Gaudi house museum in Park Guell Popular
Address
Olot, 7, Barcelona, 08024
Nearest Metro
Vallcarca L3
City District
Gracia: Vallcarca
Tags
Gaudi's home in Park Guell was originally constructed as a showcase house for future buyers of land plots in the residential housing estate Park Guell. Park Guell was planned as a garden city residential development project with room for sixty houses. When it was built Park Guell was on the outer limits of the city.
In the late 19th century, Catalan industrialist Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi (1846-1918) wanted to create a private residential development, which he called Park Güell. He commissioned Antoni Gaudí to lead the project and work began in 1900. The Park Guell development was located on a plot of rural land Eusebi Güell had acquired in 1899 on the hill above the city.
The land was called Can Muntaner de Dalt and was in the La Salut neighbourhood of Gràcia. In 1902, Güell also bought the adjoining estate, called Can Coll i Pujol. The Park Guell concept of selling land plots in Park Guell for buyers to build their own houses was a failure. Only two of the sixty homes planned were ever built. Work stopped in 1914 and the development was never completed. The only people who eventually lived in the park area, were the owner Count Eusebi Güell who lived in the original house that came with the land, Gaudi himself who lived in the showcase home, and Guells lawyer, who built his own home, making a total of only three houses.
The park area later became a public park called Park Guell. Gaudi moved to Park Guell because the owner of the project and the park, Eusebi Güell, suggested that Gaudi move into the original showcase house, after it became clear that no-one was interested in buying plots of land for more houses in Park Guell. So Gaudi bought the exhibition house and moved in with his father and his niece. Gaudi's father died shorty after the Gaudi family took residence and Gaudi's niece lived there with Gaudi for a further six years. After his niece passed away Gaudi lived alone. In total Gaudi lived in the Park Guell house from 1906 until 1925. After 1925 he moved into his studio at the Sagrada Famila where he spent the final years of his life. This move into the Sagrada Familia allowed him to be closer to his work on his lifelong creation of the Sagrada Familia temple.
The Gaudi house museum in Park Guell today contains a collection of furniture designed by Gaudi including his original work desk. His bedroom remains largely as it was when he lived there. Gaudi's death mask is also on display. Since 1992, the Junta Constructora del Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família Foundation has also managed the Gaudí House Museum.
The Gaudi house museum is closed from January 2024 for renovation.
Pictures Gaudi museum
Pictures Park Guell
How to get to Park Guell