The grandeur and splendor of Barcelona's Park Guell is simply breathtaking. However, a little over a century ago, this territory was built up for completely different purposes.
In 1860, the city walls were torn down and the city of Barcelona entered a period of rapid industrial and cultural growth. In the second half of the 19th century, Barcelona was constantly expanding, encompassing not only the bourgeoisie in the central part of the city, but also the poor in the former industrial suburbs. This rapidly developing city required a new language of cultural expression, which contributed to the popularity of Catalan modernism and the flourishing of Antoni Gaudí's work.
The deputy and senator of the legislative assembly of the province of Catalonia, Eusebi Guell, drew attention to the young brilliant architect Gaudí back in 1878, and since then they have been bound by a real friendship. In 1901, Güell commissioned Gaudí to design not a city park, but a real residential garden city intended exclusively for the richest people in Barcelona. The village was named Park Güell. It is noteworthy that in the Catalan language the word "Park" is spelled as "Parc", but Guell took the idea of an elite residential area from Britain, so the park got its English name.
For the implementation of the project, 15 hectares of land were purchased. The geographical position of the village seemed ideal: from the heights of the mountain on which the construction was carried out, there was a view of the entire majestic Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea, and the constant light breeze walking along the top of the mountain allowed to endure the Spanish heat. The terrain was very relief, so the project planned to use multiple stairs, footpaths and viaducts. But the plans of Guell and Gaudí went far beyond solving practical problems: they dreamed not only about the comfort of future elite houses, but also about the fusion of architecture with nature and God. The religious symbolism of the Park Guell is studied to this day.
The transport network at the beginning of the 20th century was still underdeveloped, no one wanted to move to a village so far from the center of Barcelona, and the very idea of an elite residential community was not sufficiently appreciated by contemporaries. Of the 62 plots offered for sale, only two were sold. One house was bought by the lawyer M. Trias-i-Domenech, a friend of Gaudí. The second house was bought by Gaudi himself, where he lived even after the closure of the project, until 1925. The third house was built as a model for future buyers, but was redesigned by Guell in 1910 as his own residence.
The lack of buyers led to the impossibility of implementing the conceived project. In 1914, Guell decided to stop construction. In 1918, Eusebi Güell died, and his heirs, who were unable to maintain the park on their own, offered the park to the Barcelona government, which took over it in 1922. After just four years, Park Güell was opened to visitors as a city park. Park Güell is included in the UNESCO list of cultural heritage sites of mankind. In October 2013, the entrance to the municipal part of the park became paid.
All three houses built in Par Güell have survived to this day. The house of the Trias y Domenech still belongs to his family, the house of Guell was converted into an urban school, and the house of Gaudí is open to visitors as a museum.
