Palau Güell: Gaudí's First Palace
Why is it significant?
Stand across the narrow street and take in this grey stone face, as solemn as a bank, broken by two great parabolic arches closed with wrought iron. Between them, an iron sculpture of the Catalan coat of arms, topped by a helmet and a winged creature.
Key Facts
| Place | Palau Güell: Gaudí's First Palace |
|---|---|
| Address | Carrer Nou de la Rambla 3-5, 08001 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.37880, 2.17420 |
| Part of Walk | La Rambla and El Raval: Barcelona's River of Sand, Opera Bombs and Gaudí's Last Days |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand across the narrow street and take in this grey stone face, as solemn as a bank, broken by two great parabolic arches closed with wrought iron. Between them, an iron sculpture of the Catalan coat of arms, topped by a helmet and a winged creature. This is the Palau Güell, and it is far stranger than it first appears.
In the 1880s, the industrialist Eusebi Güell asked a young architect in his thirties to build him a town palace next to his family's house. The architect was Antoni Gaudí, and this, built between 1886 and 1890, was his first great commission for the man who would become his lifelong patron. Look at the gates closely: the iron spells out the initials E and G. Carriages drove straight in under these arches, and horses went down a spiral ramp to stables in the basement.
Inside, Gaudí built a theatre of power. The central hall rises through several floors to a dome pierced with small holes, so that daylight falls in like stars in a night sky. The family held concerts here, with an organ, and a little chapel could be opened up behind folding doors for Mass. On the roof, out of sight from the street, a forest of chimneys covered in broken tile, the trencadís, shows the first sparks of the Gaudí the world knows today.
Now notice where Güell chose to build: Carrer Nou de la Rambla, on the edge of El Raval, which was already a district of workshops, taverns and poverty. Rich families were moving uptown to the new Eixample, and Güell went the other way. During the Civil War the building was requisitioned, and after the war the family handed it over to the provincial government, which still owns it.
Gaudí's works were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1984, and this palace was among the first of them. Not bad for a building that, from outside, hardly smiles. Now keep walking west along Carrer Nou de la Rambla, deeper into El Raval, then take a side street to the right up to Carrer de Sant Pau. Follow it west until a wide, palm-lined boulevard opens to your right, and walk up it. Look out for a very large cat.