Gaudi Works - Part Two
Casa Vicens
This project was the first work of Antoni Gaudi. He started with the construction works in 1883, commissioned by the industrial Manuel Vicens Montaner. This is a private residence until today and the interior can not be visited.
Casa Vicens became one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
The facade follows a Moorish-like style, especially the upper part, with colored ceramic tiles forming checkerboard and floral patterns. You will discover how rough red bricks, with the imagination of the master, can impress your sense of aesthetic.
Like in most of the works of the architect, the ventilation system and the chimneys are nicely decorated with the same ceramic tiles used in the facade.
In 1899, the property changed to the Jover family, the actual owners of this wonderful house. Since 2007, Casa Vicens is for sale. If you have thirty million Euros, it is yours!
Visit Casa Vicens and appreciate its beauty (Remember, interior visits are not possible)
Casa Calvet
This is, perhaps, the most simple and basic work managed by Antoni Gaudi, compared with his other projects. The master undertook the construction of the house in 1898, commissioned by the textile manufacturer Pere Calvet. It was designed for commercial purposes, as well as for residence. It was finished in 1900.
If you visit this house after you have seen some other works of the architect, you will probably not believe that he was the designer. There is such an order and symmetry on the facade, which confuse everyone. But if you look at the upper part, you will soon see the touch of the master.
The columns at the entrance resemble the form of stacked bobbins. The three sculpted heads at the top represent Saint Peter the martyr, the patron of Pere Calvet, Saint Genesius of Arles and Saint Genesius of Rome, patrons of Vilassar, where Calvet came from. The furniture were also designed by Gaudi.
Visit Casa Vicens to see a little different style of the master
Colonia Guell - Gaudi Crypt
The factory of Eusebi Guell was located in Santa Coloma de Cervello, at few Kilometers from Barcelona. The Colonia was a small workers´ village which was built in 1882 by the assistants of the master, Francesc Berenguer and Joan Rubio.
Guell wanted to build a church for his workers and commissioned Gaudi for the project in 1898. But because of the characteristic of the terrain where the church had to be built, the master spent 10 years before the construction begun, in 1908.
And here came the genius again... He made a 3D design at that time, without the help of any CAD-CAM software!
How? With ropes and small sacks of pellets. He sketched the outline of the church on a wooden board, at a scale 1:10. This board was placed at the ceiling of a house near the work place. He hung ropes at every place which corresponded to a column. Small sacks filled with pellets, weighing proportional to the weight the arches had to support, were hung from each arch formed by the ropes.
He took pictures from various angles, in order to evaluate the unevenness of the terrain. He inverted the pictures and simply got the exact structure of the church. Wonderful!
Because of the death of Guell, the works were stopped. But the Crypt remain as a jewel to be admired and it is among the most important Barcelona Attractions. Colonia Guell became one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
Visit the Crypt and see another masterpiece of Gaudi
Astorga Palace
Courtesy by Ignacio Cobos Rey
This colossal building is not in Barcelona. It is located in the city of Astorga, in the autonomous region of Castilla-Leon. The Bishop Grau, who was already a friend of Gaudi, commissioned him in 1887 for the construction of a new episcopal building near the cathedral.
But at that time, the architect was working in the Guell Palace and did not have time to travel to Astorga to check the area of construction. He asked Grau to send him pictures and any relevant information of the place and environment, in order to prepare the project.
After some modifications, the plans were approved in 1889, when the first stone was placed. It was finished in 1893. The architect hired Catalan workers that knew how he wanted the construction to be, since he had to be most of the time in Barcelona.
Teresian College
This is also a building, like the Sagrada Familia, where Gaudi assumed to finish the construction of a work in progress, which was initiated in 1888.
Nobody knows who was the architect who begun with the works, neither the reasons Gaudi was commissioned in 1889 to finish the building.
In this particular case, even though the money for the project was limited, the master applied his genius and constructed a very functional building in a record time. It was finished in 1890.
Finca Guell (Guell Estate)
Gaudi was commissioned by Eusebi Guell in 1884 to undertake several projects on his estate, which is located in the University area (Zona Universitaria).
There are two entrances. One for pedestrians, with a parabolic arch, and the other for the horse drawn carriages. Between both, there is a big forged-iron gate with a chained dragon, designed by the master. On the support side of the gate, a nice decorated column with a big “G” of Guell, can be seen.
The walls and roofs decoration of the buildings are made in ceramic pieces with geometric designs. There are plenty of details to appreciate in this work.
After the death of Count Guell, part of the property was ceded to the Royal House. In 1969, the pavilions were declared National Historical-Cultural Monument. From 1984, the garden are used for courses of Gardening and Landscapes, at the School of Architecture.
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