Barcelona...You Soothed My Soul...

Thank you Antoni Gaudi! We never met, but i think we would have been great friends!

Viewing your works as I wandered the streets of Barcelona and seeing even the modern day architecture mirror your style, I can only say thank you for removing the blindfold from my eyes with your colors, shapes, mosaics, and textures (of buildings) and...rekindling my love of art in all it's forms! You brought my creative mind, back to life...
Hotel Inglaterra...bliss in a cultured, chaotic city! Especially loved relaxing by the roof top pool after days of wandering...

Beautiful architecture on even some of the more modern buildings...

Gaudi's Casa Batlló

Gaudi's Casa Milà

Gaudi's La Sagrada Família

For those of you who never studied art or haven't been to Barcelona (or Spain for that matter), Antoni Gaudi I Cornet was a Spanish Catalan Architect who designed in organic methods infused in nature and architectural masterpieces. He is the most well known in the Art Nouveau/Modernism movement and he used mosaics and forms never seen before. His breathtaking architecture shattered traditional concepts by creating curvaceous, colored, twisted and extraordinary imaginary buildings, yet under appreciated during his lifetime.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT GAUDI

As a young man he often missed school and had little interaction with other children because he had rheumatism (pain, stiffness of the joints) that made walking painful.

He was an ascetic vegetarian. He had a diet of lettuce, nuts, chard stalks, and honey spread on bread. His drink was large amounts of water and a small amount of milk and olive oil. It is said that he carried with him dried biscuits, which he would hand out to anyone he befriended.

Was rejected by a girl in his youth and seems to have been alone all his life.

He believed differences in architecture were caused by society and politics.

In one of his house designs he used scrap tile from the house next door for decoration.

He designed furniture.

From 1900 to 1914 he built his largest work in Barcelona, the Parc Güell, which is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The ceramic tile serpentine bench in Parc Güell is said to be the longest in the world.

From 1906 to 1926 he lived inside the English garden house inside Parc Güell. The house is now a museum where artwork of Gaudi is sold to tourists.

From 1906 to 1910 he built the Casa Milà, where he left out straight lines, both inside and out.

Salvador Dalí, also from Barcelona, thought the Casa Batlló designed by Gaudi suggested "the reflections of twilight clouds on the waters of a lake".

Designed many of his arches upside down by hanging various weights on interconnected strings, using gravity to calculate the natural curved arch.

During the last year of his life he lived in his studio at La Sagrada Familia.

Gaudí and Bach worked every day of every week.

La Sagrada Família was initially started in 1877 by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar, it was taken over by Gauid in 1884 at the age of 31. He worked on La Sagrada Familia and other projects simultaneously for thirty years. He was honest with his original plans that it would take 250 years to complete. In 1911, he decided to devote himself exclusively to the church which he did so until his death. At the time of his death, he only finished the chapel of San José, the crypt, one tower, and the door of El Nacimiento. After 80 years of his death construction still continues. There are now six of the eighteen towers complete and now computers and CAD software are helping out. It is estimated that construction will continue for next 100 years. La Sagrada Familia is financed through public donations.

He died on June 10, 1926 by being knocked down by a tram (No. 30) on his way to evening prayer. Mistaken as a beggar because he was unkempt, scruffy, and white-bearded the city police took him to a pauper’s hospital (Holy Cross Hospital of Barcelona). A few days later, found by his friends, he denied them to be moved to a nicer hospital saying, “I belong here among the poor." He died two days later. He is buried in La Sagrada Familia where 10,000 people followed his coffin to the grave.

“Men are divided into two categories: men of words and men of action. The former talk, the latter act. I belong to the second group. I lack the means of expressing myself. I could not tell you about the concept of art. I need to give it a concrete form.” Antoni Gaudi

“Because of this, originality consists in returning to the origin.” Antoni Gaudi