Castell de Santa Florentina : Discovering the Treasures of Spanish Castle Architecture

Salvador's not smiling, we're arguing a lot. Anyway, down to business. If you want to be a princess and get married in Catalonia, and you want to get married in a castle, this is the most castle-y castle that I think I have seen where you can do weddings in Catalonia. It's, what, 40 minutes away from Barcelona, on the other side of the city from the airport, so we keep your guests in Barcelona city, in that fun city with all the action there, and bring your guests out for 40 minutes. This is what your guests would see. There's a Catholic, a wonderful Catholic church not five minutes away from here, if Catholic, if your Catholic wedding is your thing, and then we'd bring you up here. A horse and cart can come up here, we can have torches lit in all the torch holders, candles all the way through. Your guests are dropped off at the gate, it's 15 meters that way, and then we bring you into the castle. Now I'm going to stop talking for a moment and Salvador will just show you describe it, sorry my vocabularies have been defeated this morning. We're out of season, it's November, it's a tourist attraction now, so there's guided tours, so we've just slipped past one of those. We've walked in the gate, but if you wanted a horse and carriage it brings you up from the church, you ride up here, people will be shouting at you in the carriage, and then it drops you off out here, and you have all your guests outside welcoming you. Normally this is where the ceremony would be, and this is where the appetizer would be, in this courtyard. We might change that up, it depends on the size of your wedding really, on what you would do where, and the banquet would be inside a room up there which we're just about to show you. All these torch guards, these torch holders can have lit torches in, it turns it into a proper feeling. This castle featured in Game of Thrones, so this, as I said before, this would be the ceremony space and the appetizer space ordinarily, but because if you've got a smaller wedding we would put the appetizer up here, up there, and into this room, and the banquet down here, and there's another ceremony space which could be the disco space. We'll go upstairs now so we don't miss out on this guided tour. I've put a red carpet or a carpet on these stairs, just lift that, make it feel royal and regal and princessy, with these arches. Now this part of the castle is from the early 20th century, the oldest part of the castle surviving is in the corner there, which is the square tower, which is the 14th century. We'll go inside with this appetizer area, music, food stations. This is good for 50 people and we can either use these rooms or this is traditionally the banqueting space. Majesty, look at the detail, this castle, this 20th century castle, was built by Dominic the fathers of Barcelona's modernism. We used to have one of his offices in one of his buildings, an office in one of his buildings. Just before I continue, drink in the ceilings, the fireplaces, the chandeliers, the stained glass windows, these wonderful arches with crusaders on. You've got a mixture because this is crusade and the figures on the wall are more renaissance. That's more Elizabethan actually, this is crusaders and that's Elizabethan, so you've got this mix and match of history shown. These ceilings, and there's another wonderful, wonderful ceiling here. This space is what, good for 150 people? Banqueting? Yeah, you can go up there, but if you were a smaller wedding, I'd be using that terrace outside and this space for the appetizer, so it's inside outside, because this is so rich in history, especially for Americans, they absolutely love it. We can organize guided tours as well during the appetizer, 10 at a time or something like that, for those that are interested in history. This room is a chill-out room, we can remove this furniture, we can use it for something, but it's good for baby rest or older people rest, and what a place to chill out in. As I said, we can remove the furniture if we want the space for something, can do something, a first dance. We can dance outside until 12 here, so everything goes inside, so it's possible to do first dances outside. Now this is the back end of the terrace, this is where the caterer normally works, yeah? Yes. So normally people don't see inside this place, but we can open these doors and use it for the appetizer too, if we wanted that for the banquet, this could be the appetizer, and then it goes from 50 to 150. But that requires a little negotiation with the patrons, but as they're working for you, we'll find a way around that. Again, stained glass windows, gorgeous ceilings. Remember the terrace? Looking down into the courtyard, one more room, and then we're going to take you immediately into the bridal suites, where you can get changed. For a photo shoot, absolutely amazing. For makeup, the light isn't fantastic, but for a photo shoot, wow. Problem is, you can get changed in here, your mother can be in here, but your girlfriends, the bridesmaids, they won't let, they exclude them, yes? So it's only you, a very small party, allowed to get changed in here. And this is for the bride, and this one over here could be for the groom. Now these doors shut and you have two entrances, two separate entrances, so never the twain shall meet, you don't have to see each other on the day and you can keep it traditional. But if you didn't get ready in here, the photo shoots, no standing in your gown together with these fireplaces in the back. Well this is, this is a tapestry. The noise in here is really good because this is a curtain tapestry. I don't have to show anything more upstairs. We can go outside, they've disappeared, they're disappearing, the tour, and they're probably going to come up here, aren't they? Okay, but that's good because we can just go outside, cut it, and then pick it up for the dance floor. We'll go outside though, just cut it in a minute, in a moment. Because we walked in that way, I just want to show the connection. Island lighting, torches, banqueting tables, yes? Dance floor in the middle. And then we're going to cut because we're going to go underneath here, just down there, and we'll show you where the dance floor is. Downstairs, this is the entrance that we came in on, and we've done the banqueting space for Victoria, but normally the ceremony or the appetizer, and keep going around in a circle. We're now into the dance floor. All of this furniture is tourist season. This would all be removed and we'd keep what we want and do what we want with the entrance. Again, in this wonderful, wonderful room, it's kitted out for a gift shop, kind of cafe. That would all move, and have a look at this. This is your dance floor, or it could be a ceremony space, or it's very versatile. The best acoustics are down at the end, which is where the DJ is. No plastic chairs, no, all these bits and pieces would be taken away. So your DJ's here with the lights, the bar is down there, and what a fun place it is. Now we're going to go to the church and pick that up.