A history of the works of Antonio Gaudí

Born in 1852 in Reus (Camp de Tarragona) and son of a copper maker from Riudoms, from childhood Gaudí was an attentive observer of nature and felt attracted to its forms, colours and geometry. In 1868, he decided to study architecture in Barcelona, in a college dominated by neo-classical and romantic trends. Thus, his first architectural production swung between a reinterpretation of historical canons with oriental influence and the recovery of medieval events.

Despite his youth he received the first assignments from the ecclesiastic world and the bourgeoisie, who would always be his main clients. Among these, the Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph stands out as they commissioned him with the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Família (the cathedral of the modern Barcelona). Of equal importance was the industrialist Eusebi Güell, the best client and essential patron, who entrusted him with the construction of a palace, the church for an industrial colony, some pavilions for his summer residence and a city-garden.

After his death in 1926, he and his work entered a period of ostracism until the avant-gardism trends and the international movement recuperated his figure while presenting him as an example of modernisation and renewal of 20th century architecture.

EL CAPRICHO (1883-1885)

 Barri de Sobrellano s/n

Comillas, Santander

An exotic summer villa

The house of the nouveau riche businessman Máximo Díaz de Quijano was designed by an innovative and daring architect, Gaudí, who wished to bring some colour to the grey Cantabrian coast. He constructed it in accordance with the tastes of the time, in arabesque style, and covered it with leaves and bright flowers oaf glazed ceramic so that façades maintained great vividness and colour throughout the year. Gaudí equipped the villa with everything necessary for summer comfort and rest. It was the most modern residence of its period in Comillas and, because of its capricious forms, was soon baptised with the name of "El Capricho".

LOS BOTINES  HOUSE (1891 - 1892)

Plaza de San Marcelo,5

León

A businessman's house

To work and live comfortably without leaving the house. This idea could sum up the use of this building which undoubtedly represents the dwelling of an entrepreneurial businessman: the shop and the warehouse on the ground floor and the dwellings above.

The best location in the historical district of León, the best materials of the area and the best architect of the moment brought together in order to achieve the most modern and outstanding building in the city.

EPISCOPAL PALACE (1889-1893)

Astorga

León

A dream castle never inhabited by any bishop

Astorga Episcopal Palace is a very original dwelling. Its size rivals the neighbouring cathedral, rising up solidly and gracefully, and repeats the elements characteristic of the former medieval fortifications. Gaudí designed this dream castle with stone, brick and slate, and applied ogival forms to bring it closer to the surrounding architecture without losing its autonomy and personality.

For Gaudí, the majesty of the building matched the position of the Bishop of the Astorga dioceses but, because of different circumstances, it never served this function.

Interventions on the Cathedral (1903-1914)

Almoina Square

Palau Reial Street

Mirador Street

Palma de Mallorca

Interventions on the Cathedral (1903-1914)

Before Gaudí's intervention, the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca was different. The disposition of the choir and the Baroque and Gothic altarpieces and the opacity of different Gothic windows gave it an aspect that Pere Campins, the local bishop, wanted to change and improve.

Amongst the several reforms carried out by the architect, there is the elaboration of the windows using the procedure of the combination of three glass plaques (with the primary colours that, one behind the other and illuminated by the sun, give out the secondary colours), as well as the installation of a canopy, the decor of the walls and the making of the furniture.

BELLESGUARD TOWER (1900 - 1909)                  

Carrer de Bellesguard, 16-20

Barcelona

A house, a small place and a castle

The battlements and the tower which crown this house recall a medieval fortification. However, the austerity and roughness of the exterior appearance, accentuated because Gaudí used material extracted from the natural environment, contrast with the spaciousness and brightness of the interior. Moreover, the innovative structural conceptions of the attic also stand out.

The conical tower is coated with glazed ceramics bearing the colours of the catalan flag. This is linked to the former building of King Martí I, the last king of the Crown of Aragón, which had occupied this piece of land and gives it its name.

SAINT TERESA OF AVILA SCHOOL (1888-1889)                  

Carrer de Ganduxer, 85

Barcelona

Opaque outside and transparent inside

This detached building, of rectangular layout and comprising four floors, seems from the outside an impregnable fortress. Inside, however, it is completely the contrary: diaphanous, very bright, a regular distribution and wide rooms, which allow the housing of a school, a boarding school and a convent for nuns. The whole reflects the austerity of the order of Saint Teresa of Avila and the functional sense characteristic of Gaudí.

