Gaudí's early Barcelona: Güell and the Raval: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Gaudí's early Barcelona: the Güell palace, his first street lamps, the hospital where he died
The thread is Gaudí's patron and his circle: the palace Gaudí built for Güell, the street lamps that were among his first works, the dome by the architect who taught him, and the hospital where he died. Some stops belong to the Güell family and to his teacher rather than to Gaudí's own hand.
The stops
Antonio López y López, first Marquis of Comillas, bought this neoclassical palace in 1870. In 1876 his son-in-law Eusebi Güell, who would become Gaudí's patron, bought part of the garden of a house on Carrer d'en Bot to enlarge the palace's gardens. The poet Jacint Verdaguer lived on the second floor for fifteen years from 1876, first as the family's chaplain, and under the marquis's patronage he produced his most important work, the poem L'Atlàntida.
Photo: Amadalvarez — CC BY-SA 3.0 The Council of One Hundred, Barcelona's city government, decided in 1401 to build this hospital by merging six older ones. On 7 June 1926 a tram struck Gaudí on the Gran Via; he was poorly dressed and carried no papers, so he was taken for a beggar and was only recognised the next day. He died here on 10 June, and the old complex now houses the Biblioteca de Catalunya and the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.
Photo: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen) — CC BY-SA 4.0 Gaudí designed this mansion on Carrer Nou de la Rambla for Eusebi Güell, and it was built in the late 1880s. Carriages once drove in through its iron gates under a parabolic arch, with a bronze phoenix set between the two gates as an emblem of the economic and cultural revival of Catalan society. The forged ironwork forms patterns that resemble seaweed and, in places, a horsewhip, and the palace is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Works of Antoni Gaudí.
Photo: Enric — CC BY-SA 4.0 Barcelona's city council commissioned these street lamps from Gaudí when he had only just finished his studies, and two six-armed lamps were inaugurated in 1879 on either side of the Three Graces fountain. Each is topped by the winged helmet of Mercury, the Roman protector of commerce, with two serpents coiled round the central arm. The Catalan Wikipedia adds that scholars think Joan Martorell, Gaudí's teacher, got him the commission.
Photo: Enric — CC BY-SA 4.0 The present baroque church was built between 1765 and 1775 to a design by Josep Mas i Dordal, and the great dome over its crossing was added in 1888 by Joan Martorell. Martorell was Gaudí's teacher and later his employer, and he steered other commissions his way. In 1883 he headed the committee that picked Gaudí to take over the Sagrada Família.
Photo: Enric — CC BY-SA 4.0 This stone pedestal honours Antonio López y López, first Marquis of Comillas and Eusebi Güell's father-in-law, and was inaugurated in 1884. Its four marble reliefs allude to the businesses he led, among them the Compañía Transatlántica, whose pavilion at the 1888 World Expo Gaudí designed. López made a large fortune in Cuba through the slave trade, which put the monument at the centre of a debate about public memory; the statue on top was taken down in 2018, and the square now carries the name of Idrissa Diallo, a Guinean migrant who died in a detention centre for foreigners in Barcelona.
Photo: Canaan — CC BY-SA 4.0 Gaudí repeated his Plaça Reial lamp here, in front of the old Customs House, with three arms in place of six. Mercury's helmet and its allusion to commerce are gone, and the top ends in a shape like an upturned crown carrying three ornamental dragons. According to the Catalan Wikipedia, Gaudí budgeted 3,600 pesetas for the sample lamp and about 2,000 for each of the rest.
Photo: Canaan — CC BY-SA 4.0 Josep Fontserè's grand fountain in the Parc de la Ciutadella opened in 1881 without its sculptures, which were added in 1888, and two giant crab claws serve as stairs up to its central podium. Gaudí, then an architecture student, worked with Fontserè on it, and the Catalan Wikipedia credits him with the water system and an artificial grotto beneath the monument. The English Wikipedia article on the park is more cautious, giving him a small share and speaking of possible contributions, so the sources differ on how much of it is his.
Photo: Canaan — CC BY-SA 3.0
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