Gaudi

Raquel Cordero

Angel Garrido

Inma Gómez

Marta Porcel

1er Batxillerat A

Antoni Gaudi was born in 1852 in Tarragona

in a family of artisans. He was the first Gaudi

in over four generations to leave the family

tradition of metalworking.

He moved to Barcelona in 1873 and began

his architectural education at the Provincial

School of Architecture. Although he did not

have superior grades, he earned

“excellent” marks in the courses of Trial

drawings and Projects. Descriptions of

“insane” and “genius” were used to talk

about the artist.

Biography

On 7 June 1926 Gaudí was run over by a tram. He died three days later on 10

June 1926 at the age of 73. He was buried in the midst of La Sagrada Família.

Gaudi started the building of the Sagrada Familia in 1883, spending 43 years of

his life working on this project. He also began Park Guell, and many other

projects in Barcelona, Casa Batlló and La Pedrera are the most important.

As an architect, he was influenced by many things: medieval books, gothic-

style art, and organic shapes in nature..

Antoni Gaudí belonged to the Modernism movement and was famous for his

unique style and highly individualistic designs.

Modernism was the Catalan equivalent to a number of art movements, such

as Symbolism, Decadence and Art Nouveau, from roughly 1888 to 1911.

Gaudí built most of his works in Barcelona but we can find some of his

buildings in other parts of Catalonia and Spain. “Hotel Atraction” in New York

was one of Gaudi’s projects, but he never started this building. “Sagrada

Familia”, the most famous modernist building, isn’t finished yet.

Palau Güell Casa Batlló Casa Botines (León)

El Capricho (Cantabria) Church of Colonia Güell Casa Vicens

This building, called Casa Milà, is

more known by his Catalan name

“La Pedrera” according to the

surprising stony aspect of its front.

It was built between1906-1910,

being considered officially

completed in 1912. It is located at

Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. It

was built for the married couple,

Rosario Segimon and Pere Milà.

Casa Mila was in poor condition in the early 1980s but it has been restored.

The building is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Works of Antoni

Gaudi” and it is owned by Caixa Catalunya.

He adapted the curve formes of his fantasy in the terraces or roofs which are

decorated by fragments of marble. There are chimneys in spiral form, the top part

of them seem medieval helmets.

The big blocks of stone were carved in the same place of the construction giving

them a rugose texture of natural stone. It hasn’t got load walls, not even in the front,

which is an important innovation. It is supported on pillars and metallic girders, so

without any problem, we could change all his interior distribution.

•“The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia”, known simply as the

Sacred Family, is a great catholic temple of Barcelona, designed by the

Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. It started in 1882, and nowdays is still being

built. It is Gaudí's masterpiece, and the maximum exponent of the modernist

Catalan architecture.

• The construction began in Neogothic style, but, on having assumed the

project Gaudí in 1883, was completely restated. Gaudí became the architect

with only 31 years, dedicating the rest of his life.

•When the temple is finished, it will have 18 towers, 4 in every of the 3

façades and 6 on the center (one dedicated to Jesus, another 4 for the four

evangelist and another one for the Verge). When Gaudí died, there was only

one tower built.

•We can see that the catholic influence is very present in this church, there

are a lot of scene about Jesus’ life.

Façade of Hope:

The Three façades are:

Façade of Faith:

Façade of Charity:

Life Tree ,“Arbre de la vida”

Sagrada Familia at night.

Park Guell was commissioned by Eusebi Güell who wanted to create a

stylish park for Barcelona aristocracy.

The park contains amazing stone structures, stunning tiling and fascinating

buildings. You can see from this picture the Gaudi dragon fountain that is at

the entrance to Guell park. This dragon is adorned in beautiful coloured tiling

and there is something rather hypnotic and magical about it.

Gaudi was strongly influenced by natural shapes and used them in his work.

At the top of Guell park is a terraced area where you get a wonderful view of

the park and of Barcelona City. Here you will find multi-coloured tiled mosaic

seats as shown in this picture. The vibrant colours of the tiles are truly

breathtaking.

Park Guell also has a small house in the park which Gaudi lived in at one

stage. The house has now been converted into a museum and contains

interesting furniture also designed by Gaudi.

Montserrat's mountain is, according to the tradition, the most important and

mysterious mountain of Catalonia. It is situated in 50 km to the northwest of

Barcelona . In this mountain it places the sanctuary and Benedictine

monastery dedicated to the Verge of Montserrat.

"Montserrat" literally means "serrated mountain" in Catalan. It describes the

peculiar aspect of the rock formation, which is visible from a great distance

Information about the mountain

The summit of Montserrat is called Sant

Jeroni (Saint Jerome) and stands at 1,236

meters above sea-level. It is accessible by

hiking trails which connect from the top

entrance to the Sant Joan funicular, the

monastery, or the base of the mountain.

In the knight’s symbology (blasones),

Montserrat appears like a gold mountain

sawing the country.

The abbey can be reached by road, or by

the Aeri de Montserrat cable car, or by the

Montserrat Rack Railway.

Santa Maria de Montserrat is a Benedictine abbey located in

the Montserrat mountain, in Monistrol de Montserrat, in Catalonia.

It hosts the Virgin of Montserrat, and the “Publicacions de l'Abadia de

Montserrat”, a publishing house, the oldest press in the world, still

running with the first book published in 1499.

The monastery is Catalonia's most

important religious retreat and

groups of young people from

Barcelona and all over Catalonia

make overnight hikes at least once

in their lives to watch the sunrise

from the heights of Montserrat.

The Basilica houses a museum with works

of art by many prominent painters and

sculptors including works by El

Greco, Dalí, Picasso and more.

Virgin of Montserrat(the black virgin), is Catalonia's favourite saint, and is located in

the sanctuary of the Mare de Deu de Montserrat, next to the Benedictine monastery

Spirituality Since, according to the legend, the image of

the Virgin was founded at the Holly Cave,

and since the foundation of the monastery,

Montserrat has been linked to spirituality.

The mountain contains a high number of

smaller deserted churches and chapels.

The Virgin is called "the Moreneta" for its

dark color, it’s a Romanesque wood of the

end of the twelfth century, and the color is

the result of the transformation of the

varnish in that long period of time.

Legend In 880, a Saturday evening, some shepherds saw how a great light was

getting down from heaven, with a beautiful melody. The following Saturday,

the vision was repeated. And, the following four Saturdays the priest of

Olesa went with them to check that vision. The bishop, who was in Manresa,

went to this place and saw a cave where they found the Holy Image. He

proposed to move it to Manresa but it was so heavy that they couldn’t move.

The bishop interpreted this was like a desire of the Virgin to remain there

and he ordered to build a chapel.

ImportanceGreat poets like Goethe and Schiller Federico wrote about the mountain.

Montserrat became famous when Richard Wagner used this place to play

two of his operas, Parsifal and Lohengrin.

The festivityOn 11th September 1844, Pope Leo XIII officially declared the Virgin of

Montserrat as a patron of Catalonia. On the 27th of April people celebrate

the Virgin of Montserrat Day. The celebration of the Eucharist is celebrated

with numerous of events such as musical performances, sardanas dances,

lectures and special psalms and canticles.