Barcelona is not only the home of great art, great food, and great football it is also
the city in which famous architect Antoni Gaudi plied his trade and are still regarded
as some of the very best in the world today.
I’m Glen and here are 15 astounding architectural designs by the Spanish genius himself.
Antoni Gaudi was born in 1852 and attended school in Barcelona, a city that would later
become synonymous with his greatest works.
Gaudi was interested in architecture from an early age and eventually went to study
it in later education.
His studies were interrupted by military service, but he graduated from the Provincial School
of Architecture in 1878.
His works often involved bringing animation to surfaces using patterns, color, and material
while juxtaposing geometric shapes unlike any other architect of his time.
Gaudi, unfortunately, passed away in 1926, while still working on the Sagrada Familia.
He was killed just weeks before his 74th birthday after being hit by a trolley car.
Number Fifteen
The Cascada Fountain is located in the Park De Citudella, one of Barcelona’s busiest
and most popular parks.
It is certainly a design you can’t miss, with its grand staircases, a trio of stone
arches, spirting water, and a golden horse-drawn chariot to top it all off.
The staircases are supposed to resemble two enormous crab pincers.
This was one of Gaudi’s earliest works, as he was only an assistant at the time of
building.
The fountain piece was initially built by Josep Fontsere in the 1880s.
Gaudi may not have been the lead designer on this project, but it is an impressive and
beautiful fountain to have on his CV at such a young age.
The Cascada was initially criticized by the press as it opened in 1881 without any sculptures
or meticulous details included.
It was then amended over the next six years to create the masterpiece we see today.
Number Fourteen
From Gaudi’s first taste of work as an aspiring student of architecture to the first major
design of his own.
Casa Vicens was built for a wealthy family in the 1880s and was the first house designed
by Gaudi in his beloved Barcelona.
It was also the mark of a new era in terms of architectural styles, as Gaudi combined
orientalist and Hispano-Arabic inspirations for the design.
He also used a mixture of glass, iron, and ceramic in the building to create a beautiful
mixture of colors and textures, as well as using aesthetically pleasing symmetry and
shapes.
After three years of restorations and renovations, the building was opened to the public for
the first time, as a museum, in November 2017.
Number Thirteen
An enchanting, old-fashioned stone building that looks like it could secretly be a fairy-tale
castle.
You may notice the name ‘Guell’ pop up on more than one occasion in this list, and
that is because the Bodegas structure was commissioned by Gaudi’s most influential
private patron, Eusebi Guell.
This stunning winery was built between 1895 and 1897 and is one of Gaudi’s lesser-known
designs.
Guell originally wanted the complex to house both the winery and hunting pavilions, although
the latter never came to fruition.
Instead, he made wine within the grounds, exporting it to Cuba to serve shipping fleets
there.
The Bodegas now contains a restaurant for tourists to wine and dine in a beautiful setting.
Number Twelve
Casa Batllo is one of Antonio Gaudi’s most famous and most celebrated designs in Barcelona,
and it isn’t hard to tell why.
The original house was built back in 1877, but Gaudi came along in 1904 to remodel it,
writing it into the history books with his architectural talents.
The building is nicknamed the ‘House of Bones’ by locals, due to the nature of the
white, curved stonework.
The skeletal design is definitely one of Gaudi’s most unique and eye-catching structures, but
it is also absolutely stunning.
The external ripple patterns, colorful ceramic mosaics, and protruding balconies are extraordinarily
poetic, and will forever astonish and amaze the many tourists who visit it every year.
Number Eleven
We will save the Sagrada Familia itself for a little later, but let’s take a look at
the schools that came with the infamous project.
Antoni Gaudi was commissioned to design these school buildings, along with the main project,
and he didn’t take that challenge lightly.
Despite its simplicity, the design featured some classic Gaudi waveforms on the roof and
was seen as a constructive genius for other architects to take inspiration from.
The buildings themselves included three classrooms, a hall, a chapel, and toilets, and were designed
for the kids of the people building the Sagrada Familia.
Number Ten
That man Guell again, with this towering Barcelona mansion being designed for the Guell family.
The Palau was built between 1886 and 1888 and was even featured in the 1975 film The
Passenger with Jack Nicholson.
Tourists can now pay to enter the house for an enriching tour, which involves exploring
the main hall, basement, stables, and the piece de resistance, a rooftop terrace with
breath-taking views of the famous city, and the high society guests entertained in the
receiving room.
This room contained small viewing windows high on the walls to allow the owners to get
a peek at the guests before greeting them.
Number Nine
Colonia Guell was a worker's colony 12 miles outside of Barcelona back in the late 1800s,
currently a town of around 7,000 people.
Antoni Gaudi was commissioned by his friend Guell yet again in 1898, as Eusebi wanted
to provide a place of worship for the local people.
The idea was to build a church and crypt, although only the latter was completed when
work stopped in 1915 due to monetary constraints.
