Blog

· Gaudí’s first house increased the number of visitors in 2020 by 43%, reaching 70,572 in 2021

· The visitors to this World Heritage site continue to be culturally-minded people with high standards who are seeking to discover Gaudí’s origins

In the second year involving a pandemic, capacity restrictions and a hesitant number of tourists arriving in Barcelona, this World Heritage site in the Gràcia neighbourhood managed to increase its visitor numbers by 43% compared to 2020. Although this figure is still far from the 163,096 reached in 2019, the house-museum’s director, Emili Masferrer i Fons, gave 2021 a positive balance: “during the second half of the year the economic figures were in line with those of 2019, a result that makes us confident about the sector’s pace of recovery, and optimistic.”

Origins

The public that visited Casa Vicens in 2021 is not too different from that of 2020. According to the house itself, once again it is “a quality public, aware of the uniqueness of this heritage and what it symbolizes in Gaudi’s career, and which also values the visit experience, the team’s warm attitude and the value for money”. As to the origin of the 70,572 visitors, Spanish citizens accounted for 35%, followed by 15% from France, 12% from Italy, 6% from the United States and, lastly, 3% from Germany. These figures again reveal the importance of visitors from closer areas and how even in 2021 Asian visitors did not outnumber those from France or Italy, despite the attraction of Gaudí.

Future prospects

Casa Vicens plans to continue opening daily in 2022, also extending the afternoon hours during the week depending on public demand. In addition, at Gaudí’s first house there is on-going work on the artistic programming for the temporary exhibition hall. While it was possible to enjoy the Ernesto Ventós Foundation exhibition and the Chilean-Canarian artist Txemy in 2021, now through June 26 Casa Vicens is hosting the first solo art exhibition of Filipina artist Nikki Luna in Barcelona.