After our city tour, we decided one of the landmarks we wanted to visit was
Park Guell - a park that was commissioned by Count Guell (a patron of
Antoni Gaudi) and constructed at the beginning of the 20th century. The idea behind the area was to create a residential complex, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, using traditional Catalan culture combined with modern technology. In essence, it was going to be a development with 60 plots of land with houses and gardens with wonderful views of the city and ocean.
To see the pictures are pretty amazing, but to visit the park in person was spectacular! The colorful mosaics, the curvy, whimsical structures and the genius of the technology and things unseen were just incredible!
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| Mosaics along the stone wall surrounding the park. |
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| Main entrance to the park. |
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| Layout of the park. |
The fountains below are at the entrance to the Market Place.
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The second fountain: medallion shaped sculpture with hexagonal shield
in the center of the Catalan flag with a serpent's head. |
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Over a circular shaped basin is a tripod shaped sculpture with the popular dragon
from whose mouth trickles water. |
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The two lodges. On the left, the caretaker's lodge featuring the cupola
decorated with upsidedown coffee cups. On the right, the Administration
lodge. The structures resemble the house from Hansel and Gretel. |
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| Beautiful gardens. |
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| Spectacular view of the city. |
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| One of two houses built in the development., |
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| The Square and famous serpent bench. |
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| Washerwoman portico and walkway. |
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| Another view of the wavy bench and beautiful mosaics. |
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The stone droplets added by Gaudi, which underline the large square's function as a rainwater collector.
Below the market place is a large tank for holding rainwater that would be used for irrigation
and other community necessities. Complex flooring systems filter the water and as early as 1913 when the urbanization project did not come to fruition, they began selling bottled water! |
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| Wrought iron palm gates. |
Incredible mosaics in the ceiling of the Market Place.
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| Bright flowers can be found all throughout the park. |
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| Viaducts that shelter passers-by from sun and rain. |
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| Atlas - one of the many street performers. |
Wow! What an experience! Really enjoyed the whimsy of the design and mosaic decorations as well as the visions and technology of Gaudi and his contemporaries. I'm very glad we took the time to visit Park Guell!
