Barcelona Weekend Break

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.

The Palau Guell has a wealth of visual features and, unusually for Gaudi, has an entire floor level of one facade composed of projecting rectangular windows.

Elsewhere the palace demonstrates irregularly shaped arches and intricate cast iron work and it must have appeared extremely futuristic in its day.

Classic Gaudi features include the ornate chimney stacks with multiple perforations and in some cases a covering of brightly coloured glazed tiles.

The palace took 4 years to build and was completed in 1890. It was also rumoured that Gaudi had produced in excess of 20 different designs for the frontal elevation of the building. How the selected version was determined is not known.

The palace is spread over 4 floors with a cellar and a "useable" flat roof whose most dominant feature is a massive 15 metre high cone shaped structure.

Tourist Information

The Palau Guell is undergoing refurbishment and repairs and, although scheduled to re-open in late 2007, has still not seen the work completed (i.e. as of December 2007).