From Casa Vicens to the Sagrada Familia, Architect Antoni Gaudí Left an Indelible Mark on Barcelona

To honor the pioneer of Catalan Modernism, who died 100 years ago, learn about both his lesser-known and famous works

Lauren David | Freelance travel writer

May 27, 2026

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One hundred years ago, on June 10, 1926, Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí tragically died in a tram accident in Barcelona. In his 73 years of life, the designer left his mark on the Spanish city, from his emblematic basilica, the Sagrada Familia, to Casa Batlló, Casa Vicens, Park Güell and numerous other sites.

“Gaudí was operating within a specific time frame, where Art Nouveau was prominent around the world, but he was working in a way that transcended that,” says architect Tom Gallagher, who is a principal and New York studio leader at DLR Group.

The pioneering architect was born on June 25, 1852, in either Reus or Riudoms. His father was a coppersmith, and Gaudí often helped him in his workshop. In 1869, he moved to Barcelona to study architecture at the Barcelona Higher School of Architecture and, shortly after graduating, opened his own architecture studio, developing a distinct style known for color, texture, curves and organic forms.

Nature was Gaudí's muse. “I think for Gaudí, it wasn’t just important to mimic natural forms; it was also the immediate geographic vicinity and relevance that's important to his work,” says Thalia Toha, a geographer and an architectural historian. The front door of the Sagrada Familia, for instance, is adorned with leaves and insects, and Gaudí ensured that the basilica’s pillars wouldn’t be taller than the city’s highest hill, Montjuïc.

Gaudí was ahead of his time in engineering his buildings using an inverted model, meaning he would develop an upside-down physical mock-up of a structure and hang weights from a rope to see how gravity and pressure would be distributed. How the ropes fell would help determine the curvature of the arches needed to support the building. Bridge engineers today use a similar load-bearing technique, says Toha. “At the time, it was common to use a flying buttress, an exterior reinforcement,” she explains. But he wanted to build structures without load-bearing pillars, because they can obstruct the view. “He had structural models for paraboloids, hyperboloids, helicoids—all of those that serve as models for his structures and roofs,” says Toha.

Many of his works were commissioned by prominent figures in Barcelona’s textile industry, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “I think that’s part of his genius, that he’s not only able to create these amazing things, but also able to persuade others to come along and patronize his work,” says Ryan Street, owner and president of Ryan Street Architects, based in Austin, Texas.

When he died, Gaudí left behind enough of his designs and his ideas for others to be able to finish the Sagrada Familia in his style. Today, many of his buildings are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Here are seven sites that Gaudí designed, renovated or built.

Casa Vicens

1883-85

Casa Vicens, located in the neighborhood of Gracia, is the first house Gaudí designed and built. A stockbroker by the name of Manuel Vicens i Montaner inherited the land from his mother and hired Gaudí to create a single-family home and summer residence. This 13,000-square-foot home is considered his “manifesto,” in the sense that it’s the basis for Gaudí's architectural style and where he found his voice.

Gaudí wanted to make the property’s inside and outside similar, so he used Mediterranean flora and fauna as decoration throughout. “I find it so interesting that Vicens is so different from his later works,” says Toha. “Because in Vicens, you see the Spanish bourgeoisie influence at the bottom of the building, but then as you go farther up, it becomes increasingly more Arab and Persian.” The home has straight lines and sharp angles. In 1925, Casa Vicens’ owner, Antoni Jover Puig, commissioned Gaudí to renovate and expand the home. Over the years, the house changed hands and the property was modified, until it was turned into a museum in 2017.

Palau Güell

1886-88

Gaudí's first commission for Eusebi Güell, a textile businessman and friend, was to create a mansion where he could have both a private residence and public spaces to host events and socialize. The facade of Palau Güell is simple, a departure from Gaudi’s typical highly decorative exteriors, yet the interior is lavish. The architect’s use of volume and symmetry seems to be inspired by the Florentine Renaissance palaces. “You go upstairs, and then you arrive in the center of a tall volume of space,” says Gallagher. “Spatially, he’s manipulating your senses so masterfully, in terms of how you turn directions within space, and how you move through space.”

A goal of architecture is to create comfort and hominess, along with vastness and surprise, says Gallagher. “He was creating intimacy and grandeur at the same time, and that’s so difficult to do,” he says. This mansion has had a lasting impact on Gallagher, who continues to be inspired by it. “I think about how I can create more dynamic transitions or experiences by what you see horizontally or what you see vertically as you move through space,” he says.

Casa Calvet

1898-99

Casa Calvet is considered one of Gaudí's most conservative works, built with symmetry and a traditional floor plan to fit in with Barcelona’s wealthy Eixample neighborhood. Pere Màrtir Calvet, a textile manufacturer, hired Gaudí to construct a building where he could work on the ground and basement floors and live on the upper floors. It's an early work with a simple, austere Baroque style, but you can still see that it’s a Gaudí building in its attention to detail, says Street.

