Barcelona's Spanish "Village"

After getting settled in my room, I was able to go on my first excursion of the trip!  We drove through the city of Barcelona in the dark.  I was not able to see everything...that will be for tomorrow, but I got a preview of the Olympic stadium, many interesting buildings, and some monuments including one for Christopher Columbus.

Our purpose for going out was to see a flamenco performance in what my tour guide called the Spanish "Village" built in 1929 for the World's Fair Exhibition.  The pictures below are from the village.

As part of the exhibition, they designed a village that would represent all of Spain for the eight months that it was meant to stand before being demolished.  However, it was so popular that they chose to keep it standing.  The exteriors are exact replicas of actual buildings throughout Spain, except for the fact that they used concrete and wood rather than stone.

The buildings in the first picture were originally hollow inside until renovations were made to create artisan work space along with retail space.

The church tower below was helpful in repairing the original when it was bombed and destroyed in World War II. Architects came to the village to study the intricate designs.