Going for a stroll in Gaudí’s Bar-celona

Barcelona is the best place to get close to Antoni Gaudí’s work, one of the most genuine architects and the one that more trace has left in the city. His pioneering will was shown in an architecture based on curved lines and a permanent testing with shapes and structures which are shown in both monumental buildings and simple elements from urban furnishings.

To be exact, the route for Gaudí’s Barcelona starts under a lamppost. The Gaudínian six arms lamp-posts in Plaça Reial, a town Hall’s request, are a nice starting point to get into the architect’s univer-se. Going down the Rambla, until C/ Nou, 3 de la Rambla, we’ll get to Palau Güell. This gothic palace was the first huge order from the businessman Eusebi Güell, and illustrates that Gaudí was already consecrated and fully creative. Güell’s support being his patron during over 30 years was the key in the architect’s career.

Leaving behind this colossal work, we guide to Passeig de Colom and walk to Pla de Palau where we find a more modest job, his three arms lamp-posts. A little bit further on we come across Parc de la Ciutadella. Beside the lake there’s a waterfall and a fountain where a young Gaudí worked as Josep Fontseré’s assistant, the park’s architect.

Leaving Ciutadella we’ll have to go up Passeig Lluís Companys and link Passeig Sant Joan to reach C/ Casp. At number 48 we see Casa Calvet the first of three that Gaudí planned in L’Eixample, and where the symbols in the façade outstand. The second house was Casa Batlló, in Passeig de Gràcia, the first work with clearly Gaudínian shapes. If we walk up Passeig de Gràcia, we’ll get to the work which com-pletes the trilogy, Casa Milà. The universally known as Pedrera was constructed as a giant monument.

The second day starts

Without leaving l’Eixample, it’s absolutely necessary the visit to Temple Expiatòri de la Sagrada Família, one of the essential iconographic elements of Barce-lona. Once there we’ll be able to visit Escoles de la Sagrada Familia which Gaudí felt especially proud of. In order to learn about Gaudí’s work in a different approach, we’ll have to move to Sant Andreu and vi-sit Sant Pacià, a church he decorated with a mosaic.

The route continues and leads us to C/ de les Caro-lines, near Plaça Lesseps where we’ll find one of the first Modernist works, Casa Viçens. So as to amuse ourselves it’s time we make a visit outdoors now and get lost in Parc Güell, another icon of Barcelo-na. Following that we’ll set off to one more austere building such as Col.legi de les Teresianes, settled in C/ Ganduixer.

The route is getting to its end and we can’t complete our immersion about Gaudí without visiting three more works, not so well known but just as fasci-nating: Torre de Bellesguard, Pavellons de la Finca Güell, and the last, the door in Finca Miralles. This is how we finish with our fully route through the work of one of the genius at architecture of all times.

Índex1. Lampposts in Plaça Reial (1878-1879)

2. Palau Güell (1886-1889)

3. Pla de Palau Lampposts (1878-1879)

4. Parc de la Ciutadella (1888)

5. Casa Calvet (1898-1899)

6. Casa Batlló (1904-1906)

7. Casa Milà (1906-1912)

8. Temple expiatori de la Sagrada Família (1883- 1926)

9. Escoles de la Sagrada Família (1909)

10. Església de Sant Pacià (1880)

11. Casa Vicens (1878-1925)

12. Parc Güell (1900-1914)

13. Col·legi de les Teresianes (1887-1888)

14. Torre de Bellesguard (1900-1909)

1. Lampposts in Plaça Reial (1878-1879)

In 1878 the Town Hall ordered Gaudí some gas lampposts for the entire city. This project was part of an urban movement which had to change the city from medieval to modern. Some six arms lampposts done with bronze, steel and glass were placed in Plaça Reial. These colossal candelabras lay on a sto-ne pedestal which holds the column. To make such details and to get such special shapes designed by the architect, wrought iron was used.

