Before traveling to Barcelona we hadn’t heard of Antoni Gaudi. I think many Americans are in the same boat, which is unfortunate, because he is definitely someone worth knowing. An architect, and true artist, he has contributed many spectacular and imaginative structures to the Barcelona city-scape.
Born in the Catalan region of Spain, Gaudi went to school for architecture and worked as a draftsman until he began to create is own work. In 1978, a showcase he created for a glove manufacturer caught the attention of Eusebi Guell. Guell commissioned Gaudi for several projects, including the beautiful Park Guell. For it’s collective display of Gaudi’s skill, the park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
The most well-known Gaudi structure is the incredible Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. Although still not yet complete according to Gaudi’s design, the work in progress is one of the top tourist attractions in Barcelona for good reason. The tall central pillars are designed to feel like a forest. This article is a good summary of the meaning behind this, and many other, design features. We loved having the audio guides, but thought the tower climb wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped. Still, it’s a one-of-a-kind basilica and won’t disappoint.
Fluid, mosaic, and whimsical, his creations are like nothing we’ve ever seen. Maybe we missed out by not doing a guided tour around the city, but we happened to come across most of them in our wanderings and made planned visits to a few others. Part of the fun was walking by a beautiful building and googling later to find out it is a Gaudi creation.
I’m just going to throw a ton of pictures on here because we can’t pick favorites or manage to convey how interesting these sites are. Maybe quantity will help paint a better picture?
