Park Güell

Main staircase

footbridge

Window in the Casa-Museu Gaudí

Lanterns at the entrance building

Roof detail

The Park Güell [ ɡʊ̯eʎ ] ( Catalan Parc Güell , Spanish Parque Güell ) is a park in Barcelona in the district of Gràcia in the district of La Salud. It was created from 1900 to 1914 by Antoni Gaudí on behalf of Eusebi Güell and has a size of 17.18 hectares .

Emergence

The park was commissioned for the industrialist Eusebi Güell . He was very impressed by the English gardens and wanted one in Barcelona too. Antoni Gaudí then planned a garden city with over 60 villas. These should be sold in advance for financing. The project failed and only two parcels were sold, so that the park could not be completed due to a lack of funds. Only three houses were built: the Güell family's home, now a school, Gaudí's home, which has been a museum since 1963 as Casa-Museu Gaudí , and the home of an architect friend, which is still inhabited today.

When designing the park, Gaudí paid attention not only to environmentally friendly, but also to cost-effective construction: he avoided large amounts of earth moving and adapted his plans to the hilly terrain. He used retaining walls and terraces. Thanks to their organic shapes, these blend in uniquely into the terrain and convey the impression of absolute naturalness. The builder found the required materials on the site himself. For the many mosaics he used waste from the nearby ceramic factories. However, the construction itself was very expensive, as everything had to be made by hand.

The park

The entrance to the park is formed by two gatehouses with distinctive "icing roofs". Then a large flight of stairs leads to the terrace square, the meeting point for visitors, musicians and painters. Cultural events take place here regularly. The park is home to Gaudí's house, where he lived from 1906 to 1925, a year before his death. Today it serves as a museum for furniture and drawings designed by Gaudí. Park Güell has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984, along with other works by Gaudí .

La Plaça

The center of the park is a 3000 m² terrace area in the shape of an oval, which was laid out between 1907 and 1913. The square is supported by 86 pillars that are located below and form a large hall. Its border is wave-shaped, 110 meters long and also serves as a seat. This is covered with the smallest ceramic and crystal stones. It is the work of Josep Maria Jujol , who used the techniques of Trencadís ('break'), a mosaic work. According to the original plan, the square was to be a Greek theater that would have been suitable for community meetings and cultural and religious festivals. The outer part is covered with gargoyles through which the rainwater can drain.

The wave-shaped bench is constructed from a sequence of concave and convex sections of 1.5 meters each. Their design was based on the human body. The basis of the mosaic work is white; it is crowned by a ceramic decoration. It is a collage with abstract motifs, but also with figurative elements such as signs of the zodiac, stars, flowers, fish and crabs.

Overtourism and access restrictions

Since October 2013, part of the park can only be entered with a paid ticket. Although this only affects 7.9% of the park area, it is the part that is most interesting for tourists, the so-called Àera monumental , in which, among other things, the dragon stairs and the Sala Hipòstila are located. In 2012 around 9 million people had visited this part of the park.

The city and park administration saw the annual influx of visitors from overtourism as a threat to the historic parks and their buildings. Now only a maximum of 400 people are allowed into the cordoned off part within 30 minutes. With a stay of around an hour estimated by the park administration, it should be achieved that only around 800 people are at the same time in the Àera monumental . Before the introduction of the entrance fee, up to 5,000 people per hour streamed into this area of the park at peak times.

The number of visitors has fallen significantly since then: in the first eleven months after the introduction of the entrance fee, it was just under 2.4 million. 93.5% of them were foreign tourists, only 0.5% Catalans and 6.0% came from other regions of Spain. In 2017 the park was visited by 3.12 million people. Residents of the neighborhoods directly adjacent to the park ( El Coll , Vallcarca-Penitents , La Salut , El Carmel and Can Baró ) continue to have free entry. However, they must request a free ticket from the city council.