Despite this, it still made UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
A restoration was carried out in 2002, although the lead architect Antonio Gonzalez Moreno
was criticized for apparently mistreating the site.
Gaudi used many techniques in this design that he would later incorporate into his most
famous work, the Sagrada Familia.
Number Eight
The Torre Bellesguard was constructed between 1900 and 1909 for a personal friend of Gaudi.
The merchant wanted his new home to be built on grounds with significance.
The hill on which the tower was built was the location of a fourteenth-century castle
named after the last king of the House of Barcelona.
Legend says it was also the home of a famous outlaw Serrallonga, a Robin Hood type figure.
Gaudi conserved the few remaining castle elements and designed this new building with mosaic
benches, colorful windows, and ivy-shaped pipework.
Number Seven
Another throwback to one of Gaudi’s earliest works, Casa Calvet.
It was built between 1898 and 1900 for Pere Martir Calvet and is said to be one of Gaudi’s
most conventional designs.
It shows symmetry and balance, not something you see with too many Gaudi designs, but you
can see a certain Casa Batllo type styling to it.
Calvet used the bottom floor of the building as his office and the upper floors as his
home.
The ground floor gallery is said to be the most eye-catching feature of the building,
decorated with an olive tree and amazing artwork.
Three sculpted heads sit atop the building, one of Calvet’s father and the other two
being patron saints of Calvet’s hometown.
Number Six
A park located at La Pobla de Lillet, Barcelona, the Artigas Gardens represent some of Gaudi’s
most natural and picturesque work.
The gardens were built between 1905 and 1906.
Gaudi designed the park to be fully integrated with the natural environment surrounding the
build, and tourists may notice some similarities between this site and Parc Guell, which we
will look at later.
This is because Gaudi sent some workers from Parc Guell to work on this project.
By 1971, the gardens were abandoned, but were restored in 1992 and remain to this day.
Number Five
El Capricho was built between 1883 and 1885, and although the design was Gaudi’s, the
build was actually overseen by a partner and friend of the architect, Cristobal Cascante.
The distinguished building combines oriental styles seen in India, Japan, and Persia.
Gaudi used stone on the lower parts of the build and brick and ceramic tiles on the top,
with detailed decorative sunflowers as well as bright greens, reds, and yellows.
What we are left with is a block-based tower building that looks like it could have been
created after hours on Minecraft.
You can now visit the structure and grounds and explore all indoor and outdoor areas.
Number Four
Parc Guell, as we touched on earlier, is a public garden in Carmel Hill, designed by
Antoni Gaudi.
It was built between 1900 and 1914, before being officially opened as a park in 1926.
It was declared a World Heritage site in 1984.
The park is composed of gardens and some stunning architecture, including the Gaudi House Museum
in which the man himself lived in the early 1900s.
The walk around Parc Guell is full of breath-taking sites, including the famous mosaic salamander,
a terrace with a long bench in the shape of a sea serpent, and architecture intertwined
with existing natural beauty.
. Number Three
Casa Mila was built between 1906 and 1912, and is more commonly known as La Pedrera,
or ‘The Stone Quarry.’
Casa Mila was controversial at the time of building due to the strange undulating stone
façade, underground garage, and exhibition-style terrace roof, although these are now the features
lauded by tourists.
The rooftop terrace is one of the standout features of the building, as it showcases
marble and glass brick sculptures large enough to be spotted from afar.
The building now serves as the HQ of Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation, and can still be visited
by tourists for a fee.
Number Two
This palace was built between 1889 and 1913, structured in a Catalan Modernism style.
It’s actually one of only three buildings outside of Catalonia to be designed by Antoni
Gaudi.
The original palace was destroyed in a fire back in the 19th century, with the designing
of the new building handed over to Gaudi.
Strangely, the architect managed to design this particular structure without even visiting
the site.
The palace was built in gray granite, and featured classic Gaudi elements such as arches
and chimneys, with the addition of a five-meter-tall angel to round off the façade.
Construction was halted after the bishop died in 1893 and Gaudi resigned after arguments
with the council.
It was eventually finished by Ricardo Garcia Guereta.
Number One
It seems only apt to end our list with Gaudi’s final work, La Sagrada Familia.
It is without a doubt Gaudi’s most famous, and most tragic design, as the architect died
with the project no more than a quarter complete.
Construction started in 1882 under a different architect, but after he resigned, Gaudi was
brought in to transform the build.
He used gothic and Art Nouveau forms to come up with this generation-defining, extraordinary
piece of architectural gold.
The building has now been under construction for over 137 years and is expected to be fully
complete by 2032.
Since Gaudi’s death, the Sagrada Familia has survived largely on donations, and Gaudi
is buried in the crypt below his final building, a fitting resting place for a legend of architecture.
And there we have it, 15 astounding architectural designs by the Spanish genius Antoni Gaudi.
Which was your favorite?
Let us know in the comments below.
And which architect would you like us to feature next?