EAE News
The majesty of Gaudí's Park Güell on EAE's cultural tour
21 de September de 2018
EAE students visited the most iconic spots in the park, the incredible example of the Catalan Art Nouveau movement and a unique place in Barcelona.
The masterpiece of the Art Nouveau artist Antoni Gaudí can be seen from various spots in Barcelona. In view of its importance, EAE decided to run a new cultural tour to give students the chance to look around Park Güell, a World Heritage Site, to find out more about the artistic movement.
The guided tour started with a visit to the gardens and the famous columns in the hypostyle hall that support the plaza above with its undulating benches. From there, Barcelona stretches out below and the stairway with the famous salamander or dragon begins.
The park covers an area of 17.18 hectares. It is a Devonian site formed by strata of slate and limestone. Its design optimally brings together the natural and architectural elements, with no straight lines or sharp corners, but rather there are undulating forms throughout. Construction of the Park was commissioned by the entrepreneur Eusebi Güell and the initial plan was to build some exclusive and elite residential properties on the site. It was built between 1900 and 1914, before being inaugurated as a public park in 1926.
The EAE students were astounded by the impossible shapes, the techniques with colours and the homage to nature that the artist created throughout the Park. For Jorge Mesa, a student on the Master in Commercial and Sales Management, it was his first time at the park "I had to see it for myself because it is a landmark in Barcelona and I wanted to find out about its history. Thanks to the guided tours run by the university, visitors can learn details about the artist's life and work. Jorge explained that he chose EAE to take his Master because he had been given some really great references about the School at his workplace in his native Peru. "The academic program seemed very interesting". He added that he would like to do an internship or develop his career and apply what he has learned in his home country.
On the tour, the students strolled around the key spots in the Park, including the pavilions at the entrance with brightly coloured pottery roofs. Gaudí used the Catalan vaulted ceiling technique, which involved overlapping various layers of bricks with mortar. Another point of interest on the tour was the hypostyle hall with 100 columns, covering an area of 1,500 m², which supports the plaza above. At a length of 43 m, the ceiling is made from semi-spherical convex domes covered in broken white tile pieces. Another key feature is the four large round platforms, 3 metres in diameter, which act as rosettes, representing the four seasons of the year, decorate with twenty-pointed suns in various colours.
Another attraction in the Park is the Gaudí House and Museum, where the architect lived between 1906 and 1925, until just a few months before his death, when he moved to his workshop at the Sagrada Familia temple. Currently with renovation work going on in one part, the oval plaza is the central point of the Park. It covers an areas of 2,694 m² with an undulating bench running 110 m along the outer side, which serves as a balcony overlooking the famous stairway and the city. Created by Josep Maria Jujol, the bench is covered with broken tiles and glass using a technique known as trencadís.
For Verónica Navarrete, it was not the first time that she has visited Park Güell, but she explained that she had come "without a guide. Having somebody to explain it all to you is really essential and enhances the whole experience". Verónica has taken part in other cultural tours run by EAE, such as the Art Nouveau tour and the visit to Passeig de Gràcia, and she really enjoyed them. When she finishes the Master in Commercial Management, she wants to do an internship and she is currently in the process of organizing one.