Those who walk from Catalunya Square to the north of the city will not regret it. In Barcelona's most famous boulevard, which was named after the once independent town of Gracia - the town was swallowed up by the construction of the boulevard - there are a number of representative buildings. The competition between the aristocratic elite and the new industrialists at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century as to whose house would be more original gave architects unprecedented freedom. And they used her.
LEGEND TRANSLATED INTO A BUILDING
An example of this is Gaudí's Baljo House. To the left of the Baljo House, close to it is the Amalje House, built before Gaudi's construction. The author is Žosep Puč-i-Kadafalk, a prominent representative of modern architecture. While the neighboring house vacillates between neo-Gothic style and Catalan modernity, Gaudi has no such dilemmas. His work is a lavish example of Gaudí's style.
In fact, Gaudí's house - which he worked on together with two other architects, several sculptors and painters - is the petrified legend of Saint George. San Giordi, as the Catalans call him, is the patron saint of Catalonia. According to tradition, he killed a dragon in Palestine - we would call it a dragon - that was coming out of the lake and devouring children. The entire facade is dedicated to that legend. The cross on the roof is the tip of the spear. The roof is a dragon scale. The cast iron balconies represent the skulls of the victims. The gallery on the first floor is – the dragon's jaw.
Even without knowing this story, which is inscribed in the appearance of the house, the building is unique. In connection with the legend, the Baljo House becomes a unique gem of the world's architectural heritage.
The client was the rich owner of the textile factories Đosep Baljo and Kasanovas. Thanks to Gaudi, his name has been imprinted in the cultural memory of mankind since 1906.
If you continue walking along the boulevard to the north, you will encounter another inevitable encounter - Mila House is so striking that one cannot pass by it without stopping and looking at it. Gaudi built it between 1906 and 1912. It was the first building of the 20th century that UNESCO included in the cultural heritage of humanity in 1986.
According to my first impression, Gaudí, while creating this building, forced the concrete to dance and to stop at one point in that dance. Five floors plus ground floor and attic with wavy lines and iron balconies. They were designed by another representative of Catalan modernism – actually the Catalan version of the international style known as art nouveau or secession. It is Giuseppe Marija Giudjol, an architect with whom Gaudí often collaborated.
What is not visible, and what is important, is the innovative intention of the house. All rooms were given windows - which was not a practice until then. The ventilation system made later cooling devices redundant. Gaudi envisioned elevators that were installed much later. It is one of the first buildings with an underground garage.
Due to its play with lines and concrete facade, the residents of Barcelona jokingly called the building La Pedrera - the quarry.
BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT NEIMAR
Antonio Gaudi was born in the Catalan city of Reus in June 1852. He died in Barcelona on June 10, 1926. During his lifetime, he became the most prominent representative of Catalan modernism, a movement that stimulated the revival of art, architecture, music, and literature.
Fransesk's father was a cooper, just like his grandfather and great-grandfather. Mother Antonija often watched over the sick boy. Some kind of rheumatic disease often tied him to bed. This deprived him of hours of play with other children. What remained for him was the observation of nature - plant and animal forms would become recognizable elements of his work. As a young man, Gaudi, after unrequited love, decided to remain celibate. Celibacy will be his decision for the rest of his life. His bride was architecture. Almost all monographs use his photo when he was twenty-five years old. He gained fame much later.
Neither at the Catholic school nor at the architectural faculty in Barcelona, which he graduated in 1878, he did not stand out too much, except for his drawing skills, in which he was far ahead of his colleagues. It was recorded that the director of the architectural institution that presented him with the diploma, Elias Rođent, said: "Who knows if we gave the diploma to a madman or a genius - only time can tell us that."
Even as a student, Gaudi earned his living as a technical draftsman. He also designed furniture. He drew attention to himself with the design of a display case at the world exhibition in Paris in 1878. After several smaller works for the city administration of Barcelona, fate sent him a patron - Eusebi Gvelj, the magnate of the textile industry at the time, recognized Gaudí's talent.
THE HOUSE OF VISENS
By then, Gaudí already had his first masterpiece in Barcelona itself, the luxurious house of stockbroker Manuel Vicens. It was long thought that he was actually the owner of a pottery factory, but historians have dismissed that claim as incorrect. Anyway, Vicens commissioned a house from Gaudí. That's how it was created Casa Vicens on the adress Carrer de les Carolinas 18–24, in the middle of the Gracija district.
That's our next address. We decided to enter this house. Unlike the mass of tourists in front of Gaudi's other buildings, only a few of the most persistent come here. It is precisely in that first great work, which remained in the shadow of those built later, that everything that made Gaudí famous can already be seen.
Mudaheri - Muslims who remained under Catholic rule after the reconquest - preserved significant building elements from the time of Arab rule in the Catholic parts of Spain. Thus, the synthesis of Arabic and Spanish elements created the Mudahera style - pronounced ornamental elements, distinct color, decorative ceramic tiles.
That style came to life in the 19th-century Neo-Mavarian construction trend, and in the Catalan part of Spain it strongly influenced Gaudi as well.
You can see it at first glance. The house is so different from its surroundings that the typical joyous excitement appears when the eye catches one of Gaudi's works for the first time - for a moment, a building from dreams or from a fairy tale appears.
The yard itself is nicely decorated but small, since the larger part of the yard with Gaudí's monumental fountain was put up for sale in 1946 for new buildings in the neighborhood. After Gaudí's death, part of Vincent's house was added, Gaudí approved the plans during his lifetime.