Gaudí included references to the owner's life and his business in the building, such as columns shaped like bobbins. The facade has three busts honoring the owner, one representing his namesake and two depicting patron saints of his hometown.

Park Güell

1900-14

Tourists visiting Park Güell, a 47-acre complex of architectural elements and gardens, often photograph its 360-foot-long serpentine mosaic bench and the salamander on the steps at the park’s entrance (likely an ode to the dragon, a significant creature in Catalan folklore). They can also walk over three different levels of a viaduct that Gaudí designed to collect and filter water. However, the original plan, commissioned by Eusebi Güell, was intended as an estate for wealthy families. Gaudí’s goal was to mimic residential parks in Britain. “The master plan that he designed was to have 62 housing plots, a marketplace, a public square, a street system, so he went big on a utopian ideal—what city planning needs to be,” says Toha. “This concept is still studied in architecture and urban planning schools to this day.”

Construction began in the 1900s, but by 1914, the project was abandoned due to several issues, including the lack of sold plots and public transportation. The Güell family sold the land to the city council, and the park opened in 1926. By 1984, Park Güell was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

La Torre Bellesguard

1900-9

The Tower of Bellesguard, or Torre Bellesguard, has historical significance for Catalonia, as it’s built on land containing remnants of a medieval castle where King Martin the Humane reigned. Jaume Figueras, a businessman and friend of Gaudí’s, commissioned the architect to build a mansion inspired by the castle.

Bellesguard is fascinating, says Street, because so much of it is just so different from other Gaudí buildings. “This is a place where he sort of leans into that Gothic architecture,” he adds.

Yet the design is distinctly Gaudian in its iconography. “It still has these anthropomorphic elements of his work that look like nature, or literally a beast or, in this case, a dragon, which is heavy with symbolism for the Catalan culture,” he says. “There’s a myth around the dragon being a guardian.”

Casa Batlló

1904-6

Casa Batlló was built by one of Gaudí’s professors from the Barcelona Higher School of Architecture, Emili Sala Cortés, and later owned by Josep Batlló i Casanovas, who hired Gaudí to exercise creative freedom in transforming it. The initial plan was demolition, but Gaudí opted to renovate the building into a whimsical, colorful mosaic facade with undulating metal balconies and multi-hued tiles on the roof. The shimmering tiles are thought to represent the scales of a dragon, and some experts, says Street, tie the design to the legend of St. George, an important Catalonian patron saint.

Nature was incorporated into all Gaudí’s designs, as were materials and symbolism from the region, yet Gaudí never explained his buildings, so plenty is left to interpretation. “The tiles, I understand, were intended to be similar to the reflections of the bubbly light on the surface of the Mediterranean,” says Gallagher. “There’s kelplike metalwork up in the top of the central spaces, and he was really tying it to the region that way.” Casa Batlló is also known as the “House of Bones.” “All those balconies look like skulls, but not literally,” says Street. “They just sort of allude to the idea of bones or skulls.”

Not only did Gaudí push the limits with his designs; he also pushed boundaries with the city council. “The front entrances have these columns that look like elephant feet and stretch over the sidewalk in a way that is basically impeding against the allowable public clearance,” says Toha. When he was told he needed to make changes, Gaudí pushed back, threatening to cut the feet off and place a sign saying that the city council forced him to remove them, adds Toha. “In the Barcelona City Council archive, you can find notes that said that Batlló was only legal for four weeks of the 36 months of construction,” she says.

La Sagrada Familia

1882-Present

The Sagrada Familia is by far Gaudí’s most famous work, though it originated as a neo-Gothic design under the guidance of architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. Gaudí took over the plans and construction a year into the project, in 1883, when he was only 31 years old, and transformed it into the vision we see today. He was deeply invested in the construction of the Sagrada Familia, which eventually became his life’s work. “There was such a commitment, and he knew it was never going to be done in his lifetime,” says Gallagher. “He took on a project that would take over 100 years to finish and got rid of a lot of his other projects just so he could dedicate himself to it.”

In early 2026, the basilica’s Tower of Jesus Christ was completed; it will be blessed by Pope Leo XIV on the upcoming centennial of Gaudí’s death. Discussions continue about building a grand staircase for the main entrance, but this would involve tearing down several apartment buildings.

Gaudí wanted to mimic life in his structures and sculpted life-size human figures modeled after people he knew. “The human models are to be directly emulated onto his stonework and his sculptures because he believes that art and life are basically the same thing,” says Toha.

In the nativity scene above the basilica’s entrance, the wives and children were family members of the construction workers, says Toha. “I actually particularly love this aspect, because there’s almost like that meta-symbolism to it,” says Toha. “These are average workers, and they get immortalized into the highest level of reverence in the Sagrada Familia.”

Lauren David | Read More

Lauren David is a freelance food and travel writer based in Barcelona, Spain. Her work has been published in Travel + Leisure, National Geographic, AARP, the Washington Post, Southern Living and more.