Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Palau Güell
C/Nou de la Rambla 3-5 • Tues-Sun & hols 10am-8pm (Nov-March until 5.30pm) • €12 • 934 725 775,
palauguell.cat
• Liceu
El Raval's outstanding building is the
Palau Güell
, an extraordinary townhouse designed
(1886-90) by the young Antoni Gaudí for wealthy shipowner and industrialist
Eusebi Güell
i Bacigalupi
. It was commissioned as an extension of the Güell family's house located on
the Ramblas, and was later the first modern building to be declared a World Heritage Site by
UNESCO. A painstaking restoration has returned the building, with its famous roof terrace,
toitsoriginalstate,andit'soneofBarcelona'smostpopularattractions-numbersarelimited
and your ticket will be for a specific time-slot for a one-hour visit.
Atatimewhenarchitectssoughttoconcealtheironsupportswithinbuildings,Gaudíturned
them to his advantage, displaying them as decorative features in the grand rooms on the
mainfloor
,whicharelinedwithdarkmarblehewnfromtheGüellfamilyquarries.Columns,
archesandceilingsareallshaped,carvedandtwistedinanelaboratestylethatwastobecome
the hallmark of Gaudí's later works. Even the basement
stables
bear Gaudí's distinct touch,
a forest of brick capitals and arches that with a touch of imagination become mushrooms and
palms. Meanwhile the
roof terrace
culminates in a fantastical series of chimneys decorated
withswirlingpatternsmadefromfragmentsofglazedtile,glassandearthenware.Thefamily
rarely ventured up here - it was the servants instead who were exposed to the fullest flight of
Gaudí's fantasy as they hung the washing out on lines strung from chimney to chimney.
