Park Güell

The project envisaged the construction of sixty plots with detached houses surrounded by gardens. Although only two of the planned houses were eventually built, the complex preserves the main communal spaces designed by Gaudí: the entrance pavilions, the grand staircase, the Hypostyle Hall and the square with the famous undulating trencadís bench.

Due to the limited success of the project, construction works stopped in 1914. After the death of Eusebi Güell in 1918, the estate was acquired by Barcelona City Council, which opened it to the public in 1923 as an urban park.

The main entrance is flanked by two organically shaped pavilions clad in polychrome ceramic trencadís. One of them, intended as the caretaker’s house, is crowned by a mushroom-shaped dome, while the other features a tower topped with a four-armed cross, a recurring symbolic element in Gaudí’s work, also present in buildings such as Torre Bellesguard.

The grand staircase leads to the Hypostyle Hall, conceived as the market of the residential development. It consists of eighty-six neo-Doric columns incorporating a sophisticated system for collecting and channelling rainwater into an underground cistern. Along this route stands the well-known sculptural dragon, which functions as an outlet for excess water from the cistern and has become one of the most iconic symbols of Park Güell.

Above the Hypostyle Hall stretches a large square bordered by the undulating bench made from prefabricated modules and featuring an anatomical backrest adapted to the shape of the human body. The bench is covered with polychrome ceramic trencadís, with a free and expressive decoration created in collaboration with Josep Maria Jujol, who contributed remarkable chromatic and formal freedom. The sandy paving of the square allows water to filter down into the lower cistern, integrating functionality and sustainability into water management.

Gaudí studied the mountain’s topography with great precision and designed a system of viaducts and paths adapted to the terrain and existing vegetation, achieving a harmonious integration of architecture into the landscape. In these viaducts, Gaudí incorporated inclined columns, a solution the architect later used in the crypt of Colònia Güell.

At the same time, he also intervened in the landscaping, preserving native flora and introducing Mediterranean species, carob trees, palm trees, wisteria and rosemary, further reinforcing the integration of the park into its natural surroundings.

In 1906, Antoni Gaudí acquired the show house of Park Güell, built in 1902 by Francesc Berenguer, his friend and collaborator, as a model for the residential project. Gaudí established his residence in this house, where he lived with his father and niece, fully immersed in the evolution of the park.

Park Güell has been declared a Historic-Artistic Monument (BCIN category) since 1969 and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1984 as part of the Works of Antoni Gaudí.