Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sights
PALAU GÜELL
Palace
( 93 317 39 74;
www.palauguell.cat
; Carrer Nou de la Rambla 3-5; adult/reduced €10/8; 10am-8pm
Apr-Sep, 10am-5.30pm Oct-Mar; Drassanes)
Finally reopened in its entirety in 2010 after
nearly 20 years under refurbishment, this is a magnificent example of the early days of
Gaudí's fevered architectural imagination - the extraordinary Modernista mansion, one of
the few major buildings of that era raised in Ciutat Vella, gives an insight into its maker's
prodigious genius.
Gaudí built the palace just off La Rambla in the late 1880s for his wealthy and faithful
patron, the industrialist Eusebi Güell. Although a little sombre compared with some of his
later whims, it is still a characteristic riot of styles (Gothic, Islamic, art nouveau) and ma-
terials. The hall is a parabolic pyramid - each wall an arch stretching up three floors and
coming together to form a dome. The roof is a mad tumult of tiled mosaics and fanciful
design in the building's chimney pots. Picasso - who, incidentally, hated Gaudí's work -
began his Blue Period in 1902 in a studio across the street at Carrer Nou de la Rambla 10.
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