Colonia Güell

For more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bourlingue/sets/72157616363827182/

Today is a day off, so aimed for breakfast at the Cuines Santa Catalina, a restaurant adjacent to the wet market of the same name in Sant Pere (Mercat de Santa Catalina; www.mercatsantacatalina.net). Misled to believe that the restaurant opens at 8 when in fact it does not until 9 (thank you Wallpaper City Guide!) Plenty of other places in the market though, so that I got my cafe con leche and light ham sandwich anyway. The market sits in a plaza that seems to have been expanded, and the structure that covers the market is another landmark of Barcelona – a very colourful, mosaic-like, wavy roof the size of the market (best to be appreciated seen from the heights of the neighbouring buildings, which I could not get!) built as part of a redevelopment of the neighbourhood initiated by Enric Miralles and finished by his wife after his death. A walk nearby in the chore of the old city on the other side of via Laietana for a quick appreciation of the Cathedral - under renovation – and of the old royal palace built on top or within what was a Roman establishment.

Then off to Plaça de Espanya, to take the train (a twenty-minute ride) to Colonia Güell. Because, of course, of Gaudi’s crypta there, the first step towards a church that was never completed. Worth seeing though as this represents an astonishing accomplishment, where the seemingly distorted structure – all in curves and irregular forms – is the result of a revolutionary architectural technique. Gaudi was not “doing plans”, at least in the first place, he did models; and he did them first by assessing the sureness of his wild design through a system of hanging strings, vertically and horizontally, to which were attached bags of lead loaded proportionally to the weight of the columns and arches they were meant to represent, to gauge how the thrust of the building would be transferred to its foundations. It`s called a polyfunicular model. The church was meant to be done on a smaller scale than churches and cathedrals built in town (certainly as compared to his monumental undertaking, the Sagrada Familia, which he did not live to finish – actually they are still working at it!), but how much more delectable! A jewel of architecture and decorative arts! Known by some as Gaudi’s most accomplished, if unfinished, work.

The history behind Colonia Güell is quite interesting in itself. This is a “company town”. Eusebi Güell, a textile entrepreneur, decided to move his operations outside of politically and socially troublesome Barcelona, in its vicinity, and to build an estate (apparently a common thing at the end of the 19th century) around the factory (innovation: it was powered by steam rather than by a stream of water) where the workers and their families lived. Güell though wanted an original and perfect estate, and called upon a clutch of “Modernista” architects to build it – houses, the school, other public buildings – and that included naturally Gaudi for the church (construction of the chuch was stopped in 1914 when Güell’s business took a turn for the worst, and was never resumed). The estate continued to grow until the textile factory closed in 1973.

I like the anecdote, as reported in the fascinating BBC/Robert Hughes documentary on Gaudi, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074nvw): a depressed Gaudi would have one day confided to Güell that sometimes he felt that only he and Güell appreciated his architecture; to what Güell would have responded: “you should not be under any illusion, I do not like it either!”