Park Güell / Park Visit |
 |
Map of the Park Güell, designed by Gaudi around 1903
I Historic of the work
Owner of a fifteen hectare ground on a hill of Barcelona, Eusebi Güell, sponsor and main financier of Gaudi, wishes that the architect realizes for him one English-style garden city there. There was previously only a house and a traditional park.
Context
Catalonia of the end of the XIXth century is rapidly growing industrial, and its heart is
In Barcelona. This sometimes abrupt evolution gets all the domains, the agriculture in the politics, the economy. The production becomes industrial and commercial and either craft and agrarian. Nevertheless, after England which is the precursor and knows the industrial revolution from the end of the XVIIIth century, France at the beginning of the XIXth, Germany and the United States in the middle of the same century, and even Russia in the 1860s, Spain makes latecomer's face, and Catalonia is far from being the most prosperous region of the country before 1880s.
Nothing predestined this region of Spain for the explosion which it knew. She( was not easily accessible by the earth, even with the development of the railroad and some roads, because her ground is mountainous. She did not possess either big commercial port, thus no access privileged to the sea. No mining resource as the coal, neither any raw material as nor the cotton were available spot, what imposed an expensive import if we wanted to use them. Furthermore, the company of this region stayed of rather archaic mentality. Indeed, the social hierarchical organization was there very strong and the classes so bounded as them
Castes were almost. A minority, an urban bourgeoisie, possessed the power in a exclusive way, the farmers and the working class established the bottom of the ladder, and the middle class was little structured.
Nevertheless, Catalonia and its capital Barcelona are going to know a big development in the last two decades of the XIXth century. During the XIXth century, the population in Catalonia increases strongly, to reach two million inhabitants in 1900, among which the quarter in Barcelona, in this time(period) the region will represent the same 74 % of the GDP(GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT) of Spain.. Previously locked into its walls, the city is at the edge of the explosion and has to extend. A town planning scheme, plan Cerdà, is
Established in 1860 and plans to push away(to repel) the limits of the city to create new living districts, organized in hippodamien plan. In spite of the revolutionary and unique aspect to the world of the project, the army and the conservatisms prevent from realizing completely this project.
The element trigger was the holdingof the World Fair in Barcelona in 1888. To there, the organizing cities of this event were recognized by international importance: Paris,
London, New York, Vienna, Philadelphia, Chicago,Barcelona has nothing to do with them, although nicknamed " the factory of Spain ", it is little known in the world. Furthermore, we could not choose worse date: year 1888 was the one which preceded the Exhibition(Exposure) of Paris of 1889 which went to see the construction of the Eiffel Tower, and all the big important exhibitors would prefer to go to Paris rather than to Barcelona. But after numerous years of discussions, quasi-cancellations, of adjournments, difficulties of organization the Catalan bourgeoisie is finally ready to organize its exhibition. Because it is good to the bourgeoisie that Barcelona owes this adventure. The political tendency was for the exacerbation of the national and regional senses of identity, and it also cost for Catalonia, for which the middle-class persons wanted to make a shop window of the Exhibition Universal. No big Spanish company is attracted by the event, but the French industrialists are many to come, smelling that the Catalan market is ready to develop.
A deep transformation of the town planning of the city of welcome( accompanies generally the Exhibition and Barcelona was not an exception. She gets modernized and extends east of the river
Besos, answering the increase of his population. In 1897, the city so extended that it absorbs the other municipalities surrounding.
History of the construction
Eusebi Güell decides in 1899 to begin the construction of one garden city residential, on the site of Montana Pelada was acquired the same year to the marquess of Sama. He asks Gaudi to realize the plans. Güell wished to realize a financial transaction by attracting it the Catalan bourgeoisie. Güel shared the same conceptions hygienists as Gaudi, where from some constraints of conception. The lot must be divided into two equal shares between green zones and
Equipments. Güell wanted to obtain sixty triangular plots of land from 1000 in 2000 m ·. The residence must be closed and checked. Only 1/6th of the plot of land was building. The owners could not make an industrial use, and a tax would be asked them for the interview.
Sensitive to the nature, Güell would never have accepted that we cut trees. Güell also decides to sell the plots of land having connected them with the water, the electricity, in sewers as well as in telephone: what is very rare in the time. The works owed from 1900 till 1914. Only two houses at the conclusion of the works are built: a house-witness which Gaudi occupies from 1906, a said house " Accommodated
Larrard " for Güell. The works stop in 1914, for lack of buyers, Güell did not manage to attract the bourgeois Catalans and would have gone bankrupt by continuing.