2. Palau Güell (1886-1889)

The building, which was built in a piece of ground where the Güell had two houses, still today is linked to the house the businessman’s father has in la Rambla. It has a basement, a ground floor and a suite for functions with salons. The main salon on this floor takes two grounds and it’s roofed by a do-uble parabolic and starred dome (the stars are tiny holes from where the exterior light screens). On the upper floor there are bedrooms and the domestic service’s floor. On the flat roof we find a collection of chimneys-sculptures, fans and the flour skylights of the dome.

It’s on this work that we can appreciate Gaudi’s practical way of thinking according to the use of materials and his ability on fusing functionality and aesthetics. This building stands out for its transpa-rency in its internal structure, which Antoni Güell wished in order to control at all times what was happening in his palace.

3. Pla de Palau Lampposts (1878-1879)

These lampposts were positioned in 1890 and belong to the three arms model. Unlike the ones in Plaça Reial, Gaudí didn’t reveal in his memory the details and colours these two candelabras were supposed to have.

4. Parc de la Ciutadella (1888)

We can find in here the fountain with an ornamen-tal waterfall designed by Josep Fontseré and Gaudí owing to the Universal Exposition in 1888.There is a giant crab in this monument. Its pincers are de-signed as a flight of steps so visitors can go up the triumphal arch. This fountain is inspired in Fontana de Trevi.

5. Casa Calvet (1898-1899)

What stands out most in this building are the symbolic elements in the façade. Just over the door there’s the initial capital C which stands for Calvet, the owner’s name. At the main stand there’s a cypress, a hospitality symbol. On the main floor there are several raised patterns representing mus-hrooms and over the stand there’s a horn of plenty. The three heads of coronation symbolizing St. Peter Martyr, St. Giles from Arles and St. Giles from Rome.

The effort in the design is really significant inside the hall: The bolt at the door, the bells, and the benches leaning against the wall with elliptic mirrors or the sets of columns are outstanding elements. The organic fittings which Gaudí designed for the offices are made of oak, whereas the ones to be used by the families were tapestries. The oak chairs were so successful that you can still find today some reproductions on sale at the best design establish-ment in Barcelona.

6. Casa Batlló (1904-1906)Casa Batlló is a renovation of a building from 1877 which the textile manufacturer Josep Batlló i Ca-sanovas wanted to have as his own residence. The location of the house can’t be better, during the day the sun illuminates the little glasses and ceramic buttons in the façade and the completion with cross and the scales of the dragon’s skin. During the night, a perfect illumination sticks out the raised patterns which are converted into the sea bed and water bubbles where big crustaceans rest.

The columns and stands on the first floor, built with stone from Montjuïc, have shapes taken from the nature which remind parts of human skeleton. That’s why the house was known as “the bones’ house”. The flat roof has a view of chimneys-sculptures like the ones in Palau Güell. In Casa Batlló, Gaudí shows off once again as an interior decorator and organic fittings designer.

7. Casa Milà (1906-1912)

The construction of Pedrera confirms the tempera-ment of Gaudí and his capacity to adopt innovative solutions. The sea waves, the virgin’s mantle, a holy mountain are interpretations given through history in its façade. What seems quite clear is the fact that it’s all about a geological formation based on organic architecture premises.

In Casa Milà there are not loaded walls, the buil-dings lays on a pillar structure and metallic girder forming a truss on which the vaults are built. Ano-ther structural concept is the flight of steps to go to the main floors, which are completely independent from the neighbours’ stairs and the lifts with two doors, one for pedestrians and one for vehicles that can drive along the interior streets. In the famous flat roof, known as “warriors’ flat roof”, we can find chimneys, fans and the stairs coming out that can be considered real sculptures.

8. Temple expiatori de la Sagrada Família (1883-1926)The colossal cathedral with gothic inspiration was for Gaudí the project of his life. In it there could be a choir of 1.500 singers, 700 children, 5 organs …The temple has a common disposition in ground on a Latin cross’ basement with five naves. Some new sharp volumes can be seen in the towers. The temple’s symbolic aspect should be remarked, with a numerical set in relation to volumes. The four towers flanking the dome are meant to be the four Evange-lists all around the Saviour, the Virgin’s dome, the twelve towers, which in groups of four are on the façade, represent the Apostles, and all four angular bodies are referred to the Cardinal Virtues.Gaudí could only see one of the towers before he died.

