The known and beloved Park Guell sees thousands of visitors from around the world daily. The natural beauty and colorful artwork of the nature preserve draw the attention of global audiences. However, what many tourists don't know about the area before they visit is its complex history.
Let’s venture into Park Guell’s roots and see how it came to be what it is today.
The Failed Estate
The Park Guell project wasn’t originally supposed to be a park, but rather a housing estate for wealthy families. In 1900, the park was built, and businessman Eusebi Guell commissioned Antoni Gaudi to design the area.
The park was designed after the English garden cities movement, which contained a community surrounded by greenspace. Not only would this provide a quieter living space, but also a getaway from the pollution of the heart of the city. Some speculate that because the neighborhood was modeled after a British design, it was named “Park Guell” in English instead of “Parc Guell” in Catalan.
Gaudi was responsible for creating all the public areas in the neighborhood. However, he didn’t have much influence on the houses. In fact, the only two houses that remain on the property today were designed by architect Francesc Berenguer.
After 14 years of designing the neighborhood, the project had to be canceled. The failure was due to the difficulties of building on the rocky terrain and buying more plots of land among other things.
In the park, Guell lived in one of the houses in the area called Casa Larrard. During his life, he hosted many civic events in the mansion’s great square. After he died in 1918, the city council turned the house into a school named after the Catalan pedagogue Baldiri Reixac.
Gaudi also lived in a house on the property called Torre Rosa. Again, this building was not built by Gaudi himself but rather by Francesc Berenguer. Gaui used his life savings to buy the house in 1906 and then lived in it with his father and niece until his death. Today, it is a museum in his honor.
A Little About Gaudi
Antoni Gaudi was a famous Spanish architect from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Aside from designing Park Guell, he is also known for his work in La Sagrada Familia, El Catedral de Mallorca, Casa Batlló, and more.
Gaudi’s style is very intricate and whimsical. One of his primary muses is the natural world. He designs many of his buildings using biomimicry, by copying the structures seen in nature and implementing them into his work. For example, the columns in La Sagrada Familia are shaped in the style of tree trunks, and this design helps the columns bear the heavyweights of the church’s large towers above it.
Within his work, Gaudi also liked to create structures that had the element of functionality to them. According to Gaudi, art was only beautiful if it was also functional. He used geometry in many of his pieces to achieve what he wanted his creation to be used for.
Natural Elements Incorporated into the Park
Gaudi made no exception to the incorporation of nature in this project. If anything, this was his playground for naturalistic experimentation. He tried to keep the area as preserved as he could by building around the mountain rather than leveling it out.
Gaudi built viaducts all around the neighborhood so that pedestrians and carriages could get around the mountain. However, he formed them like palm trees and twisted columns so they would look like they were attached to the mountain themselves. He constructed them out of rocks and worked with the shape of the slopes he built on.
Keeping with the theme, Gaudi also incorporated statues of different animals around the park. Images of lions, snakes, octopuses, and more are hidden in some of his pieces. Tourist and CJC Study Abroad alumni Aaron Zeiler said “my favorite part of the park is actually down near the stairs where you have the iguana that has all the mosaic glass. I really love that.”
Water
The park has an incredible drainage system that prevents it from flooding after rainstorms. You can find dents in the walkways throughout the park that help water slide down the mountains.
When asked about the most interesting fact he’s learned about the park, Zeiler said “Gaudi used a really innovative water system that when it rains here, all the water connects in these aqueducts that were supposed to provide water to the houses that were supposed to be here.”
On the ceiling of the Hall of Columns, or the Hypostyle Room, there is an irrigation system that collects all the runoff water and filters and disperses it to the tiny town. The Barcelona Balcony is specifically unpaved so that rainwater can filter through the ground and into a reservoir that is in the mountain. When the reservoir tank fills up past its limit, the extra water is spit out by the famous salamander that sits at the entrance of the park.
The park itself is also located on a water table. This would have helped potential residents of the neighborhood to have access to more freshwater.
The Park Today
Park Guell was officially announced as a municipal park in 1926 and has been ever since. In 1984, it reached another milestone by becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Standard admission into the park is 10 euros. Once inside the property, you can see monuments such as the Austria Gardens, El turó de les Tres Creus, and the Hypostyle Room.
If you decide to go, plan to spend your entire afternoon there because there is a lot to see. Bring comfortable shoes and a bottle of water. The park is the perfect place to relax or have a picnic in. California tourist Alice Samberg said she enjoys listening to local musicians play while she strolls through the park. “The music in the background is nice and they’re scattered all over,” she said.
Taking the bus is the easiest way to get to the park. The two main routes to take would be the 24 and the 92, which will take you right up to the mountain. You can also take the green line (L3) on the metro, but you will have to walk an extra 20 minutes to reach the park.
As for most attractions in Barcelona, you should buy your tickets ahead of time. You can do so by visiting the Park’s official website. When buying your ticket, you have to pick a designated time slot and will only be allowed to enter 30 minutes after that time. However, you can stay in the park as long as you like once you are inside.
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