Project manager
Antonio Gaudi born in Reus near Tarragone in the South of Catalonia in 1852 studies in Catalonia, and awarded a diploma fate of " provincial Escuela of arquitectura " of Barcelona in 1878. In parallel of hais Barcelona has nothing to do with them, although nicknamed " the factory of Spain ", it is little known in the world. Furthermore, we could not choose worse date: year 1888 was the one which preceded the Exhibition(Exposure) of Paris of 1889 which went to see the construction of the Eiffel Tower, and all the big important exhibitors would prefer to go(surrender) to Paris rather than to Barcelona. But after numerous years of discussions, quasi-cancellations, of adjournments(transfers), difficulties of organization the Catalan bourgeoisie is finally ready to organize its exhibition(exposure). Because it is good to the bourgeoisie that Barcelona owes this adventure. The political trend(tendency) was for the exacerbation of the national and regional senses of identity, and it also cost for Catalonia, for which the middle-class persons wanted to make a shop window of the Exhibition(Exposure)
Universal. No big Spanish company is attracted(enticed) by the event, but the French industrialists are many to come, feeling(smelling) that the Catalan market is ready to develop.
A deep transformation(processing) of the town planning of the city of welcome(reception) accompanies generally the Exhibition(Exposure), and Barcelona was not an exception. She(it) gets modernized and extends east of the river
Besos, answering the increase of his(her) population. In 1897, the city so extended that it absorbs the other municipalities surrounding.
History of the construction
Eusebi Güell decides in 1899 to begin(undertake) the construction of one garden city residential, on the site of Montana Pelada was acquired(was bought back) the same year to the marquess of Sama. He asks Gaudi to realize the plans. Güell wished to realize a financial transaction by attracting(enticing) it the Catalan bourgeoisie. Güel shared the same conceptions hygienists as Gaudi, where from some constraints of conception. The lot must be divided into two equal shares between green zones and
Equipments. Güell wanted to obtain sixty triangular plots of land from 1000 in 2000 m ·. The residence must be closed and checked. Only 1/6th of the plot of land was building. The owners could not make an industrial use, and a tax would be asked them for the interview(maintenance).
Sensitive to the nature, Güell would never have accepted that we cut trees. Güell also decides to sell the plots of land having connected(bound) them with the water, the electricity, in sewers as well as in telephone: what is very rare in the time(period). The works owed from 1900 till 1914. Only two houses at the conclusion of the works are built: a house-witness which Gaudi occupies from 1906, a said house " Accommodated
Larrard " for Güell. The works stop in 1914, for lack of buyers, Güell did not manage to attract(entice) the bourgeois Catalans and would have gone bankrupt by continuing.
Gaudi
Antonio Gaudi born in Reus near Tarragone in the South of Catalonia in 1852. He(it) makes his(her,its)
Studies in Catalonia, and awarded a diploma fate(spell) of " provincial Escuela of arquitectura " of Barcelona in 1878. In parallel of his studies, he works in several studios of architecture, and meets the most fashionable architects from Barcelona of histimeas Josep Fontseré or still Juan Martorell. Its papers on the Gothic medieval architecture were very influenced by the work of Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc ( 1814-1879 ) in particular. He develops a new vision of the architecture:
For him, we do not have to choose elements of architecture to imitate a defined style, but for reasons of statics and mechanics. He(it) looks throughout his studies to define a Catalan style:
He studies with diligence this maritime and Mediterranean culture, his particular landscapes as Montserrat's mountain relief.
The first part (1880-1890 ) of its career delivers productions inspired by the Gothic art, the influence of which is less evident for the end of its career. His first realizations are private commandsw, situated in outskirts of the city of Barcelona, with the exception of the palace Güell. He uses diverse materials traditional as the brick, or new as the polychromatic ceramic and the new forms architectural as the oblique columns there which become rather fast his trademark. From 1890, the architecture of Gaudi grows rich of new Elements. He uses motives naturalists and mixs new materials (iron structure and concrete) in traditional materials (stones). He plays enormously on the polychromy (process printing) and tries to liven up his realizations. He mixs gaily furniture, architecture and decoration. He dies in 1926.
He owes the launch of his career to a sponsor in particular: Eusebi Güell.
Project owner
Güell (1846-1918) is a rich industrialist awarded a diploma right, in political economy, in mechanics and in applied sciences. He crosses long periods in France and in England during his( youth to study the functioning of the textile industry there. Of these journeys, he returns marked by the English urban conceptions. Indeed, it is the big art lover who dedicates himself to the architecture, to the drawing and to the watercolor. It is also a big collector of art, in particular that coming from its native Catalonia: he(works all hais life to advance the Catalan culture.
From 1882, he joins the bourgeois and intellectual movement of "Renaixença". He becomes a local councillor of Barcelona in 1875 then a deputy and a senator of the province of Barcelona in 1878. He becomes a count in 1908. It becomes a model political and social to follow for all.
Güell commands during its life three major works Gaudi: the Güell palace in the historic center of Barcelona, the church of the colony Güell to Santa Coloma of Cervello, and the park Güell on Montanya Pelada. He dies in 1918 in this last one.