It is mainly constructed with stone and adobe. Thus, the severity of these materials contrasts with the formal and compositional richness of the relieves on the highest part and with the refined treatment of the ceramic and wrought iron elements, replete with symbolism.

The symbiosis between form and function proved to be so practical that the building is still used as a school centre.

PARC GÜELL  (1900-1914)

Carrer d'Olot s/n

Barcelona

A utopian view of the lost paradise

Parc Güell  is the dream come true of an entrepreneurial businessman, Eusebi Güell, and of a revolutionary architect who, based on the English model of city-gardens proposed the transformation of a large estate in the north of Barcelona, rocky and unlevelled, into a residential area. Despite the wild appearance of the park, everything in it was planned: the accesses, the market, the main square, the drainage, the reservoirs, the roads and paths, the staircases, the fences... Although the First World War meant the failure of this real-estate operation, the state in which the project was felt allows us to discover the town developer Gaudí, a defender of nature, creator of pastoral settings and experimenter of new constructive techniques while taking inspiration from popular culture. A park reflecting his ideas of symbiosis between man and nature.

GÜELL ESTATE PAVILIONS (1884-1887)

Avinguda de Pedralbes, 7

Barcelona

A luxurious house for carriages and horses

In the Barcelona of the end of the 19th century, wealthy people moved around in horse carriages. Therefore, they needed stables, horse rings and space to park them. This is the reason why one of the most outstanding men of the city, the industrialist Eusebi Güell, commissioned Gaudí with the construction of a building to house these facilities in the access area to his estate, located in the north of Barcelona. Gaudí's project materialised in two pavilions with strong Muslim features in the façades, an aspect usually found in his early works. One was destined to the stables and the horse ring and was constructed with parabolic arches and brick vault. The other, to the porter's house. Both buildings are united by a spectacular wrought iron gate representing the mythical figure of the dragon, symbol of the protection of the estate.

VICENS HOUSE (1883-1888)                 

Carrer de les Carolines, 18

Barcelona

A suggestive early work

The first important Gaudí assignment was the design of a summer villa on the outskirts of Barcelona, currently in the north of the city. The project, commissioned by the tile manufacturer Manuel Vicens, included a house and a large garden. The house was equipped with everything necessary for the summer and was well ventilated by lattice blinds. In the garden surrounding of the building there was a waterfall and a lake.

Red earth bricks, multicoloured Arabian elements, ceramic coatings, plaster applications, decorative paintings and works made of wood and wrought iron are the main elements used by Gaudí in the construction of the house and are notable for their ornamentation.

MILÀ HOUSE, LA PEDRERA (1906-1912)

Passeig de Gràcia, 92

Barcelona

Living in a stone sculpture

Mr. Pere Milà, who married a rich widow, Mrs. Roser Segimon, wanted to live in a spectacular house in the most cosmopolitan avenue of the Barcelona of the time; the passeig de Gràcia.

Gaudí was the chosen architect, mainly because he had just built the neighbouring Batlló House, considered then the very latest example of the local architecture. Mr. Milà, however, wanted his house to be bigger; monumental. Thus, the architect built two blocks of flats with independent accesses but unified by the same façade, made of stone and with undulating patterns, with large windows allowing good interior lighting.

An amazing structure in the basement wich served as a garage, an open plan distribution of the flats which were to be used as dwellings and an outstanding attic supporting the roof are the most significant elements.

EXPIATORY TEMPLE OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA (1883-1926)

Placa de la Sagrada Familia, s/n

Barcelona

Symbol of a city

The most visited building in Barcelona which, undoubtedly, identifies the city around the world is a work by Gaudí. In 1883, the architect agreed to continue a project of neo-Gothic features already started but redesigned it completely, envisaging it as monumental and with exuberant decoration and he worked on it until his death in 1926.

In an original way, he applied forms of ruled geometry to it. Hyperbolic paraboloids, convex vaults helicoids and hyperboloids only hint at the complexity of its structure which exemplifies the essence of the knowledge and constructive experience of Gaudí. All the elements of the temple, both architectural and ornamental, reveal a symbolic basis from the Christian tradition.

