Guell
High above the city of Barcelona sits the oddly inspired Park Guell, Antoni Gaudi’s strangely psychedelic park. Laid out on a hill above Barcelona’s Gracia district, it provides a relaxing escape from the bustle of Barcelona below. Park Guell is the perfect setting to enjoy a cold drink, play a game of Frisbee, or simply take in the fabulous views of the city and harbor.
Although it sounds unlikely, the place is skillfully designed and composed to bring the peace and calm that one would expect from a park. The buildings flanking the entrance, though very original and remarkable with fantastically shaped roofs with unusual pinnacles, fit in well with the use of the park as pleasure gardens and seem relatively inconspicuous in the landscape when one considers the flamboyance of other buildings designed by Barcelona’s beloved Gaudí.
The focal point of the park is the main terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the form of a sea serpent. To design the curvature of the bench surface Gaudí used the shape of buttocks left by a naked workman sitting in wet clay. Set with mosaic tiles, the serpentine bench at Guell Park provides a resting place around the main ground where pick up soccer games and impromptu yoga sessions are held. But the serpentine bench at Guell Park is among the milder features in an array of hallucinatory fixtures that includes gingerbread gatehouses topped with red and white wild mushrooms, pavilions of contorted stone, a vast hall of columns, and the coup de grace, a giant decorative lizard.
The large cross at the park’s high-point offers the most complete view of Barcelona and the bay. It is possible to view the main city in panorama, with the Sagrada Família and the Montjuïc area visible at a distance.
Plan on taking a half day to visit this Barcelona attraction, and remember if you take the metro to Park Guell, be ready to make the 20-minute hill climb to the entrance. (If you don’t feel like huffing and puffing you can catch a cab to the summit.) Busses for this and other Barcelona attractions can be found at the tourist information office at Plaza Catalunya.
While entrance to the Park is free, Gaudí’s house, “la Torre Rosa,” can be only visited for an entrance fee. There is a reduced rate for those wishing to see both Park Güell and the Sagrada Familia.
Carrer d’Olot, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 08024
Hours – All year, Daily, Open 10am to dusk
