a lot of weight and are aesthetically pleasing.  We see a lot of columns in different forms walking around Barcelona and other places throughout the world.  In America, the White House has many columns, as well as other national monuments in Washington DC.  Another similar technique they use is arches.  Arches, like columns, look nice to the eye.  They can also withstand a lot of weight and bring creativity to the building.  All around Barcelona, there are many buildings that have arches.  A typical building combination is also arches and columns mixed together.  This is also similar to American buildings.  Arches are used to build bridges and buildings there.  In St. Louis, there is the famous Gateway Arch.  Although Roman architecture started in Europe, it has spread and shown its influence all over the world.

  

           

       Arches

St. Louis Arch

Columns

White House with columns

4. Some of the Roman habits were advanced for their day.  Something that surprised me the most was the way they took care of themselves.  They took a lot of pride in caring how they looked and had different ways of beautifying themselves.  They had different makeups they used as well as products both male and female Romans used.  I did not know that they took so much effort into caring about how they looked.  I also saw bowls and spoons that were handcrafted.  Something I never really think about is how they had to make all of the products themselves.  Nowadays, we take for granted the things we have in our kitchen because we can go to the store and buy whatever we need.  If they needed something, they had to take the time to make it.  Both of these examples show how when they had free time on their hands, they used it for pleasure and making their lives easier.

5.  Originally, the Phoenicians introduced wine making to Catalan culture but the Romans had the most influence in the wine making.  Over time, the Catalan wines became so popular that they were a major import for surrounding countries, mainly France.  In the late 1800s, cava was invented which ended up becoming a famous kind of wine from this region.  Spain was a part of a wine revolution and they tried different wine making techniques and started growing different kinds of grapes to make more kinds of wine.  Today, Catalunya is home to many wine-making towns and cities and really gives a Spain a real Mediterranean feel.  Spain has award-winning wine including a Torres 1970 Gran Coronas Black Label.  Their other famous brands include: Condesa de Leganza Crianza, Beronia and Monte Real.

Torres 1970 Gran Coronas Black Label

Other Spanish Wines