1900

Park Güell

1900-1914

Following the European trends of the time, Eusebi Güell wanted a housing development in the style of a garden city. The idea was to build the site in the area known as the Muntanya Pelada, or bare mountain, and it was to feature 60 independent residences for the city’s well-off families.

However, the project did not go forward due to a lack of acceptance among potential buyers and only two houses had been built by the time Count Güell died: the show house, where Gaudí lived from 1906 until 1914 with his father and his niece Rosa Egea, and the main building for the Güell family, known as the Casa Larrard.

The site also retains the following: the two entrance pavilions, intended to be the gatekeeper’s lodge; the welcome pavilion; the dual staircase that connects with the hypostyle room, designed to be a covered market in the garden city; and the Greek Theatre, located on top of this hall which is bordered by a serpentine ceramic bench.

The heirs of Eusebi Güell offered the lands to the Barcelona City Council, which acquired them in 1922, opening up the area as a public park in 1926.