Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Laid out on a hill, which provides fabulous views back across the city, the park is an almost
hallucinatory expression of the imagination. Pavilions of contorted stone, meandering rustic
viaducts, a giant mosaic salamander known as
el drac
(the dragon), a vast Hall of Columns
(intended to be the estate's market), carved stone trees - all combine in one manic swirl
of ideas and excesses. The
Hall of Columns
, for example, was described by the art critic
Sacheverell Sitwell (in
Spain
)as“atonceafunfair,apetrified forest,andthegreattemple of
AmunatKarnak,itselfdrunk,andreelinginaneccentricearthquake”.Perhapsthemostfam-
ouselementisthelong,meandering
ceramicbench
thatsnakesalongtheedgeoftheterrace,
entirely covered with a brightly coloured broken tile-and-glass mosaic (a method known as
trencadís
) that forms a dizzying sequence of abstract motifs, symbols, words and pictures.
The ceramic mosaics and decorations found throughout the park were mostly the work of
master craftsman Josep Maria Jujol i Gilbert, who assisted on several of Gaudí's projects.
There's a
café
with terrace seats in the park, but to escape the milling crowds you'll need to
climb up into the wooded, landscaped gardens. At the very highest point - follow signs for
“
Turó de les Tres Creus
” - on the spot where Gaudí had planned to place a chapel, three
stone crosses top a stepped tumulus. It's from here that a 360-degree city panorama unfolds
in all its glory.
Centre d'Interpretació
C/d'Olot • Daily: April-Sept 10am-8pm; Oct-March 10am-6pm • Free with park entry • 932 562 122,
At the main entrance on c/d'Olot, Casa del Guarda, the former porter's lodge - and never
can a porter have had more whimsical lodgings - is now the
Centred'Interpretació
, whose
explanatory panels and displays offer a useful introduction to the park's history and design.
Casa Museu Gaudí
InsideParcGüell•Daily:April-Sept10am-8pm;Oct-March10am-6pm•€5.50,combinedticketwithSagrada
Família €18.30 • 932 193 811, •
casamuseugaudi.org
OneofGaudí'scollaborators,FrancescBerenguer,designedandbuiltaturretedhousewithin
the park for the architect, where Gaudí was persuaded to live until he left to camp out at the
Sagrada Família for good. In the
Casa Museu Gaudí
, his ascetic study and bedroom have
beenkeptmuchastheywereinhisday-there'saninklingofhispersonalityinthedisplayed
religious texts and pictures, along with a silver coffee cup and his death mask, made at the
Sant Pau hospital where he died. Other rooms display a diverting collection of furniture he
designed for other projects - a typical mixture of wild originality and brilliant engineering -
as well as plans and objects relating to the park and to Gaudí's life.
