A trip to Barcelona isn’t complete without immersing yourself in the work of one of its most famous residents, the modernist architect Antoni Gaudi. His eccentric creations are scattered all around the city and include an apartment building, a park, several urban mansions and his most famous and yet unfinished work, the Sagrada Familia. We fell in love with Gaudi’s masterpieces and tried to see as many as possible during our vacation. His surprising and creative designs make visiting a Gaudi site feel like a trip into the fantastical world of a Dr Seuss book!
Palau Güell
One of Gaudi’s earliest works was a private home for Eusebi Güell, a wealthy entrepreneur who made his money during the industrial revolution. Güell formed a life long friendship with Gaudi and commissioned many of his masterpieces.
Güell wanted his residence to be a gathering place for the elite so Gaudi’s designed a house built for entertaining. Guests entered the home, still on their horse-drawn carriages, through ornate iron gates and into a courtyard where the servants took their horses down a ramp into the lower level stalls. The guests then entered a receiving room where the host family could view them from windows high up on the upper floors. Depending on the attire of their arriving guests, the host family might decide to adjust their clothing before coming downstairs.
Gaudi’s designs didn’t stop within the home. The roof terrace of Palau Güell is far from a boring flat surface. Its distributed over multiple levels and has over 15 chimneys which Gaudi transformed into sculptures covered with mosaic tiles.
Casa Batlló
Two of Gaudi’s buildings are located in the Eixample neighborhood on the high end shopping street, Passeig de Gracia. The wide boulevard is worth a visit for its beautiful tree lined promenade and elegant buildings (and shopping of course). Make sure to take a break from shopping and step into Gaudi’s Casa Mila (an apartment building) or his Casa Batlló (a private home) or both. We came across Casa Batlló first and were drawn in by its crazy skeletal facade (hence its nickname ‘House of Bones’). We didn’t have time for Casa Mila so we’ll have to save it for our next visit.
In 1904 Josep Batilló, a wealthy textile industrialist, hired Gaudi to renovate his home and it became one of Gaudi’s masterpieces. Highlights of the home, besides the wavy walled facade, include the center light well, the attic and, of course, the roof!
Gaudi enlarged the center light well of the home and covered it entirely in blue glazed tiles. Placing darker tiles at the top and lighter ones at the bottom distributes the light evenly throughout. The varying window sizes on each floor also account for the amount of light going from smaller at the top to larger ones on the darker bottom floors of the well.
The attic loft was the service area and housed the laundry room and storage areas. It’s washed in white and supported by cascading arches creating a space that resembles the rib cage of an animal.
Like Gaudi’s other homes, the roof of this one was a work of art. The shape of this roof, resembled the ridge of a dragon’s back.
Note: Audio guides are usually included when touring his homes and enhance the experience as you move from room to room learning about Gaudi and the meaning behind many of his unusual and beautiful design choices.
Park Güell
In 1900 Eusebi Güell and Gaudi teamed up to create a fantastical housing estate for the wealthy with a few dozen homes and landscaped designs. Their commercial endeavor ended up failing and only the ‘show home’ to lure in potential clients was built. Eusebi Güell died while living in that home and after his death the space became a public park.
The park feels like entering a Dr Seuss world with fountains, slanted tunnels and weaving paths and even a large colorful dragon covered in tiles. A mosaic bench overlooks the front entrance to the park and looks out onto the city. This is one of the best photograph sites in Barcelona.
Sagrada Familia
Gaudi began work on his cathedral, Sagrada Familia, in 1883 and dedicated the remainder of his life to the project until his death in 1925 when it was still far from complete. This cathedral is unlike the many cathedrals that you’ve wander into while being a tourist in Europe. From a distance it looks like a drip castle children make in the sand. The cranes that you see looming over the cathedral are part of its ‘work in progress’ charm.
All the travel sites will recommend that you buy tickets on line before you go, and they’re probably right. We showed up ticketless and had to wait in line but since it was a low tourist season the wait wasn’t too bad. When you purchase your ticket, you can also purchase a separate ticket to go up one of the towers inside of the cathedral.
We chose to do the tower experience and we were glad we did. After an elevator ride up the tower we were rewarded with great Barcelona views and more importantly great views of the art work on the exterior facade of the Sagrada Familia and a close up look at the ongoing construction. The most memorable experience for me was the climb down from the tower using the narrow spiral staircase. I had to hug the exterior walls so I didn’t have to look down the long long rail-less well to the bottom.