BATLLÓ HOUSE (1904-1906)

Passeig de Gràcia, 43

Barcelona

The metamorphosis of a building

Gaudí's genius transformed a terraced house, characteristic of the district of the Eixample of the 19th century, into one of the most outstanding buildings in Barcelona's architecture: Batlló House. Gaudí undertook a global reform. To the façade he added a gallery, new balconies and polychrome ceramics. Inside he reorganised the spaces and unified the courtyards and the existing staircase in order to achieve more light and ventilation. He completed this intervention with the addition of two floors finished with a spectacular ceramic crowing.

CALVET HOUSE (1898-1899) 

Carrer de Casp, 48

Barcelona

The best Barcelona building in 1900

When the Calvets, a family of industrialists, decided to have a new dwelling built in Barcelona, they did not hesitate on two points: to commissioning the project to one of the best known architects of the time and to choose a plot in the most fashionable area.

Gaudí constructed the building in Casp Street, following the typology characteristic of the houses of the period, with spaces for the family business and for the residence of the owners and with flats to rent.

The owners were pleased with the result and Barcelona Town Council was so enthusiastic that it designated Calvet House as the best building in 1900.

GÜELL PALACE (1886 - 1889)   

Carrer Nou de la Rambla, 3-5

Barcelona

A palace for great social functions

At the end of the 19th century, Gaudí designed the most spectacular and luxurious building in Barcelona. This place, commissioned by the bourgeois Eusebi Güell, was built with stone, coated with delicate marble and decorated with high quality wood. Its inauguration coincided with the holding in Barcelona of the 1888 World Fair Exhibition and housed diverse social and official functions.

The building surprised the citizens and earned the admiration of the visitors because it radically broke with the classical typology of the palatial constructions of the city.

GATE OF MIRALLES ESTATE (1902) 

Passeig de Manuel Girona, 55-61

Barcelona

An undulating gate and wall

Enclosing wall and access door to the Miralles estate, located to the north of Barcelona. Only a part of the wall, 36 meters long and finished with a metal mesh grille, remains, while the door, which is large with the shape of an inverted lobular arch covered by a porch and a cross, has been entirely conserved.

The owner of the estate was his friend Hermenegild Miralles i Anglès, the printer who more than once allowed the architect to use his enormous printing presses to test the strength of the stone columns that he used in some of his works.

SCHOOLS OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA (1909)                 

Plaça de la Sagrada Família, s/n

Barcelona

A building ahead of its time

This small building (200 m2) is one of Gaudí's most radical and modern works and, unfortunately, one of the least known. The architect designed it as a provisional school, annex to the temple of the Sagrada Família.

Of a single nave -although portioned into tree classrooms, which explains its plural name-, it is characterised by the undulation of the façades and the roof which Gaudí achieved by applying variables of ruled geometry. The use of the brick, a cheap and malleable material, allowed a quick and resistant construction. Le Corbusier expressed enthusiasm about its qualities on his visit to Barcelona in 1928.

Church of Sant Pacià (1879)                 

Calle de les Monges, 27-29

Calle del Vallès, 40 (parish)

Barcelona

Works in the church of the School of Jesús-Maria

When Sant Andreu del Palomar was an independent village, not yet annexed to Barcelona, the young Gaudí undertook one of his first known works: diverse decorative elements for the church of the School of Nuns of Jesús-Maria.

It consists of a mosaic, wall lamps and the choir stalls of the temple, the last two withdrawn when the congregation abandoned the place and moved to Sant Gervasi.

The church, dedicated to Saint Pacià, still conserves the floor mosaic that covers the whole surface and forms quite an elaborate geometric drawing.

Street lamps in Reial Square and in Pla del Palau (1878)                 

Reial Square

Pla del Palau

Barcelona

The first commission that Gaudí received in an official capacity was from Barcelona Town Council. It was to construct diverse street lamps for the public illumination of the city. He designed them with three and six arms,

crowned by a winged helmet, symbol of the commercial power Barcelona had enjoyed and continued to have at

that time. The street lamps are gaslight and are conserved  in the heart of the city: in Reial Square, close to La Rambla, and in Pla del Palau, the old port entrance.

