Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ever wondered why none of Gaudí's door frames are straight, or what trees, ferns and snails
have to do with architecture, the centre is undoubtedly the place to find out.
Casa Navàs
Pl. del Mercadal 5 • Tours every Sat morning, check with Oficina de Turisme; reservations required • €10, un-
der-7s free, includes Gaudí Centre
Antoni Gaudí may never have built in Reus, but his contemporary, Lluís Domènech i
Montaner did. His magnificently decorated
Casa Navàs
(1901), across Plaça del Mercadal
from the Gaudí Centre, is considered Reus's finest townhouse - it's still privately owned, but
is open for pre-booked tours of the virtually intact period interior, which you shuffle around
in overshoes to protect the floor.
Sant Pere and around
Pl. de Sant Pere • Daily 10.30am-1pm & 4-8pm • Free
Reus's main church is that of the city's patron saint,
Sant Pere
, a couple of minutes' walk
from the Gaudí Centre. This is where Gaudí was baptized (there's a plaque by the baptis-
mal chapel, to the left of the main entrance) and the church also boasts the heart of Reus's
number-two son,
modernista
artist Marià Fortuny i Marsal (the plaque here reads “he gave
his soul to heaven, his fame to the world, and his heart to his country”). Behind the church is
an arcaded square with cafés,
PlaçadelesPeixateries Velles
, that was once the fish market,
while
Plaça del Mercadal
itself used to be the site of the general market - the numbers you
can see etched in the square's paving indicated the position of the stalls.
Gaudí's birthplace
C/de Sant Vicenç 4
You might as well divert the few minutes from the commercial centre to see
Gaudí's birth-
place
. The house is not original, but a plaque marks the site while, just down the street, out-
side a school, is a rather touching sculpture of the young Gaudí playing marbles.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: REUS
By air
Ryanair arrivals at Reus airport, 3km outside town, can catch
connecting buses
direct
to Barcelona, while local bus #50 runs hourly into town, via the train station.
By train
There are hourly Renfe services (
renfe.com
) to Reus (via Tarragona) from Pg.
de Gràcia and Barcelona Sants, and the journey takes 1hr 40min. It's 15min from the train
station into the centre (walk down Pg. Sunyer, turn left at Pl. de les Oques and follow c/Sant
Joan to Pl. del Prim), or there are taxis outside the station.
INFORMATION
Oficina de Turisme
Pl. del Mercadal, inside the Gaudí Centre (mid-June to mid-Sept
Mon-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun & hols 11am-2pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon-Sat 10am-2pm &