As make him all the elites European, Güell has, through its brain work, a nationalist approach. He tries to show the superiority and the originality of his language, his geography and the History of Catalonia. He sets up more that a vision idealized by the origins of Catalonia: we can speak about real ideology, which knows a political application. Güell is thus going to advance this ideology in his actions, his career and of course his constructions.
We thus find elements of this Catalan nationalism in the park Güell.
II / Description of the park
The localization of the park
The park is put on a side of mountain opened on the city of Barcelona, in the district of Hello.
The plan
Gaudi looked for Güell to represent the nature in the constructions, but indeed by watching to leave to the spectator the idea that these arise from the hand of the man, and not from the nature. He is thus a naturalist, and not realistic. We find this will to imitate without copying the nature in the plan of the road of walk of the park. About three kilometers, he crosses the whole park everything in curve. He amazes the walker who discovers throughout this one ever identical works: bridges in the shape of
Viaducts, porticoes used to hold the eart or the simple gallery dug in an advance of earth(ground) where he uses his spectacular oblique pillars.
Gaudi tried to be rational: he does not go against the ground, and looks for the simplicity in the conception. It is a way for him to give a rustic side to hais realizations, that nevertheless are made by industrial recent materials as the concrete. He realizes the constructions in a pragmatic way, quality according to Gaudi and Güell of the Catalans before the Roman conquest. He uses to do it traditional Catalan methods of construction.
Materials
Gaudi uses said materials "poor ": concrete, natural stone, trencadis (technique of
Mosaic of ceramic of recovery(recycling))
Let us walk in the park
Extract of Words and papers of Gaudi:
On his inspiration:
The big book, always opened and what it is necessary to try hard to read, is the one of the Nature, the other books divert from him and contain the errors and the human interpretations.
There are two revelations: the one doctrinaire, that of the Morality and the Religion, the other, guided by the facts, that of the big book of the Nature.
The surrounding wall of the park
Includes the whole park, and Gaudi in fact more than a simple demarcation. Slightly tilted, stones are cut and ordered in a quasi-raw way and without organized device.
Trying to imitate the nature, he so obtains an effect of wooden bark. The top is decorated with a red and white headband, punctuated at regular intervals with medallions. The shape of these calls back that of the medallions of cigar: Güell possessed factories of cigars in The Filipina and in Cuba. The red and white bands, among four between every medallion, are a reminder of the colors of Catalonia.
The detached houses of the entrance.
The park had beendesigned as a watched residential zone: both detached houses were intended to serve as premises for the caretaker and the police of the urbanization. Their decoration is realized by means of shards of recovery (trencadis ).
The walls of detached houses are in continuity with the surrounding wall: they are in stones almost raw and ordered in a disrupted way.
Güell brings a particular care to the windows which possess a multicolored mosaiced decoration, as well as in roofs. They use curves and against curves a lot, broken or strengthened by the motive in checkerboard.
The cave
Is situated to the right of the main staircase. She consists of four pillars in facade and a central pillar.
The decoration of pillars is in almost raw stones. Once again, we guess a profound respect during the conception of the nature and the ground:
Gaudi got back for example a stone found on the site and inserted it in decoration of one of the columns, this stone
Calling back the flag of Catalonia. The effect of bark and the absence of bases of columns make them similar to tree trunks. The central pillar is a massive inverted cone, such a gigantic stalactite joining his colleague on the ground.
The main staircase
He is decorated with mosaic of white ceramic. The produced effect calls back the walking of a marble Greek temple, and a symmetry of the structure gives him the majesty. Along the staircase, we find crenellations decorated with multicolored mosaics surmounting a wall of restraint too mosaiced. In every landing, the banister is decorated on its slice of a mosaic.
The staircase is divided into halves, the space so loosened between both parts containing ornamental plants. One of the bowls is covered with the famous mosaiced salamander, which became nowadays the symbol of the park Güell.
In the upper landing, both staircases group together to allow the implementation of a bench integrated and mosaiced in the platform of the colonnade. This bench has the peculiarity to shelter from the sun, which is high the summer, and to be brightened up in winter. A fountain spits the water of a source by the mouth of a dragon, a Catalan symbol, himself propped up in a hull in the colors of Catalonia, the yellow and red alternated bands.
The Doric colonnade
Overhanging the staircase, the Doric colonnade is a reminder of the Greek temples. It is necessary to know that Gaudi and Güell was of lovers admirers of the Mediterranean cultures. Columns support an immense place. Ceilings are covered with red mosaics overlapping, some being multicolored. Slightly tilted, they are the mark of Gaudi. He justifies he even this way designing columns: for him, it is the way the most natural to support a platform: columns are more and more tilted as we go away from the center of the structure, for a maximal stability as legs for more stability.
