August 28, 2025
By Ferran Garcés
The well-known novel by Eduardo Mendoza, The City of Marvels, takes place between 1888 and 1929, the years of the two universal exhibitions that transformed Barcelona into a cosmopolitan and modern city. The marvels of Gaudí’s works also occurred, approximately, during this period. After exploring the houses where the architect lived, when he was still unknown, in his native land, Reus and Riudoms, and the houses from his youth in the Old City of Barcelona, today we’ll look at his final residences, in “the new city”, as Eduardo Mendoza describes it:
“The traveler who comes to Barcelona for the first time soon notices where the old city ends and the new one begins. From winding, the streets become straight and wider; the sidewalks, more spacious; tall plane trees pleasantly shade them; the buildings are more imposing; some are bewildered, believing they’ve been magically transported to another city. Whether knowingly or not, Barcelonans themselves cultivate this illusion: when crossing from one sector to another, they seem to change their physique, attitude, and attire.” (1) 227-239
Barcelona – Eixample
Years of consolidation (1876 -1906)
During his early years as an architect, Gaudí dressed well and showed no signs of the monastic austerity of his later years. He was elegant and enjoyed horse riding, theater, music, social gatherings, and excursions (see: from dandy to mystic). In a short time, he became friends or acquaintances with the leading artistic figures of his time, as well as some of the most influential families. It was a golden opportunity for an architect. Areas that had been fields for centuries were transformed into a prominent city. Cultural activity was frenetic, even influencing the naming of streets. Indeed, as important as the Cerdà Plan was the nomenclature proposed by writer and politician Víctor Balaguer, a key figure of the Renaixença and Catalanism.
In the Cerdà Plan, street names were letters. Balaguer, however, proposed a system focused on Catalonia’s historical memory (2). In this way, the New City remained somehow connected to the Old City. The names of the Eixample streets would refer to historical events, past figures, national virtues, and institutions, such as Gaudí’s two addresses: the Consell de Cent and the Diputació, both dating back to the Middle Ages.
Carrer Consell de Cent, 370,now 338 (1876 – c. 1889)
On the other hand, despite leaving the Gothic Quarter, he never lost contact with it. Gaudí’s first professional card shows his studio was on Carrer del Call, number 11, a street in the Old City where he had spent his early years in Barcelona. His home, however, was on one of the main streets of the new Eixample. Here begins the list of his major works, including the commission for the Sagrada Família project, on November 3, 1883.
The rest were: in the Old City, the streetlamps for Plaça Reial and Pla de Palau, and the Palau Güell. In the New City, Casa Vicens and the pavilions of the Finca Güell. Some works even took him outside Barcelona, like L’Obrera Mataronense, and outside Catalonia, like Casa Botines and the Episcopal Palace of Astorga, in León, which he worked on between this and his next residence. El Capricho in Comillas, Cantabria, was designed by him, but he never visited it. He also created ephemeral projects, such as the Pavilion of the Transatlantic Company, for the 1888 Exhibition.
Unfortunately, not everything was a success. Since arriving in Barcelona, Gaudí lived with his family, but gradually, they all died earlier than expected. In the Old City, his brother and mother passed away. At Consell de Cent, in 1879, his sister Rosa died. He and his father took care of Rosita, her daughter, but in a new home not far from the previous one.
Carrer Diputació, 339,now 273 (c. 1889 – 1906)
The address on Carrer Diputació was very special for Gaudí, because on the same street lived Pepeta Moreu, the woman he fell in love with but was not reciprocated. Despite the romantic disappointment, Gaudí had reasons to be happy, as we can see in a photo taken in Montserrat in 1904. In it, we see the architect wearing a hat, accompanied by his father, Rosita, his niece, and one of his best friends, Dr. Pere Santaló. After all, Love may have rejected Gaudí, but Art had blessed him. Now begins the artist’s most creative period (see: One of the first works? One of the last?)
The works from this period were: the Teresianas, the Celler Güell, Casa Calvet, Colonia Güell, Park Güell, the Catllaràs Chalet, Torre Bellesguard, and Casa Batlló, as well as the restoration of the cathedral of Mallorca and lesser-known projects that have not survived, such as a cinema, the Sala Mercè, and the Pomaret bridge (see: the neighbor of the chalet with a door for birds and a cinema)
Gaudí rarely wrote, but in one of the few texts we know, he described his ideal home when he was still an architecture student (see: “La casa Pairal”). In it, he said things like “The owned house is the native country, the rented one is the country of emigration. That’s why the owned house is everyone’s ideal.” The later paradox of his life is that, for a long time, Gaudí lived in several “countries of emigration.” He had done so in the Old City and did so again in the New City, from 1868 to 1906. Stranger still, none of those “emigration country” houses were modernist or built by him.
