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Palau Güell
THE PALACE ON THE EDGE OF EL RAVAL

Palau Güell: Gaudí's mansion behind the Rambla

The Palau Güell is a city mansion Antoni Gaudí built for the industrialist Eusebi Güell between 1886 and 1888, in a narrow street of El Raval just off the Rambla. It is one of the works that UNESCO lists together as the Works of Antoni Gaudí.

Photo: beckstei, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

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Palau Güell: Gaudí's mansion behind the Rambla

What you are looking at

El Raval

The façade of the Palau Güell seen from below, its tall gallery windows in rows.
The façade of the Palau Güell seen from below, its tall gallery windows in rows.Enric, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
  1. 1
    The iron gatesA parabolic arch of forged ironwork like seaweed, with a bronze phoenix set between the two gates.
  2. 2
    The carriage rampHorse-drawn carriages entered through the gates; the animals went down a ramp to the livery stable in the basement.
  3. 3
    The receiving roomA tall ceremonial space whose ornate walls hide small viewing windows where the owners could look over their guests.
  4. 4
    The starlit ceilingSmall holes near the top of the main hall, lit by lanterns from outside to resemble stars.
  5. 5
    The chimneysThe roof terrace of the later years, with chimneys added after Gaudí's time.

Reading the place

The sight in full

A patron and his city

Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, first Count of Güell, was among the most important industrialists of the Catalonia of his time, as well as a politician, scientist and writer. His father, Joan Güell i Ferrer, was an indiano from Torredembarra who had made an immense fortune in Cuba and promoted business ventures at home. Eusebi studied law, economics and applied sciences in Barcelona, France and England, founded the Colònia Güell, a workers' colony devoted to textiles, and was deeply involved in Catalan culture, including the Jocs Florals poetry contest.

A brick-vaulted hall at the Palau Güell, lit from the floor.
A brick-vaulted hall at the Palau Güell, lit from the floor.Tudoi61, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

He met Gaudí in 1878, after admiring a glove-shop display case that the young architect exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition. A long friendship and a fruitful working relationship followed, and Güell became Gaudí's principal patron: the crypt of the Colònia Güell, the Güell wine cellars, the Güell Pavilions and Park Güell, as well as this palace.

Why the palace is where it is

The Güell family lived on the Rambla, and Eusebi's father had bought houses on the street there. Eusebi wanted a new residence that matched or surpassed the Palau Moja, owned by his brother-in-law, and that connected to the family property on the Rambla through an interior courtyard, following the tradition of great Catalan town mansions such as those of Carrer de Montcada. He bought the building on Carrer Nou de la Rambla in 1883 and the one next door in 1886, and kept buying neighboring plots to protect the setting.

A narrow brick-vaulted passage at the Palau Güell.
A narrow brick-vaulted passage at the Palau Güell.Tudoi61, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The site is in El Raval, then a district of very mixed fortunes, and the contrast between a palatial house and a crowded street is part of the building's character. The mansion sits on Carrer Nou de la Rambla, a few steps from the Rambla itself.

A permit and a war with the rules

The final project is dated 10 June 1886 and the building permit was requested on 12 July. The municipal architect, Antoni Rovira i Trias, gave a negative report: the city rules said the galleries on facades had to be iron and glass, and Gaudí had presented carved stone. The planning commission set the objection aside on 24 July, possibly under the influence of Güell, who had many contacts in the city hall, and the permit came on 27 July.

The façade of the Palau Güell, with arched doorways under a carved stone gallery.
The façade of the Palau Güell, with arched doorways under a carved stone gallery.Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Gaudí drew more than twenty different solutions for the facade and led a large team of technicians and artisans. The decorator Francesc Vidal i Jevellí designed furniture and some of the stained glass, the builder Agustí Massip handled the stonework, and Francesc Berenguer, who collaborated on many Gaudí works, helped with the design. The building was inaugurated in 1888, the date on the facade, to coincide with the Universal Exhibition, although the interior decoration ran until 1890.

Gates, ramp and entrance

The home was organized around its main room, a place to entertain high society. Guests arrived in horse-drawn carriages through the front iron gates, which have a parabolic arch and intricate forged patterns that resemble seaweed and in places a horsewhip. Between the two gates Gaudí placed a bronze phoenix, a mythical animal that served as an emblem of the economic and cultural renaissance Catalan society was experiencing.

A carved wooden door frame in a red-walled room of the Palau Güell.
A carved wooden door frame in a red-walled room of the Palau Güell.beckstei, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The animals could be led down a ramp to a livery stable in the basement, where the servants also lived, while the guests climbed the stairs to the receiving room. It is a vertical building of social order: carriage at street level, stable below, ceremony above.

The receiving room and the starry ceiling

The ornate walls and ceilings of the receiving room hide small viewing windows set high on the walls. The owners could look down from the upper floor at their guests and get a sneak peek before greeting them, in case they needed to adjust their attire.

The gilded coffered ceiling of a room in the Palau Güell.
The gilded coffered ceiling of a room in the Palau Güell.Turol Jones, un artista de cojones from Villanueva del Cascajal, República Independiente de Mi Casa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The main party room has a tall ceiling pierced near the top with small holes, and at night lanterns were hung outside to give the appearance of a starlit sky. It is a theatrical, secretive interior, and Gaudí's attention to light, which would become so important in his later work, is already visible.

Visitors from a world's fair

Because the building was inaugurated in the year of the 1888 Universal Exhibition, it received important guests: the queen regent Maria Cristina of Habsburg, King Umberto I of Italy and the American president Grover Cleveland are recorded among them. After Gaudí's work, further alterations added new chimneys, and decorative ironwork bearing the initials I and E, for Isabel and Eusebi, and the date 1895 was installed in Eusebi Güell's bedroom.

A wrought-iron screen and railing in the Palau Güell.
A wrought-iron screen and railing in the Palau Güell.Turol Jones, un artista de cojones from Villanueva del Cascajal, República Independiente de Mi Casa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The palace belongs to Gaudí's orientalist phase, from 1883 to 1888, inspired by the art of the Near and Far East, India, Persia and Japan, and by Hispanic Islamic art, chiefly Mudéjar and Nasrid. It also anticipates the structural ingenuity of his later years.

Recognition and restoration

The Spanish state declared the building a historic-artistic monument in 1969, and UNESCO recognized it as part of the Works of Antoni Gaudí in 1984, for its contribution to and influence on techniques and forms of modern construction in the twentieth century. In 2004 public visits were suspended entirely for renovation, because some of the stone used in the original construction was weak and had cracked over the years, causing structural problems. Restoration work was completed in April 2011.

The stone corner of the Palau Güell, with chimneys on the roof against a blue sky.
The stone corner of the Palau Güell, with chimneys on the roof against a blue sky.Bewahrerderwerte, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The mansion has had a screen life too: Michelangelo Antonioni used it as a backdrop for the first meeting between Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider in his film The Passenger.

Seen next to the rest of the city

Take the Palau Güell as the first of Gaudí's big urban commissions and read the later ones against it. The sculpted, secretive interior of this palace gives way to the openness of the Casa Batlló, and the iron of the gates points toward the ironwork of the Pedrera.

The Palau Güell's stone façade seen from the street, windows in regular rows.
The Palau Güell's stone façade seen from the street, windows in regular rows.Bewahrerderwerte, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Rambla lies a minute away, and the Gothic Quarter beyond it, so the palace is easy to combine with a walk through the old city.

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