9. Escoles de la Sagrada Família (1909)

This small Gaudí’s building (200 m²) is one of the least known by people. The architect projected it to be a provisional school attached to the temple of Sa-grada Família. It’s only got a nave and it stands out for the wavy façade and the flat roof. Thanks to the use of sun-dried bricks, the building was both quick and resistant. Gaudí was especially proud of this work and was really pleased to show it to whoever could understand it.

10. Església de Sant Pacià (1880)

Gaudí designed the pavement in the parish of St. Pacià, a marvellous roman mosaic with geometrical shapes. At this stage, just two years after getting his qualifications as an architect, Gaudí used to work in a neo-gothic style, which has nothing to do neither with Modernism nor his later works. Between 1986 and 1988, Lluís Bru Borrell, third generation of the admired Bru craftsmen of Modernism, carried out with brilliant results the renovation of the mosaic that occupies the whole ground in the church.

11. Casa Vicens (1878-1925)

This building, together with El Capricho de Comillas (Cantabria), makes the first modernist works in the whole Europe. Casa Vicens has had numerous modifications from the first Gaudí’s version up to the one we see today. The influences, both in the tiles façade and the interior ones, are definitely Orientals, moss Arab and Hindu architecture, but also from the Arts & Crafts movement from the United Kingdom, especially in the gallery facing the garden, of the conservative English style.

Because of being a private residence, the inside can only be seen on photographs. From Gaudí’s period there’s only the smokers- room left, with its false dome in shape of a beehive, the dinning room deco-rated with cardboard tiles and the hall.

12. Parc Güell (1900-1914)Eusebi Güell, Gaudí’s patron, wished this park of twenty hectares, to be a replication of the English city-gardens. The twist and turn paths and smooth slopes Gaudí projected, are respectful with its lands-cape, and when the ground inclination requires so, they are sustained on the typical sloping columns designed by the architect.

The main entrance to the park is flanked with two pavilions similar to the pavilions Güell, crowned with a mushroom and covered by breakage. One of them was the porters’ pavilion and just outside we can observe a bit of palms grating coming from Casa Vicens. The other pavilion was the visitants’ waiting room. Just opposite we see the flight of steps with the symbol of the park, the famous breakage lizard. What really stands out is the room with 96 columns that Gaudí conceived as the market in the housing.

13. Col·legi de les Teresianes (1887-1888)

Gaudí built an edifice of rectangular plan with an austere and sensible style, both in the inside and outside. This work was an order from Enric d’ Ossó i Cervalló, founder of Teresià order. Gaudí carried on with the same building structure- the college was already built up to the first floor- playing with the windows position and with the crests disguised with ceramic that crown the last floor. The set is completed with the four pinnacles in the angles with its characteristic four arms organic cross.

The monumental portal to enter is closed by a grating door, which together with the ones in Palau Güell and the Pavilions in Finca Güell, make one of his best works in wrought iron. The element which shines most in the complex is the corridors system with parabolic arches on the ground floor and first floor. It’s all about a complicated composition based on a central well which brings zenith light to the central corridor that divides the floor in two. This coming light gives the place a really special atmos-phere.

14. Torre de Bellesguard (1900-1909)

Bellesguard corresponds to the name Bernat Metge, the secretary of the last king in the Catalan dynasty Martí I l’Humà, gave to the hill placed in Collse-rola where the tower is. The gothic style building, the use of slate as a construction material and the general chromatism, belong to the romantic history of the last gothic king. The other spire crowned with the four arms cross has a last stretch surrounded by a breakage Catalan flag, and the royal crow appears just before the cross (it’s in here where we can appreciate Gaudí’s Catalan spirit and his will to pay tribute to Martí I l’Humà). The entrance door is a semicircular arch and elements like gothic windows and crowning of embattlements are also incorpora-ted. This work shows Gaudí’s independent mentality which is out of tune in relation to the preponderant style at that moment, Modernism, to use a neo-gothic style.

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