Barcelona, Gràcia District
Established Architect (1906–1926)
Gaudí House-Museum, Park Güell (1906 – late 1925)
The City of Marvels opened up many new areas. The most well-known is the Eixample, on the Barcelona plain, but the city also grew by absorbing and urbanizing the villages nestled in its hills, such as Sant Gervasi, the location of Torre Bellesguard, and Gràcia, the site of Gaudí’s second-to-last residence. It is the only home that has been preserved to this day and can be visited. It is known as the “Pink House” and was built between 1904 and 1906 by Francesc Berenguer, one of Gaudí’s oldest and closest friends—they had studied together in Reus. The “Pink House” was meant to showcase the urbanization of Park Güell. When it became clear the project had failed, Gaudí decided to purchase it. Today, it is one of Barcelona’s most visited tourist spots, with narrow streets in every direction. In contrast, in 1906, this was the appearance of Gaudí’s second-to-last residence:
Park Güell in 1906. Colorized postcard. Source: Wikipedia.
When Gaudí moved into the Pink House, he was fifty-four years old and would live there for about twenty years, until nearly his death. It is the residence where he spent the most time, but also where he completed the fewest works. Indeed, from this point on, the number of Gaudí’s projects decreased, as he focused on a single one: the Sagrada Família, a project he had accepted in 1883. The only exceptions were Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, built between 1906 and 1912, and the provisional schools of the Sagrada Família, completed in 1909—the same year Gaudí finished Torre Bellesguard. Thanks to this final push, the temple had just begun to take shape, in a period in which the buildings that now surround it did not yet exist. Like Park Güell, the area around it was still sparsely populated.
As we’ve seen, behind every move Gaudí made, there was a funeral. In the Old City, it was his brother and mother. On Consell de Cent, his sister. The new residence was no exception. In 1906, his father was buried; in 1912, his niece. Soon after, some of his friends also passed away, such as Francesc Berenguer, already mentioned, and painter Joan Llimona, his singing companion at the church of Sant Felip Neri, Gaudí’s favorite. Others followed, including Eusebi Güell, his main patron, and Bishop Torras i Bages, a close confidant of the architect. Others, like Llorenç Matamala, the main sculptor of the Sagrada Família and whose home was like a second one for Gaudí, fell seriously ill around that time.
Increasingly withdrawn from the world, around 1912, Gaudí rejected any other projects and focused solely on one work he knew he would never see completed: the Sagrada Família. Tradition attributes the following words to him:“My closest friends are dead; I have no family, no clients, no fortune, nothing. So I can devote myself entirely to the temple.”
Sagrada Família Workshop (November 1925 – June 10, 1926)
Gaudí only lived in his most famous work for eight months, but he had dedicated more than forty years to it. However, before moving there permanently, since his father’s death, he had gradually adopted the habit of sleeping in the Sagrada Família workshop instead of walking back to his home in Park Güell. Around this time, Gaudí began dressing in a “neglected” manner, to the point of being mistaken for a beggar—a stark contrast to his refined appearance during his Eixample years. Joan Llimona, the painter who died a few months before the architect, once said to his friend:
“Who has seen you and who sees you now! Nothing remains of that elegant young man.”To which Gaudí replied:“Old age is a time of atonement.”
On that fateful day, June 7, 1926, the day Gaudí was struck by a tram, only the crypt, the apse, and the Nativity façade had been completed. Shortly before, someone had asked him how he could live so alone, and the architect replied:“I am not alone, but surrounded by wonders of all kinds.”He was right—his simple bed was surrounded by fragments of all his buildings, including the coat of arms that adorns the entrance to Torre Bellesguard (see: a photo with a surprise).
Notes
(1) Mendoza, Eduardo (2016 edition), The City of Marvels, Editorial Seix Barral, Barcelona, pp. 227–239.
For a more detailed study: González Santa Úrsula (2017), “A Notable Alternative. Study of Barcelona’s Urban Evolution Through the Novel The City of Marvels”, Polytechnic University of Madrid, p. 65.
(2) “Streets of Barcelona’s Eixample by Víctor Balaguer”, Museum of the History of Catalonia. The website includes an interactive map.
https://www.mhcat.cat/recursos_i_recerca/recursos_projectes/recursos_en_linia/carrers_de_l_eixample_de_barcelona_de_victor_balaguer