With the passage of time came electric light and the lamps were electrified. They have recently been restored so they  continue illuminating public areas as they did 125 years ago.

CHURCH OF THE GÜELL COLONY (1908 - 1917)                 

Carrer de Reixach s/n

Santa Coloma de Cervelló

Barcelona

The church of inclined columns

Under his patron's protection, Gaudí designed the church of the industrial colony founded by Eusebi Güell. This commission not only allowed him to experiment with a revolutionary weight calculation system but also to experiment in situ with many of the solutions that he would apply to later constructions, as it was a great scale maquette.

Although Eusebi Güell's business failed and it was impossible to finsih the building, the main staircase, the crypt and the entrance archway before it, formed by a forest of basaltic stone and brick maintaining a close dialogue with the surrounding landscape, were competed.

GÜELL CELLARS (1895-1901)

Road from Barcelona to Sitges

16 km from Barcelona

Sitges

Güell Cellars (1895-1901)

The industrialist Eusebi Güell, Gaudí's client and patron, was also a wine producer. He owned a large stretch of land with wine cultivation, which was elaborated and produced there. For the production of wine and its conservation, Güell commissioned Gaudí the development of some cellars which the architect built with the stone of the area so that they would be in harmony with the environment. In time, the building fell in disuse and is nowadays a restoration establishment.

Co-operative La Obrera Mataronense (1883)

Antoni Gaudí Square

Carrer de la Cooperativa

Mataró

Co-operative La Obrera Mataronense

Gaudí elaborated several projects and large industrial premises destined to be a Hall of Bleaching for the first workers' co-operative in Spain, located in Mataró.

This building of great proportion with a rectangular plan and covered by a structure of parabolic arches in wood in time was abandoned and fell into disuse.

The Town Hall of Mataró, the current owner of the premises, has promoted its restoration, conservation and new use.

ARTIGAS GARDENS (1905)

Park Xesco Boix

La Pobla de Lilleta

Artigas Garden (1905)

When Gaudí was building the Catllaràs Chalet, he was invited by the industrialist Joan Artigas to project a garden in a land owned by him.

Gaudí lived in the house of the Artigas family and built the only humid garden known in his works. Its shape and tracks remind us of those of the Güell Park, which the architect had started to build five years before. The cylindrical summer-house, the artificial grotto, the banisters of the paths, the flower beds, a bridge and the large amount of water are to be outlined.

Nowadays, different guided tours enable us to get to know better this work of Gaudí which is little known.

 Catllaràs Chalet (1905)

Catllaràs Massif

La Pobla de Lillet

Comments: follow the 12 km forest track from La Pobla de Lillet to the Santuari de Falgars and continue to the Chalet.

Tel. +(34) 93 823 61 46 (Promolleure)

Catllaràs Chalet (1905)

On the top of a hill, surrounded by pine trees and with magnificent views over the mountains of Catllaràs, Gaudí built an interesting construction in which the walls are the façades and in which the stone and slate are in perfect harmony with the surrounding landscape. The building was the residence of the professionals of the nearby mines of Catllaràs, from which coal was extracted destined for the factory of Portland cement Asland, owned by Eusebi Güell.

In time, the use of the building changed. It is currently open all year round to hikers and may sleep up to 48 people.

FIRST MYSTERY OF THE GLORY OF THE ROSARY                 

Camí del Rosari Monumental

Montserrat (Montserrat 1900 - 1907)

A monument integrating architecture and nature

Commissioned by the Lliga Espiritua de la Mare de Déu (Spiritual League of Our Lady Montserrat), Gaudí did the project for the monumental Primer Misteri de Glòria del Rosari (First Mystery of the Glory of the Rosary), which was begun near the sanctuary of Montserrat. This Primer Misteri (which represents the resurrection of Christ), was understood by him as the resurrection of Catalonia. Gaudí proposed extending the cave where Our Lady of Montserrat was found and creating there a large square. Construction was not begun until 1907, when the sculptor Josep llimona made the figure of the resuscitated Christ in bronze which was to preside over the site. For economic reasons, work was stopped and was not begun again until several years later, according to a simplification of the project, adapted by the architect Jeroni Martorell i Terrats. The site was inaugurated in 1916.