The main place and themosaiced bench
This place is so to speak the star of the Park Güell. She is built over the Doric colonnade. On its edge extends a sinusoidal bench, an unique realization in the world, which allows a group of some persons to occupy the equivalent of a bench and to discuss by seeing all the neighbors and by taking advantage of the landscape at the same time. Indeed, this place is in height with regard to the park and offers a fantastic view over Barcelona and the sea. She had to be the heart of garden city, there where everybody had to meet, because the market was intended to be held in it.
On colors:
The ornamentation was, is and will be colored. The Nature never presents any object in a uniform way. Everything, in the vegetation, in the animal and mineral kingdom contains a more or less lively contrast of colors. That is why we have to, too, color necessarily, partially or in full, the diverse architectonic members from whom the color will disappear maybe but whom the claw of time will take care to cover of this skate original and precious that the age looks.
It is among others because of this quotation of Gaudi whom some of his admirers protested against the campaign of restoration of the 1990s, which saw the replacement of trencadis damaged and made tasteless by the sinusoidal bench by brand new.
Iron doors forged
They serve to separate the various parts of the park and were drawn by Gaudi.
Viaducts
They take various forms, shop windows of the imagination of Gaudi. His pillars can be included stones, sculptures representing human faces in a primitive way, twists as exits of earth, petrified, more or less tilted tree trunks and serving as gardeners.
On the slope of columns, Gaudi writes:
We asked me why I made oblique columns. I answered: " for the reason which makes lean the one itself who walks, when he is tired, on an oblique stick because if he put it vertically, he would not rest. "
Calvary
The Calvary built in the park is inspired by talayots, prehistoric constructions in stones, which we find mainly in Minorca and Majorca. It is another line of the will of Gaudi to operate a return to basics. He went to Majorca in 1903, by taking advantage certainly to see it closely.
Other testimony of the faith of Gaudi, and the importance of the religion in its vision of the ideal city, the private chapel was intended in aid of the count of Güell. The magnificent screen door will be accidentally destroy during the works of restorations. The iron decoration forged which remains today is quite in curves and imitates vegetables.
The house shows This house was destined to serve as sample to which the buying futures that went to visit before being decided to buy. It had to give desire them to buy a parcel, and thus to allow in the works to follow. Its construction is developed in 1903-1904 and is l' work of Francès Berenguer, Gaudi the purchase finally and settles in 1906. The forms of the furniture are art-nouveau like remembering the nature to l' outside. The religious dimension is present here also: a religious image to the wall of the Gaudi bedroom, San Jose and Jesus child, realised by Antonio Gaudí and Josep Llimona.
The future of the Park Güell
The works are stopped in 1914 to start again never. In 1922, the Güell family gives it to the city of Barcelona and it opens to the public. He is since symbolic of the city and is even classified in the UNESCO world heritage. A campaign of restoration takes place between 1985 and 1993 by José Antonio Martinez Lapeña and Elias Torres. It is there that the original trencadis of Gaudi is replaced by more recent ceramic. Today, the park is always open to the public, and we come from the whole world to walk there.
Conclusion
The Park Güell is the opportunity for Gaudi to take to the extreme the expression of its ideas so much artistic point of view, as politics or of town planning. The Nature is clearly the first inspirer of the park, who makes more than her(it) respect because he uses him(it) and plays with the natural reliefs of the hill on which he is built. The town planning of Gaudi is pragmatic. His forms, which can seem silly, are in fact practical answers to needs, as the bench which is in the sun or in the shade as we are in winter or in summer, or columns were tilted for the rest of the walker. The religion is an important element of the ideal city of Gaudi and Güell: among little of effectively built buildings, represent a chapel and a Calvary. Several elements, sometimes details, remind to the walker that both men(people) were also very attached in her
Catalonia, of which they both looked and profoundly liked the origins, the specificities, the culture.
Although this big project is a financial failure, and Güell did not manage to attract the bourgeoisie of Barcelona as he dreamed about it, the Park will remain an enormous artistic success. He is unique to the world and in the career of Gaudi, the innovations of which will inspire the big architects of the XXth century, as the Corbusier which will be one of his admirers.
Bibliography
Philippe Thiébaut. Gaudi, visionary builder. Paris: Gallimard, on 1992.
Tiziana Contri. Antonio Gaudi. Arles: acts the South, on 2010.
Barcelona, the end of century. Spain: Hazan, on 2001.
Maria Antonietta Crippa. Antoni Gaudi: of the nature in the architecture. Paris: Taschen, on 2003.
Antonio Gaudi. Words and papers. Paris: Harmattan, on 2003.
Juan-José Lahuerta. Antoni Gaudi: architecture, ideological and political. Paris : Gallimard,
1992..
www.gaudidesigner.com © 2012