Parc Guell

Gaudi's Parc Guell lies above the city of Barcelona. The land the park lies on was donated by Count Eusebi de Guell to be developed into a garden city around 1900. After failing to succeed commercially the decision was made to change the area into a municipal garden. The entry is free but the Gaudi museum in his old house charges admission. This park is an explosion of Gaudi and Spanish modern style. Everything is covered in organic stone forms and mosaics. Playful fountains and sculptures are found all over within the park. One of the most famous parts of the park are the serpentine benches found atop the central pavilion. These benches curve back and forth around a large square to alternately create private conversation spaces and people watching spaces. Another main draw the park is the view from it. From atop the pavilion you can see all of the city and the sea beyond. It was the best view of the city I saw while in Barcelona. Getting to the park is slightly off the path. The closest Metro station is about a 20 minute walk and the last 5 minutes is sharply uphill. If in Barcelona, this park cannot be missed and is a proper companion to studying Gaudi's architecture throughout the city.

Elizabeth Conte

Gaudi's Mosaics at Park Guell

“Nature offers us no monochrome objects, completely uniform in colour, either in vegetation, or in geology, or topography, or the animal kingdom.” Antoni Gaudi

Many say that Antoni Gaudi’s most outstanding contribution to contemporary plastic arts is the application of the trencadis technique, which can be seen throughout Park Guell in Barcelona, Spain. Trencadis, also called pique assiette, is a type of mosaic created from broken and recycled tile shards. For Park Guell, Gaudi used fragments of china and stoneware dinner sets, broken during manufacturing, to build abstract patterns and sculptures throughout the site. His goal was to use the sharp and irregular pieces of varying size, color, and pattern to create uniform, organic, and lively social spaces. His mosaics and sculptures can be seen all throughout the park, but the most popular ones are along the axis of the main entrance, the ceiling of the pavilion, and the seating wall that winds along the top edge of the pavilion.

Sara Anrrich