Park Güell

Park Güell
The two buildings at the entrance of the park
Location	Barcelona, Spain
Coordinates	41°24′49″N 2°09′10″E
Established	1914
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Part of	Works of Antoni Gaudí
Criteria	Cultural: (i), (ii), (iv)
Reference	320-001
Inscription	1984 (8th Session)
Extensions	2005
Spanish Cultural Heritage
Type	Non-movable
Criteria	Monument
Designated	24 July 1969
Reference no.	RI-51-0003818

Park Güell (Catalan: Parc Güell [ˈpaɾɡ ˈɡweʎ]; Spanish: Parque Güell) is a complex of Parks and gardens of Barcelona and architectural elements located in the La Salut neighborhood of the Gràcia district in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on the southern slope of the Turó del Carmel hill, part of the Collserola mountain range, it overlooks the city. The separate Parc del Carmel is on the northern side of the same hill.

In the context of Barcelona's late 19th and early 20th-century urban expansion, Catalan industrialist and art patron Eusebi Güell commissioned architect Antoni Gaudí, a leading figure of the aesthetic movement in Catalan modernism, to design a park.

Construction took place between 1900 and 1914, and the park officially opened to the public in 1926. In 1984, UNESCO designated the park a World Heritage Site, recognizing it as part of the "Works of Antoni Gaudí" collection.

Description

Park Güell reflects Gaudí's distinct artistic sensibilities, influences, and visual language, while also capturing a specific phase in his artistic development. It is associated with his naturalist period in the first decade of the 20th century. During this time, Gaudí's study of nature and organic forms increasingly influenced his creative approach, leading him to introduce new structural solutions based on geometric analysis.

Gaudí expanded upon these geometric forms to develop his characteristically imaginative and ornamental style. Rooted in Baroque, his works feature a structural richness of forms and volumes, free from the rational rigidity of classical conventions. In Park Güell, Gaudí applied these structural innovations, for example, in the curving and undulating park benches. He further developed this characteristic style in the monumental Sagrada Família.

Güell and Gaudí initially conceived the site not as a public park but as a private community of luxurious homes equipped with modern amenities, intended to meet residents' needs both artistically and physically. They envisioned a community strongly influenced by symbolism. The park's common spaces—stairways, plazas, terraces, and gardens—are designed to physically express the political and religious ideals of both patron and architect. For instance, there are noticeable concepts originating from political Catalanism, especially on the entrance stairway where the Catalan countries are represented, and Catholicism in the Monumento al Calvario, originally planned as a chapel. In addition to Gaudí's reinterpretation of classical architectural elements such as columns, colonnades, and porticos, Park Güell also includes numerous references to Greek mythology.

Origins as a housing development

The Gaudí House Museum

The park was originally part of a failed housing development project initiated by Count Eusebi Güell. Influenced by the English garden city movement, the development's name incorporated the English term "Park" (Catalan: Parc Güell, Spanish: Parque Güell). The chosen site was a rocky hill with sparse vegetation known as Muntanya Pelada (Bare Mountain), which already contained a large country house called Larrard House or Muntaner de Dalt House. The area bordered an upper-class neighborhood, La Salut ("The Health"). Güell aimed to capitalize on the site's fresh air and scenic views, positioning it as an attractive location away from industrial pollution. The initial plan proposed dividing the land into sixty triangular lots for luxury housing. In 1906, Güell moved into Larrard House, reportedly to promote the development. However, only two houses were ultimately built, neither designed by Antoni Gaudí.

One house was built as a display home and put up for sale in 1904. As no buyers emerged, Güell suggested Gaudí purchase it with his own savings. Gaudí agreed and moved in with his family and father in 1906. This house, where Gaudí lived from 1906 until his death in 1926, was built in 1904 by Francesc Berenguer, a modernist architect and Gaudí's associate. It contains original works by Gaudí and several collaborators. Since 1963, it has been open to the public as the Gaudí House Museum (Catalan: Casa Museu Gaudí). In 1969, it was declared a historical artistic monument of national interest.

