In 2013, Calle Claus was a part of the ‘Comic Transfer’ programme organised by the Goethe-Institut and travelled from Hamburg to Barcelona. He felt most comfortable in the Catalonian capital when he was able to escape the hordes of tourists flooding the city.
Calle Claus, German cartoonist and text writer, illustrator and radio play author, also teaches at various universities and art schools as a lecturer for drawing, character design and storytelling.
Sant Antoni Market, located near the metro station of the same name, is one of the most tradition-rich markets in Barcelona. During the week, the market is one of the best places in the city to buy fresh food, and on Sundays, it becomes a magnet for book lovers and fans of old postcards and nostalgic advertising posters. Over 100 stalls welcome visitors to browse around.
It is both a bizarre and delightful hotspot that guards many macabre secrets: the spectacular Anatomical Amphitheater. This is housed in the neoclassical building of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Catalonia. It was used as a teaching facility for medical students in the 18th century and was intended to train surgeons.
Camp Nou in Barcelona is Europe's largest soccer stadium (and the third largest in the world). A must-see for any soccer fan! Dedicated purely to soccer, it was inaugurated in 1957 and has been used by FC Barcelona as their home stadium ever since. 110,000 spectators can fit in the facility, and yet it is almost always fully booked. If you can't get tickets for a game, you should definitely book a tour.
FC Barcelona, or Barça for short, has significantly more supporters across Europe than its arch-enemy Real Madrid and is by far the club with the most fans. A total of 57.8 million. They are called Culers (Catalan cul = ass). The nickname comes from the time when Barça played its home games in the Camp del Carrer Indústria. There, they sat on a wall in the last row: passersby caught a glimpse of bottoms rowed together.
Sagrat Cor ( Sacred Heart), one of the highlights of any visit to Barcelona, is a church on the local mountain Tibidabo. The special features are the fantastic views and the 7.5 m high statue of Jesus on the dome. A Protestant church and a hotel complex with a casino were originally planned here at the end of the 19th century. Instead, the Catholic Knights bought the land, and had the basilica built on the model of Sacré-Cœurs.
Thomas Hummitzsch on "Barcelona"
However, when leafing through his short travelogues, it is something else that catches your eye. Almost as though, with each passing day, the city is becoming louder, more alien and unapproachable."
