On the morning of Day 3, we visited Park Guell in lovely weather that had no traces of the previous day’s rain. Park Guell was intended to be a planned neighborhood for the wealthy of Barcelona. It was commissioned around 1900 by a well-travelled entrepreneur named Guell, who was inspired by his overseas trips, and designed by Gaudi. It was a commercial failure, partly because it was fairly far from the city center, but perhaps also because Gaudi’s designs weren’t appreciated back then. The work “Park” in the park’s name is intentionally in English, not Catalan, because Guell thought that would make it more exotic.
Gaudi surrounded the park with walls shaped to keep interlopers out, since this was intended to be a rich enclave, after all. He covered the stone with a mosaic of broken tile and glass to protect the stone and provide a slippery surface to deny handholds to anyone trying to climb the walls. This technique is called “trencadis” and Gaudi used it regularly.
At the park entrance to the South (towards downtown Barcelona), two unique buildings were intended to greet visitors to the residences. The wider one with the pine cone looking ornament on top was the porter’s house, while the smaller rounded one was where guests could wait as their coach was called (it apparently had a telephone, which was rare in those days).
Past the entrance buildings, the “dragon stair” leads to the centerpiece of the park, Gaudi’s community center with room for a market underneath and meeting area with conversation-inducing benches above. More on that later.
Climbing a path near the entrance provides a view of Gaudi’s final project, Sagrada Familia. Gaudi, who lived in a house at Park Guell, apparently walked to and from Sagrada Familia every day. Eventually, he moved into his onsite workshop to avoid the walk.
Guell had a house at the park, though he also had a mansion designed by Gaudi closer to the center of Barcelona. Guell’s house in the park was not designed by Gaudi, so looks “normal” with straight lines and such. It does have interesting diamond windows, and Gaudi added a rear deck. The palm leaf fence shows up at the park entrance too. Just next to the house is the central gathering place for the park, as can be seen in the last two photos. The Guell house is now a school for local children.
Underneath the central gathering place is room for a market. Gaudi envisioned vendors in the open areas where he left some columns out to make extra space. The roof is covered with trencadis tile fragments and some decorative centerpieces have glass and tile in 3D arrangements. The columns were designed to carry water from the open space above to a cistern below, so there would always be water reserves, but the great number of tourists has compacted the soil and sand above that the water no longer flows. The last two pics above shows the view out to the sea, which is miles away.
Above the market is a vast open area full of tourists and with spectacular views. It is surrounded by a continuous bench covered in trencadis. The bench is designed with many seating areas where people could sit and face each other to converse.
The open space meeting area has palm trees behind it and pathways leading up into the rest of the park. From here, we can see the two other houses in the park. The one with the green windows is the third house in the park (the only one sold and the last to be built) and was bought by Guell’s lawyer. It is still owned and occupied (I think) by members of that family. The taller pink house is Gaudi’s house and is now a museum.
Pictures of Gaudi’s house from below and above. The park has quite a lot of verticality.
To get people and carriages around the park, Gaudi designed trails and bridges with his usual style of no straight lines and use local materials. The use of angled columns is prevalent throughout these bridges. As you can see from the last photo, the limestone blocks need a bit of help in some places, but most other places, they’re doing very well.
[…] Day 3 – Park Guell […]