Bellesguard

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Coordinates: 41 ° 24 '34 "  N , 2 ° 7' 36"  E

overall view
Bench at the entrance

Bellesguard , or more rarely Torre de Bellesguard , is acountry house in Barcelona ( Catalonia )designedby Antoni Gaudí . The house and property are privately owned and have been partially viewed or rented since September 2013.

location

The building is located in the northwest of Barcelona in the district of Sant Gervasi - la Bonanova at the foot of Mount Tibidabo in the street Carrer de Bellesguard 20 near the junction with the Ronda de Dalt .

Previous building

In the place of today's country house, there was a summer palace of the kings of Aragon in the Middle Ages , which was given the name Palau de bell Esguard (palace for a beautiful view) due to its location . For King Martin I , this place had fateful importance, as he learned of the death of his son Martin here in July 1409 and on September 17th of the same year in the presence of Pope Benedict XIII. and married by Vincent Ferrer Margarita de Prades . After the king died in May 1410 without a male heir, the palace was abandoned. In 1422 the area was sold by the crown and the palace fell into disrepair.

In the 17th century the area with the ruins of the palace served as a shelter for the band of robbers Serrallonga.

Building history

At the end of the 19th century, the property on which there were only a few remains of the Gothic palace belonged to Bishop Juan Bautista Grau y Vallespinos, for whom the aspiring architect Antoni Gaudí had already designed the Bishop's Palace in Astorga . Since the latter had ordered in his will to sell all his property for the foundation of a school, the property was for sale, which Gaudí - knowing about the history of the place - used to enter into the sales negotiations between the executor and the acquirer Maria Sagués Molins, the widow of the flour merchant and Gaudí admirer Jaume Figueras. He then received the order to build a representative country house in Sant Gervasi, which was still sparsely populated at the time, and which he implemented from 1900 to 1902. After Gaudí's retirement, Domènec Sugrañes i Gras (1878–1938) took over the completion. In 1983 the building was extensively restored. In May 2008, the tower cross had to be removed temporarily because there was an acute risk of collapse due to the construction of a main water pipe in the immediate vicinity.

style

The building, which was erected on an almost square floor plan (edge ​​length around 15 meters each), has inclined lines that are precisely aligned with the cardinal points . Two extensions - the stair tower and the gallery of the salon - underline the massive and closed impression of this free interpretation of Gothic . The extreme extension of the windows and the conical, elongated tower dome create a feeling of size, which makes you forget the basic dimensions of the building. The building is around 33 meters high to the top of the tower cross.

The facade is mostly made in the area encountered rubble in gray and green tones ( slate ), only in the area of the doors and windows were rusticated from blended with mortar pebbles used. The building itself consists of plastered brick , whereby the design of the ceilings in the form of delicate, parallel arranged and mostly tapering floors made it possible to dispense with the usual use of supporting beams at the time.

The building has a cellar, a basement, two residential floors and a two-story attic. The basement and the parts of the basement facing away from the street served as storage and supply rooms; the cellar vaults are cylindrical pillars made of bricks. The lower main floor contained the living room and dining room, the floor above housed the bedrooms. The attic was designed as a washing and drying floor.

The staircase in the attached tower is the highest room in the house with a clear height of 10 meters, as the surrounding staircase provided access to all floors. In contrast to the gloomy, dark outer facade and in contrast to most of the other buildings that Gaudì designed, the stairwell dispenses with any ornaments and colors, its walls are only covered with plaster and white lime paint, which reflects the incident light from the walls and intense shadows.

At the level of the first attic, the slate roof has a crenellated perimeter, and above the upper attic there is a small viewing terrace.

particularities

Like many other buildings that Gaudí designed, the tower is closed off by a four-armed cross. This stands on a Catalan flag ( Senyera ) made of glass elements and a crown that resembles the former royal crown of Aragon.

Since access to the Sant Gervasi cemetery was only possible via the site at the time the building was erected, Gaudí designed a viaduct using the remains of the old palace wall (1903–1905).

In contrast to the Gothic exterior, large parts of the interior design show a strong influence of the Mudejar style , which is due to the fact that this was largely only realized after Gaudí's retirement under his successor Domènec Sugrañes i Gras.

literature

  • Carles Rius: Antoni Gaudí. Casa Bellesguard as the Key to His Symbolism. Publicacions i Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, ​​Barcelona 2014, ISBN 978-84-475-3791-4 (preview) .

Web links

Commons : Bellesguard  - collection of images, videos and audio files