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Trip ideas  /  3 days in Barcelona  /  Park Güell
Park Güell, Barcelona, Catalonia
Historic site · Barcelona, Catalonia

Park Güell

Sixty plots, two houses.A bench shaped like a serpent.A house Gaudí bought himself.Open to the public in 1926.

Photo: essetefano, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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A failed suburb

It was meant to be a suburb of sixty houses, and only two were built

Count Eusebi Güell planned a high-end residential development inspired by the English garden city movement, with sixty triangular plots. Only two homes were built, neither by Gaudí, because the area was too far from the city centre.

Gaudí's house

Gaudí bought the unsold show home himself

One house, built as a show home in 1904, remained unsold. Güell persuaded Gaudí to buy it with his savings. Gaudí moved in with his father and niece in 1906. It became the Gaudí House Museum in 1963.

The bench

The long bench is shaped like a sea serpent

The focal point is a terrace bordered by a long, curving bench shaped like a sea serpent, designed by Josep Maria Jujol. Its ergonomic form creates enclaves that encourage social interaction. The terrace is held up by columns that form a vaulted space decorated with mosaics.

The paths

The raised paths have columns shaped like tree trunks

A system of elevated pathways, originally meant for carriages, threads through the park. Gaudí built them with local stone so they blend into the landscape. Their columns and vaulted supports mimic tree trunks, and he used inverted catenary arches.

Three crosses

From the Hill of the Three Crosses the city lies below

Construction took place between 1900 and 1914, and the park officially opened to the public in 1926. At its highest point steps lead up to the Hill of the Three Crosses. From there you can see the Sagrada Família, Torre Glòries, Montjuïc and the Mediterranean.

Day 2, morning

Next is Sagrada Família.

More stories from this trip idea

The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Park Güell, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.

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