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Antonio Gaudí came to Barcelona to study architecture and soon began to work for the leading architects of his era. Although highly regarded by fellow professionals during his lifetime, his work would not come to be universally appreciated for decades.Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was born on June 25th, 1852, in the region of El Baix Camp (Tarragona). There is still some debate as to whether he was born in the town of Riudoms or the city of Reus, although the evidence would seem to point to the latter.
Gaudí's work formed a part of the Catalan Art Nouveau movement known as Modernism. However, the architect stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the originality of his ideas and his capacity to create new trends and formulas.
Born into a family of coppersmiths, Gaudí moved to Barcelona to study architecture and earned his degree in 1878. He worked at the firms of several renowned architects of his time, such as Josep Fonseré, before setting up a studio of his own.
In 1883, he was tapped to build the Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family, better known today as the Sagrada Familia Church. The project would continue for the rest of his life and is considered to be his most important architectural feat, despite remaining unfinished. In the initial years, he oversaw the construction of the cathedral’s crypt (1883-1891) and apse (1891-1893), while also working on other secular projects, such as the "El Capricho" Villa in Comillas (Santander) or Casa Vicens in Barcelona's Gràcia district.
Then Gaudí met Eusebi Güell, who would become his largest patron. Count Güell first commissioned a series of pavilions for his estate in the elegant Pedralbes district and a palace on Carrer Nou de la Rambla (1886-1891), where Gaudí introduced several new architectural elements, such as his hallmark parabolic arch. He later worked on the Colegio de las Teresianas Catholic girls’ school on Carrer de Ganduxer and the episcopal palace in Astorga, which he never completed as a result of the death of his patron, Bishop Juan Bautista Grau Vallespinós.
Several staples of Gaudí’s unique style were already apparent in his early work, from his Gothic revivalism and attraction to curved, dynamic shapes to his application to architecture of diverse decorative arts techniques (stained glass, wrought iron, furniture designed by the architect himself) or his singular use of trencadís, mosaics made from brightly colored shards of ceramic.
In 1891, he undertook the façade of the Sagrada Familia cathedral, entitled "Birth of the Holy Family". Only one of the façade’s four towers had been completed by the time of his death. It would later serve as a model for the forest of towers the church was one day intended to become.
Shortly after 1892, the Fernández and Andrés families commissioned a home in León, known as Casa de los Botines. In the same period, Gaudí drafted plans for a mission in Tangiers, which was never built. His most important commissioned works were apartment buildings, such as Casa Calvet, Casa Batlló and Casa Milà, better known as
La Pedrera, or "the quarry".
Güell commissioned two large-scale projects: a workers’ colony in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, of which only the church was completed, and a garden-city that still stands today, Parc Güell.
By the time Gaudí was killed by a tram in 1926, he was widely acclaimed by his professional contemporaries in Spain and abroad. However, his singular creative and innovative genius would not be universally appreciated for decades to come. Today, he is renowned the world over, and his work is among the most admired of all times in the field of architecture.
Works in Barcelona:
Palau Güell (Güell Palace)
The streetlights in Plaça Reial
Casa Calvet
Casa Batlló
Casa Milà (
La Pedrera)
Sagrada Familia
Parc Güell
Gaudí Home-Museum
Bellesguard
Casa Vicens
Colegio de las Teresianas
Güell estate pavilions
Gate to the Miralles estate
Mosaic at the Church of Sant Pacià
Works outside Barcelona:
Crypt (Santa Coloma de Cervelló)
Montserrat MonasteryChapel of the Colegio Jesús y María school (Tarragona)
Güell Wine Cellars (El Garraf)
Standard (Sant Feliu de Codines)
Mataró Workers' Cooperative
Alella blueprint
Artigas Gardens (Pobla Lillet)
Palma Cathedral renovation work
Villa "El Capricho", in Comillas
Casa Botines in León
Episcopal palace in Astorga
Imprint (Reus and Riudoms)