At long last, we have begun our exploration of the Modernisme movement centered in Barcelona.
Yesterday (Saturday) morning, while awaiting the arrival of Annika and Dierk Steinmann, our German "daughter" and her husband who were flying in for the weekend from Trier, we toured Antoni Gaudi's first major archtectural commission, the palatial palace built for the industrilist Esebi Guell between 1885 and 1890.
Guell, a personal friend as well as a patron, provided Gaudi with the ideal opportunity to prove his metal as an architect. The plans for the palace incorporated "public spaces" for receptions, musical performances and other similar undertakings. This meant that Gaudi's designs were exposed widely to leading figures in the Catalonian community. Furthermore the palace was constructed without any financial constraints being place on its architect and built with the essential aid of the leading artisans of the day.
The result (as restored to its glory and reopened to the public in May 2011) is an astounding and surprisingly liveable "home" that reflects Gaudi's multifaceted concerns with not only structural matters but also interior design and a host of other functional issues. We were mesmerized for the entire couple of hours the excellent audio tour took to guide us through the palace's various spaces -- all the way from the stables in the basement to the laundry facities in the attic!
In the end, however, Lee just had to purchase a beautifully illustrated guide so he could review at leisure all the myriad elements incorporated in this incredible piece of Modernisme architecure (initiating a practice that has persisted through out all our subsequent visits to other Gaudi masterpieces).
Here are a selection of images taken during our trip through the magical realm of Palau Guell, an architetural gem of incredible beauty and creative elan.
Yesterday (Saturday) morning, while awaiting the arrival of Annika and Dierk Steinmann, our German "daughter" and her husband who were flying in for the weekend from Trier, we toured Antoni Gaudi's first major archtectural commission, the palatial palace built for the industrilist Esebi Guell between 1885 and 1890.
Guell, a personal friend as well as a patron, provided Gaudi with the ideal opportunity to prove his metal as an architect. The plans for the palace incorporated "public spaces" for receptions, musical performances and other similar undertakings. This meant that Gaudi's designs were exposed widely to leading figures in the Catalonian community. Furthermore the palace was constructed without any financial constraints being place on its architect and built with the essential aid of the leading artisans of the day.
The result (as restored to its glory and reopened to the public in May 2011) is an astounding and surprisingly liveable "home" that reflects Gaudi's multifaceted concerns with not only structural matters but also interior design and a host of other functional issues. We were mesmerized for the entire couple of hours the excellent audio tour took to guide us through the palace's various spaces -- all the way from the stables in the basement to the laundry facities in the attic!
In the end, however, Lee just had to purchase a beautifully illustrated guide so he could review at leisure all the myriad elements incorporated in this incredible piece of Modernisme architecure (initiating a practice that has persisted through out all our subsequent visits to other Gaudi masterpieces).
Here are a selection of images taken during our trip through the magical realm of Palau Guell, an architetural gem of incredible beauty and creative elan.
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