Barcelona Weekend Break

Gaudi buildings

A weekend break to Barcelona would be incomplete without making a visit to at least one of Antoni Gaudi's amazing buildings. Below you will see a series of short summaries about Gaudi's most famous buildings along with links to full page pictorial descriptions of each one of them – all in Barcelona.

Of all the architects, structural engineers and building designers to grace the earth, Gaudi more than any other, perfected the concept of "thinking outside the box". He designed what he felt was beautiful without getting weighed down with technical practicalities that restrict so many other designer's freedom of thought.

His legacy is unique and nearly all of it is within central Barcelona or a short trip to the suburbs. To visit Barcelona without taking in one of Gaudi's masterpieces would be a cultural crime (or at least that is how a citizen of Barcelona would view it).

A. Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi is considered to be the most eminent of Barcelona's "modernist" architects and his most famous design, the as yet uncompleted "Placa Sagrada Familia" (often called the Gaudi cathedral), is one of the world's most photographed buildings.

Gaudi was born in 1852 and died 74 years later in 1926 when he was hit by a tram, but he left Barcelona with a legacy of truly unique structures and the city remains as famed for Gaudi's amazing buildings as it does for its internationally successful football team. The names of Barcelona and Gaudi are, and remain, inextricably linked and Gauidi’s influence on the architecture of this city is without parallel anywhere else in the world.

There is plenty of Gaudi to see in Barcelona, but as a taster we have provided some brief summaries of his best known works below. Each summary has a link that will take you to a full page of photos and information about the building(s) in question. If you do spend a weekend in Barcelona, do not miss out on the opportunity to see one of these unique pieces of functional art.

Gaudi's buildings in Barcelona

Sagrada Familia
Where ever you go in Barcelona you are bound to encounter a building or design by Gaudi, but his greatest work is without doubt the unfinished Sagrada Familia.
For more details and some photos see our Sagrada Familia page.

Casa Milla
The Casa Milla or “la pedrera” (the quarry) is possibly the second most famous of Gaudi's Barcelona buildings and it was constructed between the years of 1905 and 1907.
For more details and some photos see our Casa Milla page.

Casa Batllo
Casa Batllo is a truly spectacular building on the "Passeig de Gracia" and to make its tourist appeal even greater, it is one of three modernist buildings in a block known as "Mancana de Discoria".
For more details and some photos see our Casa Batllo page.

Colonia Guell
Yet another of Gaudi's amazing modernist designs, this one is a church and crypt and was constructed between the years of 1908 and 1914 from a design conceived in 1898.
For more details and some photos see our Colonia Guell page.

Park Guell
Gaudi did not just confine his ideas to buildings, he also explored his flamboyant approach to design in this popular city park.
For more details and some photos see our Park Guell page.

Casa Calvet
Casa Calvet is possibly less well known than the likes of the casas Milla and Batllo, but it is still a significant Barcelona building in the Gaudi portfolio.
For more details and some photos see our Casa Calvet page.

Casa Bellesguard
Gaudi started work on this building in 1900 and left it, still not fully completed, in 1909. At this point the work was taken over by Domenec Sugranes and the structure was finally finished in 1917.
For more details and some photos see our Casa Bellesguard page.

Casa Vicens
Set in the Gracia district of Barcelona, Casa Vicens was Gaudi’s first major building and it took from 1883 to 1888 to complete. Like most of his buildings it is now a world heritage site.
For more details and some photos see our Casa Vicens page.

Palau Guell
The Palau Guell was built for Gaudi’s great financial supporter of the same name (Count Guell) and is a grand and detailed palace designed as a residence as well as for opulent entertaining.
For more details and some photos see our Palau Guell page.

Finca Guell
Built between 1884 and 1887, in the context of Gaudi, the Finca Guell is really a lodge that makes up part of a larger estate of which Gaudi also contributed a stable (or pavilion) and a grand entrance.
For more details and some photos see our Finca Guell page.

Colegio Teresiano
Built between 1888 and 1890, this is perhaps the only Gaudi building that, visually at least, demonstrates little of the design flair for which he subsequently became known.
For more details and some photos see our Colegio Teresiano page.