AS YOUR eye takes in the broad sweep of the skyline of Barcelona, it cannot help but stop short at a dark shape towering above the other buildings - looking for all the world like a giant missile quietly awaiting lift-off.

"What do you think of it?" my guide asked me. "It" turns out to be an office tower - the Torre Agbar.

"Er, it's, erm, interesting," I spluttered, not wanting to offend, but feeling somewhat ambivalent about a building that resembles a weapon of mass destruction. But it seems that Barcelonians are just as divided in their opinions about this skyscraper by French architect Jean Nouvel.

Barcelona certainly has more than its fair share of attention-grabbing structures.

Besides the Torre Agbar, there is the Santa Caterina Market with a massive undulating roof that looks like a multi-coloured rug which is carelessly thrown.

Then there is the 44-storey Hotel Arts, a glass tower encased in a white steel cage, and the soon-to-be-completed Habitat Sky Hotel, which will be covered with a web of 5,000 photovoltaic cells that glow in different colours at night, depending on the amount of sunlight absorbed during the day.

Maybe such derring-do comes from the city being home to the man who was, perhaps, the most inventive architect of them all - Antoni Gaudi. The sensuous curves of his Casa Mila (also known as La Pedrera),the elaborate ornamentation of Casa Batllo, the strange organic forms in Park Guell and the fantastical vision of his incomplete final masterpiece - Sagrada Familia - still have the power to stop people in their tracks.

Gaudi's highly original style makes him difficult to classify, but he is often grouped together with the modernists. Modernism was a movement that flourished in Catalonia - the province of which Barcelona is capital - at the turn of the last century.

Its major proponents included architects Lluis Domenech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch. You can see instances of their work, as well as Gaudi's, in the Eixample district in the heart of Barcelona.

Modernism was not just an architectural movement but an artistic and cultural one. Artists who were influenced by it included such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and Antoni T�pies.

Although Picasso was not born in Catalonia - unlike the other three - he spent part of his formative years in Barcelona studying at a fine arts school and hanging out in bohemian modernist circles. The seeds of his "Blue Period" and Cubism were planted then. You can view some of his work in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.

Barcelona natives Miro and T�pies also have museums dedicated to their works in the city, while Dali's famous museum in Figueres is just a short train ride away from Barcelona.

Whether on canvas or in concrete, there are many wonders to see in Barcelona. So keep your eyes - and your mind - wide open.

Singapore Airlines, which launched flights to Barcelona in July 2006, now flies three times a week to the Spanish city. The new Boeing 777-300ER planes on this route feature fully reclining first- and business-class seats and an enhanced in-flight entertainment system that offers over 1,000 options, plus a suite of office applications.

This article was first published on Dec 10, 2006 in The Straits Times.

Photos: TURESPA?A