The house seems much more powerful up close. When you walk under its balconies, you can see that no savings were made here.
In a letter from that time, Gaudi described the house as a small family state, which must be directed towards the greatest possible flow of light and air. Gaudi believed that hygienic conditions enable the healthy development of children in that house, and the artistic design of the home where children are born is a prerequisite for a lordly character.
Already at the entrance, an unusual porch awaits visitors. Behind it is the famous "Smoking Room" in which the Spanish oriental heritage is boldly cited and developed into a recognizable Gaudi room.
Stalactite vaults, floral motifs, ceramic tiles, bold colors - everything that made Gaudi famous is already here.
On several floors, in different rooms, there is an exhibition of models of various European examples of luxurious villas from several eras. However, we are more interested in the original.
It is only when a person enters the sanitary facilities that he understands Gaudi's writings about what can aesthetically influence the formation of character. Going for a swim in a room like this must have something sacred in it. The same can be said about visiting the toilet.
Every room in the house is different. From one room you can see the street, from the second the courtyard, from the third the neighboring building. I try to imagine the time when people really lived here. Did the children from this house become Gaudí's ideal people, lordly, aesthetically refined and healthy individuals?
Only a few years ago, the house was renovated and turned into a museum. This means that these walls preserve the memory of many childhoods.
We climb to the roof. There, the towers at the corners of the house await us, which are a decorative quote from the old oriental watchtowers and loopholes. But they contribute to the original appearance of the house. It stands out, drastically different from the surrounding buildings. Gaudi created a style that could not be converted into a serial standard.
We leave the house with the feeling that we have been walking through a three-dimensional work of art for the previous hour. But the next building we intend to visit – the Sagrada Familia, which is easy to reach from here after a short metro ride – established Gaudi's world fame.
THE BIGGEST CHURCH IN THE WORLD
There have long been plans for the church to be completed by 2026, the hundredth anniversary of Gaudi's death. The pandemic and other troubles at the construction site led to a more cautious assessment. Now he is dealing with the year 2033.
The church was first conceived by the bookseller Đosep Marija Bokabelja. He returned from a trip to Italy and wished that his city would also have a monumental church. In 1866, he founded an association that began to collect money for the church dedicated to the Holy Family. The land was purchased in 1871.
Gaudí took over the construction of the already planned Neo-Gothic cathedral – the previous architect started construction in 1877, but six years later withdrew from the project because he could not come to an agreement with the association. Since 1878, Antonio Gaudi has turned the project into his life's work.
Stylistically, he develops it in a completely different direction. He enriched the church with 18 bell towers, three facades – faith, love, hope – with three more powerful bell towers above them. The largest bell tower will also be the tallest bell tower in the world. But Gaudi designed it so that it would not visually exceed the contours of the surrounding mountains, saying that human works should not appear to be greater than God's.
There is an indescribable crowd on the plateau in front of the church. This is the situation that everyone who has been to Barcelona is warning about. Staring at Gaudi's guideposts to eternity, tourists are often left without worldly goods such as a wallet.
The church is entered from the north side. The ticket is not cheap. Appointments are scheduled in advance online. The north facade was completed during Gaudí's lifetime.
When the great master was asked during his lifetime when the church would be finished, he was able to look to the sky and say: "My client is in no hurry". In his joke there was also the belief that fate had chosen him for this task.
For the last eleven years of his life, Gaudí devoted himself completely to the construction of the church. Although in his youth he had a penchant for elegant dressing and good restaurants, in his last years he resembled a poor hermit or beggar. He wore tattered clothes, his beard was sagging. When a thoughtful man was hit by a tram in Barcelona in June 1926, he had no documents with him. He was taken to a hospital for the poor. His friends barely found him. When he woke up, Gaudí initially refused to be transferred to another hospital. He died after a few days.
I think about his life and death as I walk through the church where he incorporated his total architectural skill. My gaze follows the pillars that branch high up into the vault.
There are many people in the church. The light is refracted through the stained glass windows. Blue, red, green, orange light. The artist Đoan Vila i Grau was born six years after Gaudí's death. But he fulfilled Gaudí's bequest - that the light would help the man in the church to calmly dedicate himself to the other world. The stained glass windows left by Vila i Grau further transform this space into a unique work of art.
It's time to sit in the pews and rest our souls. At that moment, "Ave Maria" starts coming from the speakers. The women's choir adds a magnificent soundscape to the whole scene. When the music stopped, I felt that those perfect moments were somehow given to us by a man who died almost a century ago.
Today's experts believe that Gaudi was a mathematical genius. Everything that looks decorative is actually functional. He called nature his great teacher. There is also something of the loneliness of that sickly boy who cannot play with the children, so he watches the birds and plants.
We leave the unfinished cathedral impressed. This temple is more complex, aesthetically original and monumental than anything we have seen up to that point.
In fact, in a world bent on worldly profit, it is a miracle that people still build temples. Admittedly, Gaudi's temple is extremely lucrative for Barcelona. Five million people visit it annually.
We still have to climb the hill where Park Gvelj is located. Gaudi lived there. Both the fence and the buildings within the urbanized zone of the park exude Gaudi's unique handwriting. However, they only accept a certain number of people in the park. That day the contingent was exhausted. Nevermind, we'll be back another time. But from that hill you can see Barcelona, all the way down to the sea. A city that would not be what it is if Antonio Gaudi had not given it his non-architectural soul.
Bonus video:
