Gaudi's pointy-things church, meat pie apartments, and other architectural shenanigans
Written: Oct 29 '00 (Updated Apr 22 '03)
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Pros: He wasn't afraid to leave a slime trail on a building or two
Cons: After you go see it, you yawn at Notre Dame
The Bottom Line: Gaudi 's cool, wacked-out buildings in Barcelona make the rest of the world look like a buncha cereal boxes.
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| Teardrop...'s Full Review: Barcelona |
Review Topic: Sights & AttractionsImagine if your architecture school professors and peers tried to brainwash you with ideas like “pointy arches are superior to all other types of arches,” “tall buildings need flying buttresses,” and “gargoyles are necessary to scare away evil spirits.” You’d say, uh sure, whatever, and kick all their @sses as soon as you got that diploma, now wouldn’t you? Well, this little Spanish guy, Gaudi, did just that.
Although not actually born in the city, Gaudi spent most of his life in Barcelona (including 16 years living in one of his unfinished buildings) and contributed greatly to its character, building unusually creative structures that make Notre Dame look like a cereal box. A cathedral with cement snail “slime trails”, a house designed in the “playdough + confetti” architectural style and an block of flats sometimes called “the meat pie” make up this guy’s repertoire. My god, I spelled repertoire right on the first try!
Sure, Antoni Gaudi was a bit of a slacker in architecture school and his first few gigs amounted to a urinal and a street lamp, but he was immensely talented and his destiny for things greater was soon discovered by super-rich guy Eusebi Güell. Gaudi’s new found friend quickly lavished him with design projects like a grand hunting pavilion, a summer house, a city palace, a big park, and the ever popular church, bestowing upon the works names like “The Finca Güell Pavilions,” “Güell Summer House,” “Güell Palace,” “Güell Park,” and “Güell Colony Church.” He was Gaudi’s main patron and defender, never shying away from Gaudi’s architectural fashion risk-taking but in fact embracing it, as long as he got to name the buildings after himself.
Thanks to Güell’s high-profile assignments, Gaudi became famous enough to be asked to build the Sagrada Familia Temple, also known as that big church in Barcelona with the pointy things, a mere five years out of architecture school. But hey, don’t go to Barcelona, traipse in and out of the temple and think you’ve seen it all. There’s more architectural high-jinx to discover on…
…your Gaudied tour of Barcelona:
Casa Vincens
(1878-1885)
Carrer de les Carolines 18-24
This, a brick-n-tile Barbie Dreamhouse for brick-n-tile maker Manuel Vicens, was Gaudi’s first grand project (unless you count the urinal). Some claim there to be inspiration from Mudejar art, but they’re probably just making that up.
Finca Güell Pavilions
(1884-1887)
Av. de Pedralbes 77
Inspired by junk yards of the rich, Gaudi constructed a snaring, spiky, winged, wrought iron dragon, draped with chains and springs, to exhale threateningly at visitors to the Güell Estate from its perch atop the main entrance gate. Unfortunately, visitors don’t even notice the actual pavilions, with their well-though out natural lighting, functional use of space, and stylistic unity. I mean, that’s kinda boring compared to a dragon.
Güell Palace
(1885-1890)
Carrer Nou de la Rambla 3-5
M-F 10-14 and 16-19:30
Crazy ceilings, 127 columns, boo-koo (that’s Cajun French!) fancy rooms for the Güell family’s soirees, tile-covered chimneys on the roof, and two big ol’ parabolic arches at the entrance. Gaudi got lots-o media attention after building this because hey, you just don’t build crazy ceilings, weird chimneys, and parabolic arches in this town and not get noticed! Rumors of a Moorish influence abound. Americans like me don’t know what Moors are, though, so let’s not delve into that.
Placa Reial Street Lamps
(1878-1879)
Placa Reial
In case you have nothing else to do after visiting the Güell Palace, walk back to Les Rambles, continue up the promenade but veer right onto Carrer de Colom and voila, you’ll see the street lamps that preceded the urinals. Exciting!
St. Teresa of Avila College
(1888-1889)
Carrer Ganduxer 95-105
Austere yet beautiful, Gaudi built this brick college on a shoestring budget for a buncha religious types. The coolest thing is the first floor passage, whose slinky-like succession of parabolic arches ooze that “convent” feeling. What you may find quite irrelevant is the fact that Gaudi was sportin’ a bald head when he started building this!
Casa Calvet
(1898-1900)
Contains a restaurant - ooh!
Carrer de Casp 48
Either as a joke or because he was tired of being hip, Gaudi built this typical middle class house in a toned down baroque style for a widow who wasn’t trying to hear about any newfangled architectural ideas. This, his most run-of-the-mill building, earned Gaudi his sole architectural prize, “Best Building in Barcelona 1900!”
Parc Güell
(1900-1914)
Carrer d'Olot
Barcelona Municipal Park
10am-8pm S-S
Don’t lick the pavilions! Although their stone walls bear an uncanny resemblance to gingerbread and their roofs to sprinkle-covered icing, the pavilions in Parc Güell do not taste good! If you realize this too late, you’d better go next to “The Dragon of Park Güell,” to clean your palate with the fresh water drooling down the dragon chin. The massive, colorful, and - yes - tile-covered serpent straddles over and spits water into one of the park’s hidden fountains. When you’re done, climb on top of the nearby Hipostila Room (big thing with columns), sit on the super-long, super-wavy, super-tile-covered bench and wipe your mouth on your sleeve. To impress person beside you, comment on how unusual an “undulating bench” is. After that, challenge said neighbor to see who can be the first to successfully hurl a pebble onto the roof of Gaudi’s old house, which is also in the park. The loser has to lick a pavilion.
Casa Batllo
(1904-1906)
Passeig de Gracia 43
A more “futuristic” gingerbread house made from white playdough, dropped in confetti and then squeezed between some normal buildings. Influences from the cake decorating industry can be seen in the roof design. If you want to look inside, you’ll have to bring a bag of Avon because it’s a private residence.
Casa Mila
(1906-1910)
Passeig de Gràcia 92
Guided tours Tues-sat 10, 12 and 1pm
Not a single straight wall in this apartment building. The public was skeptical when it was finished, bestowing nicknames upon it like “Empanada,” which means “Meat Pie,” but more often “La Pedrera,” or “The Quarry.” I like meat pie better. In the summer, flamenco concerts are held on the roof at night, where dancers stomp all over with looks of angst on their faces while visitors drink and stare at the rows of chimneys, which look like stormtrooper heads (not all, some of them look like ice cream).
Sagrada Familia Temple
(1883-1926)
Carrer de Mallorca 401
Apr-Aug 9am-8pm S-S, Oct-Mar 9am-6pm S-S
This, the church that sticks out of the Barcelonian landscape like a jester hat, is worthy of most of a day for aimless roaming. Highlights include drippy Nativity façade, lollipop-topped bell towers that you can climb inside, and snails leaving cement slime trails on sides of building.
Started in the Neo-gothic style by architect Francisco de Paula del Villar, plans for the church were given to Gaudi after Francisco left in a huff due to disagreements. With nothing finished except the crypt, Gaudi began the cathedral’s transformation with conservative changes to the apse. Sure, it may look like a respectable Neo-gothic apse (i.e., pointy arches, rose-shaped windows, general laciness) to the untrained eye, but the trained eye will see that someone has topped the apse’s high, pointy pinnacles with vegetable shapes! (cue to put fists on hips and sigh, “Gaudi!”)
The Nativity façade was next. It looks like a religious relic pulled out of the sea after 100 years of collecting dense, putty-colored seaweed (one of the rarer species of seaweed). Under the seaweed is normal blue stained glass, but above is a big, green, bird-covered tree. Sure, everyone’s doing that nowadays, but Gaudi was the first!
From behind this façade rise four bell towers, severely spiky structures on your average cathedral, but Gaudi curved them to look like tall cola bottles. Then he poked holes all around and topped them with friendly, white styrofoam-looking balls stuck on fat lollipop crosses and wrote fun things such as “Hosanna” and “Excelsis” below in chunky letters. He was just trying to make church fun!
In the end, Gaudi discarded all instances of the oh-so-popular flying buttress, scary gargoyles, and pointy arches and replaced them with softly leaning pillars, friendly and small non-vertebrae and sexy-yet-strong parabolic arches. What began as your typical European cathedral now dumbfounded architectural know-it-alls, who soon dubbed the Sagrada Familia “Art Nouveau.”
After spending 43 years working on and 16 years sleeping in the church, and with only the veggie apse, a drippy Nativity façade and one bottle-like, hole-riddled, lollipop-topped bell tower completed, Gaudi was run over by a tram in June 1926 and died shortly thereafter. Today, the Sagrada Familia’s construction continues, following his plans, more or less (“Ok, no more cement trees - Agreed?”). But with only seven of the ten bell towers completed, and the whole thing funded by donations, the construction may last a long, long time.
So definitely visit this man’s unusual works during your visit to Barcelona, and throw a few thousand pesetas in the bucket at the Sagrada Familia (along with your empty Evian bottles). You can walk away with the knowledge that perhaps someday your great-great-great grandchildren will be able to see this amazing structure completed, while you and great-great-great grandma/grandpa reminisce over your Sagrada-Familia-with-crane pictures.
Gaudi's abandoned projects
1. Mysteries of the Glory for the Monastery of Montserrat (1900) butted heads over the idea for the figure of Christ;
2. Restoration of the Majorca Cathedral (1903-1914) the Cathedral Chapter was shocked by the vanguard style being used,
3. Episcopal Palace of Astorga (1887-1893) again, creative differences,
4. Güell Colony Church (1895-1915) stopped to let the construction of Familia Sagria thoroughly dominate life
Many thanks to elloraine for organizing the “Favorite International City” write-off. Other participants:
elorraine jo.com ptiemann coldsteel7 ifif1938 VeeZee bluehawq nollequeen pianomam doglover ed_grover jpmcgurk augustwind ritalee76 bigtrouble54 shan1 murasaki sheann26 diverpam Joubert _Cassandra_ Chinook Howard_Creech samadust Stephen_Murray nightridrr2000 Jiahong
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Christine L
Location: Detroit, MI
Reviews written: 10
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Hail from New Orleans, live in Detroit, still have a German driver's license.
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