Municipal garden

Gaudí's multicolored mosaic salamander, popularly known as El Drac (English: the dragon), facing the main entrance following its restoration due to a vandalism incident in February 2007

Gaudí's mosaic work on the main terrace

Park Güell has since been converted into a municipal garden. It is accessible by the metro, though the closest stations (Vallcarca and Lesseps) are some distance from the site at the base of Turó de Carmel. City buses and commercial tourist buses also serve the park. In October 2013, an entrance fee was introduced for the Monumental Zone (main entrance, terrace, viaducts, and areas with mosaics), though Barcelona citizens can enter free of charge. Limited tickets are available and often sell out in advance. La Torre Rosa, Gaudí's home converted into a museum featuring furniture he designed, requires a separate entrance fee, though a reduced rate is available for visitors also seeing the Sagrada Família Church.

The entrance is flanked by two gatehouses designed by Gaudí, forming the Porter's Lodge pavilion. One building contains a small room with a telephone booth. The other, formerly the porter's house, now houses a permanent exhibition of the Barcelona City History Museum (Catalan: Museu d'Història de Barcelona)..

The park's focal point is the main terrace, enclosed by a long bench shaped like a sea serpent. The curves of the serpent bench form enclaves designed to encourage social interaction. The design of the benches was the work of Gaudí's collaborator, often overlooked, Josep Maria Jujol.

Another prominent feature throughout the park is the series of elevated pathways, originally intended to service the houses. Designed by Gaudí, they jut out from the steep hillside or rest on Viaducts, often serving as roofs for lower footpaths within arcades. To minimize their visual intrusion, Gaudí constructed them using local stone, making them appear as an extension of the landscape. Echoing natural forms, the columns and branching vaults supporting the roadways were carved to resemble tree trunks. Similar to his earlier work at the Church of Colònia Güell, Gaudí used curved vaulting and the alignment of sloping columns to create inverted catenary arch shapes, functioning as ideal compression structures.

At the park's highest point is a stone hill with steps leading to a platform topped by three large crosses. This calvary is officially named "El Turó de les Tres Creus." Two crosses point north–south and east–west, while the third and tallest points skyward. From here, visitors have a panoramic view of the main city, including the Sagrada Família, Agbar Tower, and the Montjuïc area in the distance.

Park Güell supports a variety of wildlife, notably several of Barcelona's non-native parrot species and sightings of the short-toed eagle. The park also hosts a population of hummingbird hawk moths.

Gallery of images

• 
  View from the main terrace of the park.
• 
  Entrance to the Park.
• 
  Doric columns support the roof of the lower court which forms the central terrace, with serpentine seating round its edge.
• 
  The unique shape of the serpentine bench enables the people sitting on it to converse privately, although the square is large. The bench is tiled and to dry up quickly after it rains, and to stop people from sitting in the wet part of the bench, small bumps were installed by Gaudí.
• 
  Bird nests built by Gaudí in the terrace walls. The walls imitate the trees planted on them.
• 
  An uninterrupted view of the terrace walls.
• 
  Roadway in the Park - resembles the pine trees of the park. To fit in, the road and walkway structures between the terraces were built with stones quarried within the park. Bird nests have been installed in the walkways.
• 
  One of the three viaducts located within the park. Originally created by Antoni Gaudí to allow carriages to easily facilitate the transportation of visitors from the park's entrance to the "Turó de Tres Creus" which can be found on the top of the mountain, these viaducts continue to allow guests to travel throughout the park.
• 
  Colonnaded footpath under the roadway viaduct, with external columns sloping to take the diagonal thrust from the vault supporting the road.
• 
  Colonnaded pathway where the road projects out from the hillside, with the vaulting forming a retaining wall which curves over to support the road, and transmits the load onto sloping columns.
• 
  Another of Gaudí's Tiled Mosaics on the ceiling.
• 
  One of Gaudí's unique tiles in Park Güell
• 
  Ceiling Mosaic in the Hypostyle Room, Park Güell, Barcelona
• 
  The Porter's Lodge pavilion at the park's entrance. The roof is made up of trencadís tiles.
• 
  Third fountain at the entrance with the dragon
• 
  Casa Martí Trias i Domènech
• 
  Panoramic view of the entrance to the Park Güell. Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
• 
  A musician playing among columns of Sala Hipóstila, Park Güell (UNESCO World Heritage Site), hill of El Carmel, Gràcia (district), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

See also

• List of Gaudí buildings
• List of Modernisme buildings in Barcelona
• Urban planning of Barcelona
• Parks and gardens of Barcelona

External links

• Works of Antoni Gaudí UNESCO Collection on Google Arts and Culture
• Park Güell Official Website