Barcelona- Architect Antoni Gaudi

After not sleeping well on our two flights (Seattle to Montreal and Montreal to Barcelona), we arrived at 7:30 and took a cab to our hotel. We are staying at the H10 Madison Hotel in the Gothic District (the oldest part of Barcelona). Dropped our bags and off we went to explore.

The plan this first day was to see the works of world famous architect Antoni Gaudi, world famous to most everyone but John and Chris. Sure we had heard of him but we had no understanding of his work nor the time period that he designed buildings.

Antoni Gaudi (1852 – 1926) was born in Catalonia Spain. At an early age of 31, he became the lead designer of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (more on this masterpiece in another post). While he worked on the Cathedral he designed multiple buildings around Barcelona. Those works are the buildings we walked over 7.5 miles around town to see. What we were not expecting was how much we would be blown away. His work is spectacular and they are as outstanding today as they were when they were build over 125 tears ago. He was way ahead of his time and in 2005 his Barcelona work was recognized and added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Here is a brief description of the buildings we saw:

Casa Batllo (Casa dels ossos- House of Bones): Constructed in 1904 and considered one of his masterpieces. There are few straight lines and much of the facade is decorated with colorful mosaic tiles. It is located on the beautiful street, Paseo de Gracia.

Casa Mila (La Pedrera- The Stone Quarry): Constructed in 1906 to 1912 and has an undulating stone façade that today I would find difficult to build. It had Barcelona’s first underground parking garage and a rooftop terrace.

Casa Vicens: Gaudi’s first major project and was built between 1883 to 1885 but he was commissioned for the project in 1878 (at 26 years old). Gaudi used ceramic tile to decorate his work and used Moorish arches, columns of exposed bricks and temple shaped domes.

Park Guell: Gaudi was commissioned in 1898 to design a private residential development of luxurious homes surrounding this park. Construction took place from 1900 to 1914 and the park opened to the public in 1926 when the development failed.

Casa Calvet: Built between 1898 to 1900, it is considered the most conventional of his work. It’s symmetry, balance, and orderly rhythm are unusual in Goudy’s work.

Sagrade Famllia: This Cathedral was started in 1882 and continues today. This is his most famous work (more on this amazing building in a future post).