BCN 2013: Park Guell

Don't you just love my blog's new look?? I am so in love with it, makes me wanna blog more often so I am catching up on my backlogs tonight! Oh, weekend is super love! I still have a lot of things to share about the recent trip that we had so lemme start with this post, in the hope that I'll get to finish everything, before my daughter's birthday :)

Aside from football, Barcelona is known for the works of Antoni Gaudi. This famous architect exceptionally contributed to the development of creative architecture and building technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Majority of his masterpieces are considered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and have collected admirers from all over the world.

The first Gaudi masterpiece that I was able to see in person was Park Guell.

From the Park Guell website:

The park is located in Barcelona and was designed by famous architect Antonio Gaudi.

 

Gaudi planned and directed the construction of the park from 1900 to 1914 for Eusebi Guell for a residential park intended for sixty single- family residences.

The project, however, was unsuccessful and the park became city property in 1923.

Though never fully completed, it still remains one of Gaudi's most colorful and playful works.

Park Guell, intended to serve Guell's private city, became all of Barcelona's, then the world's favourite. Gaudi let loose his imagination.

 

While for houses he drew on natural forms, here he shaped nature into colonnades, archways and covered galleries with well-camouflaged artificial structures.

It's a playground for the mind: visual jokes, like columns that simulate palm-tree trunks, rubble-surfaced arches that grow out of the ground, quilts of ceramic tiles.

A graceful gazebo is made of twisted angle iron - cheap to make, looks good, does not lie about its material yet its shape is as softly curved as climbing vines.

The park is located on a hill overlooking the city of Barcelona. Going there will be a little bit of a challenge when you take a public bus/train so good thing it was part of our itinerary c/o Barcelona Guide Bureau.

But if you wish to go there on your own, you may visit this site for the instruction. The park is open daily and entrance  is free. Closing time depends on the season/month -- you may check here for the complete details.

I did not get what the fuss is all about until I have come face to face with Gaudi's works. Considering the era and the year when he did all those masterpieces, his works are really too advanced for his time. No wonder why some people at that time find his unique architecture a little weird :)

More of Gaudi's architectures in the next posts.