Gaudí's Barcelona: From Casa Vicens to the Crypt

Casa Vicens in Gràcia, built between 1883 and 1885, is considered Antoni Gaudí's first major project, which makes it the natural place to begin. Its walls show a habit of these early years: Gaudí used an abundance of ceramic tiling to decorate his work, and this house is where the tiles first take over.

Para el visitante: Carrer de les Carolines in Gràcia; check opening hours before you go.

Gaudí designed this mansion in El Raval for the industrial tycoon Eusebi Güell, and it was built between 1886 and 1888. Between the two gates he placed a bronze sculpture of a phoenix. Inside, small holes near the top of a ceiling let lanterns hung outside at night give the appearance of a starlit sky.

Para el visitante: On Carrer Nou de la Rambla, just off La Rambla; check opening hours.

Eusebi Güell commissioned Gaudí again for an estate on a rocky hill called Muntanya Pelada, the Bare Mountain. Construction ran from 1900 to 1914, and the park officially opened to the public in 1926. Here Gaudí introduced curved and undulating benches. One house, built as a show home in 1904, remained unsold, and in 1906 Gaudí moved into it with his father and niece. It became the Gaudí House Museum in 1963.

Para el visitante: The Gaudí House Museum is inside the park.

By the time Gaudí worked here, Passeig de Gràcia had become Barcelona's most fashionable boulevard. For the textile industrialist Josep Batlló he redesigned an existing house in 1904, and locals call the result Casa dels ossos, the House of Bones. Gaudí's own line fits it: "There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature." The roof terrace, with its famous dragon back design, is one of the most popular parts of the house.

Para el visitante: On Passeig de Gràcia; the roof terrace is the highlight.

Pere Milà and his wife Roser Segimon commissioned this building in 1906, and it was the last private residence Gaudí designed. Its undulating stone facade was controversial at the time. Up on the roof, twenty-eight chimneys stand in several groupings, a scene the poet Pere Gimferrer called "the garden of warriors".

Para el visitante: Check opening hours before you go; the rooftop is the highlight.

On 7 June 1926 Gaudí took his daily walk to the Sant Felip Neri church for his habitual prayer and confession. On the Gran Via, between Girona and Bailén streets, a passing number 30 tram struck him and he lost consciousness. Assumed to be a beggar, he did not receive immediate aid, and when he reached the Santa Creu Hospital he received only rudimentary care. The exact spot on the long avenue is not pinned here.

Precisión del lugar: The avenue is long and the sources give only the stretch between Girona and Bailén streets.

Gaudí took over as chief architect of the Sagrada Família in 1883, when the first architect, Villar, resigned. He died on 10 June 1926 at the age of 73, three days after the tram accident, and a large crowd gathered to bid farewell to him in the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the crypt. The church he left unfinished is now the tallest church building in the world.

Para el visitante: The crypt and the basilica are open to visitors; book tickets ahead.